Splinters: Part One

Part One | 6

I was really confused as to why he randomly invited me to a party. It made no sense. I'd probably have to ask Ursanne. She knows everyone here and she'd caution me if she knew something was out of the ordinary.

The class had mainly been a discussion on the events that happened during the book. I was kind of engulfed in the discussion and soon became interested in the story. As soon as the class ended, I opened the book and began reading from page one. When lunch finally rolled around, I sat alone at a table near the door.

"Whatcha readin', eh?" 

I looked up from my book. It was Grady. "Oh, um, To Kill a Mockingbird."

"Oh, that one in Lit? I can't even get passed the second page."

My eyes widened. I glanced at the page I was at. 33.

"You don't like it?"

Grady began unpacking his lunch and scarfing down his food.

"Not one bit. Who cares about what happened in the south years ago? We should care about what's happening right now and right here."

"What do you mean?"

Grady lifted a hand, speaking whilst the food sat in his mouth, and chewed. "What I mean is, we have so many problems going on right now. Let's focus on ourselves in the now."

I lowered my gaze. 

"I mean look at us. The economy, society, everything! It's all just a big mess."

"It kind of seems like it was pretty bad back then too." I admitted, raising my book. "Besides, how are we going to learn from our mistakes if we never look at the past?"

"Yeah, but that's the thing. People don't realize how bad everything is right now. We don't want to fix our mistakes."

I stared at him. "What?"

Grady swallowed his food. "I guess you could say we live for the drama. All of us say we hate it, but in reality, we start it. We begin it and we don't finish it. We like it, as much as we say we don't. You can say you'd never talk about someone behind their back, but you'll go and warn somebody else about someone you don't like or something they've done because you just don't like them. We can't live without the drama."

I wasn't able to fully understand what he was saying, but I began to think that Grady could be a lot deeper than I thought - than anyone thought.

"I don't know. That's just what I think." He shrugged.

"So you won't read the book because of your personal opinion?"

"Oh, no, I won't read the book because I fall asleep after reading a paragraph."

I let out a small chuckle. "I like it."

"Really?"

I nodded, looking at the cover the book. "Which is weird. I've never read a book before."

"You've never read a book?!"

I shook my head. "Well, I guess I read part of the Bible, but that's it."

"Oh, so you're like, one of those religious guys?" he asked, biting a large piece of his sandwich.

I shook my head. "I used to be taught by nuns."

"Nuns? Really?"

I laughed again. "Yeah."

"Did you go to a church school?"

I froze. I wondered what would happen if I told Grady about St. Anne's, or about my father. I felt like he'd be open to it, but I didn't want him to feel bad for me. At the same time, I didn't want to lie to him.