Broken Read Online Free

shitty
day.”
    Chris took off his leather jacket and was about to sit on the
couch when he grabbed the cordless off the floor. It was making
that annoying sound when the phone has been off the hook too long.
He turned it off.
    “That would explain why I couldn’t reach you,”
he said, “and I don’t have your cell number.”
    I had never really thought to offer it.
    “I need to fix that,” he said. He pulled out his
own. “What is it?” There was a grin on his
face. It lightened my mood, which I needed.
    I don’t have a dainty giggle or a modest chuckle. I
don’t have a hideous cackle either, but my laughs tend to be
loud. One of them burst out.
    “Fine, fine,” I said. I gave it to him and then
offered him something to drink. He gladly accepted so I pulled a
couple of beers out of the fridge. They weren’t the twist off
kind, forcing me to rummage through the drawers to find the bottle
opener. By the time I got the beers opened, I found Chris over by
the ficus. He grabbed the watering can beside it and poured what
was left through the withering leaves.
    “I’m terrible with plants,” I said.
    He turned and smiled. “You haven’t killed it
yet.”
    But I almost did, no thanks to you.
    He sat on the futon and picked up the leather-bound stack of
papers. “These look old.”
    I sat next to him. “I just got them today.” Then I
picked up the ones from Joan. “With these.”
    I’m not exactly sure why I did that. Chris was a good
friend, someone I knew I could confide in, but even this was a bit
more than I would have shared with him. Our friendship had been
growing steadily since I met him. I think he actually knew more
about me than my roommate did. Tonight, I think I needed someone to
read the crap printed there and to understand; to be on my side, as
childish as that seemed.
    He scanned the letter. Every once in a while his eyebrows would
furrow.
    I sucked on my beer while he read.
    “Wow,” he said. “Is it true?”
    “What, that I’m adopted?”
    “No, …well, yeah, but I was thinking more about
this curse thing.”
    I laughed. “Curse? Seriously? You don’t believe in
that stuff, do you?”
    “Well it would suck if it’s true.”
    I took another swig. “What sucks is that some crazy woman
adopted me
because
she believed in that crap. I grew up as this
thing that needed to be fed, rather than as a daughter.”
    He gave a slight nod, seeming to accept my logic. He took a long
swig of his own beer. “So what’s the rest of this
stuff?”
    I shrugged, and opened the leather-bound papers.
    It looked to be a diary entry from my grandfather.
     
    Today, the little green man appeared again. I haven’t seen
him in months.
     
    I nearly spat out my beer at those words. I gulped hard to keep
it from spewing out and put the papers back on the coffee
table.
    I looked at Chris, lips pressed together. “You still up
for some pool?” I asked.
    I needed to get out.
    He looked taken aback for a moment, but smiled and put his beer
on the table. “Sure!”
    I got up and slipped into my room. I had a quick glance in the
mirror. There was some color in my cheeks. With my hair pulled back
in my cap, I figured I could pass for looking like the living.
    I grabbed my jacket. Chris grabbed his, and we were out the
door.
    The pool hall was within stumbling distance of my apartment so
it didn’t take long to get there. We didn’t talk about
what I’d just read. I think he got the idea I needed to forget
about what had ruined my day.
    A light drizzle moistened the air, and we laughed about our last
rugby game. We had narrowly lost because of the rain. It had
cost us a round of drinks at the bar with the other team, but it
had been all in fun.
    A car sped along the road behind us. Chris nudged me over on the
sidewalk so he walked between me and the road. It was a strange
thing to notice, but if there was one thing about Chris I’d
learned, it was that he had chivalry down to an art.
    He held the door open