Free Falling by L C Smith

“She thinks you’re pretty.” I open my eyes wide like I'm telling a horror story, but I get cut off by Megan and three of her followers as they come rushing through the door.
    “It's so nice to see you actually out of school, Reid. I don't think I’ve ever seen you out of school when it's not a Friday. And you always have a teacher walking around with you. It’s just amazing to see you out with another person.” She adds breathless from trying to gush everything out so quickly.
    “Mmm. Yeah.” I look up at Keller as he coughs.
    “So are you guys out on a date? You’re just too cute together.” She puts her hand on Keller's chest and laughs at her non-existent joke. She doesn't even look at me.
    Keller steps back from her with his eyes growing bigger the longer she leaves her hand there.
    The lady behind the counter calls out our order.
    “That's us. So you guys have a great night,” I say quickly.
    “Oh,” Megan says surprised. “You're not eating here.”
    “Nope. We're heading to Keller's, so I'll see you at school.” We rush out the door and jump into the car.
    “What is wrong with her? Does she have a real, you know, problem.” He points to his head.
    “I don't think so. She is always like that. But she’s never that friendly to me.” I put my hand on his chest and smile up at him like Megan did. “It must just be your presence. Because, like, you know, we’re just so cute together.” I bat my eyelids at him. “You know, I mean you're really cute, and if I keep touching you Reid might just combust then I can take you home with me instead.” We both burst out laughing as Megan waves at Keller from inside the shop.
    “Sorry, I know you’re driving so you can't eat. But I have to, otherwise I will have to eat my arm. And that would be inconvenient because I use my arm all the time.” I say in between huge mouthfuls of really, really good cheeseburger.
    We stop outside a house and I say in surprise. “You didn't have to bring me to your house. I was just saying that to get away from Megan.”
    “I know. But I thought you might like to eat sitting down.” We both look down at the crumpled bag that once held my burger. “Yeah, sorry about that. You can eat, and I'll sit down with you.” I say walking behind him to the front door.
    I walk into his house looking around, it's pretty cool. “Your Mum doesn't live here does she?” I blurt out. I really need to get a filter that stops words before I speak them, to check if they are weirdly rude. Then I could prevent awkward moments like this.
    “No,” he says, “Why do you say that?”
    “It's very manly. Not bad,” I add quickly. “Just manly.”
    “Well I'm going to eat because this is my dinner. Not all of us have a mum to feed us,” he says sniffing.
    I reach up and pat him on the head. “Oh poor you.”
    He sits down and tries to eat really fast, so I turn away and look at the vinyl records hanging on the walls and the random pictures of Keller when he was little, hanging in really ugly black plastic frames. “Go have a look around,” he mumbles around the food in his mouth. Pointing randomly away from himself.
    I move further into his house. That one looks like his dad's room. More random black plastic frames. Huh, that one's quite cute. He's doing a thumbs up at the camera, but super close so it's like his thumb is about to jump out of the picture.
    I turn quickly around. He must still be eating. Is it too weird to look in his room? I look around again. He told me to look around. I gently push it open with the toe of my shoe. It’s surprisingly clean. Not that he looks dirty, but I wouldn’t clean my room if I wasn’t forced to. Even his bed is made. Mine only is because they inspect it while we are at breakfast. I step further into the room. It's pretty normal, double bed shoved into the corner. Old-school transformers cover.
    I walk closer to his bed to have a look at the pictures, but Keller moves silently past me to