Free The Fallen by Celia Thomson Page B

animal—well,
crap.”
    Chloe smiled. “Sounds cool to me… I’ve never hada pet more interesting than a goldfish or a beta. My mom’s allergic.”
    â€œI have four cats,” he said smugly, watching her envy. “Tabitha, Sebastian, Sabrina, and Agatha.”
    â€œFour?”
    â€œOh, that’s nothing. When I was little, we had …” But his brow furrowed, and he looked away distractedly.
    â€œWhen you were little…?” Chloe prompted him.
    â€œWe had a lot. Of pets,” he finished lamely. “Lots of cats. Rare breeds, too, like Cornish rex and Maine coon.”
    They wandered the paths randomly. Chloe
loved
seeing the zoo like this, for free, with no pressure to see all of the top animals, to see every square inch before it was time to go. They could pause as long as they wanted to watch a pair of simple mallard ducks that wandered into the aviary and skip the exhibits they didn’t care about without feeling guilty.
    But Brian was much quieter than before, except when he was pointing out interesting factoids and habits of the various animals they saw. He chewed the inside of his lip when he thought she wasn’t looking, as if trying to decide whether or not to say more.
    â€œSo you had lots of pets when you were young?” Chloe prompted when they stopped to get her a diet Coke in a plastic monkey-shaped cup. He ordered one of those cappuccinos from a machine, something Chloe wouldn’t have done if she were
starving.
    â€œYeah, uh …” Brian’s face fell, completely losing the animation it had when he was talking about the meerkats and the cassowaries. “My mom’s dead,” he finally said. “And my dad and me—we don’t really get along. He’s got this apartment he keeps here in the city—where I live, for now—but he does a lot of work out of his other house in Sausalito. We don’t talk much.”
    He shook his head. “But that’s
way
too much information for a first date. You probably just want to make sure I’m not some kind of freak.”
    Chloe laughed. “I have a secret mouse,” she volunteered, lightening the mood.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œA secret mouse. His name is Mus-mus. From the Latin name for mouse, you know?
Mus musculus.
My mom doesn’t know I keep him in a drawer of my bureau.”
    â€œYou keep a
mouse?
In your
bureau?”
    â€œYeah,” she said a little defensively. “Mom wouldn’t let me otherwise.”
    â€œThat’s so… cute.” He looked at her in wonder, as if that was the most charming thing anyone had ever said. They wandered out of the concession area, Chloe sucking noisily on the straw that impaled the monkey’s head. A sign pointed to penguins, otters, and lions.
    â€œHey…,” Chloe said, remembering bits of the dream she’d had after she fell off the tower. “Let’s go see the lions. I… dreamt about some recendy….”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œYeah.” She looked down as they walked, trying to match her stride to his, but Brian’s legs were much longer. “My dad’s gone, too,” she said. “And my mom’s kind of a bitch.”
    â€œEveryone’s
mom is a bitch when you’re sixteen.” He laughed. “I just would have liked to have known mine.”
    â€œHow did you know I was sixteen?” Chloe asked, suddenly suspicious.
    â€œI didn’t.” He shrugged. “It was more of a general comment. Not you in particular, but when ‘you’re’ sixteen, meaning everyone.”
    He took the tiniest sip from his cappuccino but still managed to get a foamy mustache.
    â€œThe day after I turned sixteen, I almost punched my dad out,” Brian continued. He straightened up and looked her in the eye, daring her to disbelieve him.
    â€œThat would be
so
much more effective if you didn’t have milk all over your