Page 1 of Falling

1

MILES

“You don’t know how to change a tire, do you?”

Evie snorted on the other end of the line. “I’m too gay to drive, you know that.”

“I know that,” I said, sighing and leaning back against the side of the car. At least the scenery was nice, if you were into that sort of thing. Big straight redwoods straining up toward a periwinkle blue sky, still lush and green while other trees around them were turning yellow after a long summer. The sound of a creek trickling past just out of sight. Birds calling to each other as the afternoon sun sank below the tree line and lit the whole place up in shades of gold.

I, unfortunately, was not into it. Nature and I didn’t get along.

I wasn’t sure what my excuse for not knowing how to change a tire was. Dad never showing me, maybe.

“Guess I’m walking into town.”

“You’re wearing brogues,” Evie said.

I looked down at my shoes. “How did you know that?”

“You never wear anything else.”

“I own boots. It’s coming into fall. I might be wearing boots.”

“Even if you were, they wouldn’t be hiking boots,” Evie said.

She was right. My little sister knew me too well.

I looked up to see a squirrel looking down at me with judgmental beady eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that, you don’t know how to change a tire either,” I called up to it.

“Making friends with the locals?” Evie asked wryly.

“I’m talking to a squirrel,” I admitted.

Evie chuckled. “Wow. I knew small town life would drive you nuts, but I thought it’d take a little longer. You haven’t even gotten to… Chipmunk Falls or whatever yet.”

“Otter Bay,” I corrected, then paused to check the email I’d been sent, suddenly worried that Evie was right and I was wrong and therefore lost as well as stranded.

No, the email said Otter Bay. There was a helpful little map attached. There was a phone number, too, in case I needed help.

I didn’t want to call it and let Seth—whoever he was—know I had a flat and I didn’t know how to change it. He’d probably laugh at me. Small town people would’ve known how to change their own tires.

This was why I wasn’t cut out for this job.

“Otter Bay,” Evie corrected. “It might not be so bad, you know. Could be cute girls.”

“I’ll get you their numbers if I find any.”

“Some of them might be interested in you,” she said. “And it’d be good for you to move on after… y’know. You should have someone in your life who really wants to be there.”

The sound of a car engine made me turn to look just as a red pickup that was probably older than I was came around the curve in the road. The truck slowed, then indicated and pulled up behind mine, about fifteen feet away.

“Umm,” I said, looking between the truck and my surroundings. “So, if I get murdered you can have all my stuff.”

“Are you likely to get murdered?” Evie asked.

“I dunno, someone just pulled up in a pickup truck,” I said.