Breathless by Lurlene McDaniel Page B

Travis says. “Just crash here.”
    Cooper glances at me, but I don’t encourage him. I don’t think he should hang around. Travis is all agitated, and Cooper has something to do with it. “Emily’s right. You should be in bed, not out here talking to me.”
    Travis doesn’t like the idea. “Why does everyone think they know what’s best for me? Don’t I get a say-so? I want Coop to stay.”
    “Later,” Cooper says. “I’m fried right now.”
    Once he’s gone, I say to Travis, “I heard you say ‘die.’ I don’t want you to die.”
    “The whole family would be better off.”
    “That’s not true.”
    “Yes. It is.”
    “But—”
    “But nothing. Now don’t be a snitch and run and tell Mom and Dad.”
    “I’m not a snitch. But you need to adjust your thinking.”
    He ignores my lecture, grabs my shoulder. “I want to go to my old room for something. Help me up the stairs.”
    I lock my arm around his waist and hold him upright while he takes hold of his crutch, and although we go up the stairs together, I feel like there’s a wedge between us a mile wide.
    I decide to ask Darla if she knows anything about Travis that I don’t. I know the two of us will never be best friends, but she’s impressed me with her devotion to my brother. I never picked her for the type to stick around, but I’m glad she is.
    “What should I know?” she asks me.
    “Travis and Cooper are acting sneaky. Cooper drops by practically every night. They act like they’ve got some big secret, and if I walk into the room, they clam up. This has been going on for over a week. They’re up to something.”
    Her brow knits, but she shakes her head. “Travis hasn’t said anything out of the ordinary to me.”
    I can tell she’s clueless, and it irritates me. “What do the two of you talk about?”
    “Boring stuff. I tell him about school, cafeteria gossip, who’s dating who—anything to keep his mind off of how bad he hurts.”
    “Well, I’m telling you, something’s going on. Something they don’t want me to know.”
    She thinks, nods. “Okay, I’ll see what I can find out.”
    When she turns, the light hits her face in a way that I see a bruise on her cheek. She’s covered it with makeup, but I see it faintly spread under her eye.
    Jolted, I blurt out, “What happened to you?” and reach toward her face.
    Darla pulls away. “Oh nothing. Clumsy me. I walked into a door. Can you believe it?”
    I can’t, but I let her keep her story. “Well … be careful. And—and if Travis tells you something you think I should know—”
    “I’ll share,” she says brightly.
    I watch her walk away, and it hits me that Darla Gibson may have secrets too.

Travis
    I
stand on the towering platform, and look down on clear blue water sparkling in eternal sunlight. I already know how it will feel flying downward to meet the water, because I’ve done this leap hundreds of times. My toes are pointed, balancing my body just on the edge of the concrete, my mind mapping the execution of my perfect dive.
    My dive will have a degree of difficulty that’s unmatched. I will be the first in diving history to do it in high school competition. The judges look up at me with military attention. Not the usual panel of judges, but instead Cooper, Darla, Emily, Mom, and Dad. I wonder why they’re in the jury seats. No matter. I want to be perfect in their eyes and earn perfect scores from each of them.
    I stretch my arms over my head, picture the moves in my mind: execute a perfect leap, arms outstretched as if in crucifixion; fold into the pike position; then twist and somersault before I stretch vertical toward the water.
    But when I leap something goes wrong. My arms separate from my body, my legs vanish, and I hurtle down toward the concrete-hard water, tumbling out of control, falling, falling….
    I wake in a cold sweat. The dream again. Always the same—my body separating, falling apart while people watch. My room is dark, and the