Free While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarty Page B

me almost four hours to sleep. Jimmy and Haylie’s flight left at eight; they were picking me up in front of the dorm at six.
    “My lab prep is taking me longer than I thought.” I sighed, rubbing my eyes. “Because I’m stupid.” I looked away, embarrassed. I hadn’t meant to say that last part out loud.
    He poked my shoulder. “Don’t say that.”
    I yawned and waved my hands at him. I didn’t want to talk about it.
    “Veronica, you’re smart. You’re completely smart.”
    “No, I’m not.” I pulled the sheet up, tucking it around me. I could feel him watching me, studying my face. I shrugged. “Not the way Gretchen is. I study twice as hard as she does, and she gets better grades.”
    He looked away, apparently considering the matter. I held my breath. Tim was usually both nice and honest. But in situations when he had to choose, he tended to go with honest.
    “I wouldn’t say you weren’t quick,” he said.
    “Okay. Great. Thanks.” I wanted to change the subject. I didn’t want to be so pathetic, the pathetic girlfriend, whining about being dumb. I smiled. “You’re right. I just got started late. There was a noise complaint on the fourth floor, and I had to go deal with that.” I looked back down. In truth, the noise complaint had taken about two minutes to deal with. Even my conversation with Marley hadn’t taken too much time. What had taken so much time was the fact that every time I tried to read a paragraph in my physiology book, I ended up thinking about something else—usually about how bad my grades were going to be that semester.
    “Yeah.” He sat up straight, scratching his neck. “This job does take up a lot of your time, doesn’t it?” He suddenly looked very serious, and though my room was cold, the tips of his ears were pink. “I’ve actually been thinking about that.” He cleared his throat. “I was thinking how nice it would be, for you and for me, if you didn’t have to do this job next year.”
    I waited, my eyes moving over his shoulders, his hand resting on the sheet.
    “You know Rudy graduates this year. He’s going to move out.”
    Before he could finish, I was shaking my head. “I can’t move in with you,” I said. “I can’t pay that kind of rent.” It was true. I would have to apply to be an RA my senior year as well. The last time I saw my father, he’d asked me twice if I was on schedule to graduate, and what kind of financial aid I thought I might get for medical school.
    “Right.” Tim sat up so the sheet fell over him. He looked a little Roman, wearing a toga. “The thing is, you wouldn’t have to. You know I got that scholarship. And I’m working at my dad’s office this summer, and he…Let’s just say he’s happy about the scholarship, and he’s making things easy on me. I’ll have enough to pay for that apartment myself. Or we could move into a different one. I could pay for the bills, everything.”
    I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to mislead him. But I was so flattered that he’d asked. I wanted to just stay in this moment, his invitation, the romance of it, hanging in the air.
    “Okay,” he said. “It would be nice if you said something now.”
    My eyes moved around my dorm room, at the bare linoleum, the blank walls, the vibrating pipes overhead.
    “I mean, otherwise, you’re going to have to keep this job until you graduate, right?” He looked a little pained. “You’re going to be living in the dorm your senior year.”
    I nodded, picturing his apartment, with its pretty wood floors and the balcony off each bedroom. One of the balconies was big. I could make a terrace garden. The kitchen was small, but it would be wonderful to get to cook for myself, to cook nice meals with Tim, and to not have to walk across a parking lot every time I wanted to eat. I would never have to see the dining hall again. I would never have to eat off another orange tray.
    Someone knocked at my door.
    “Hello?” I turned back