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"Jase?"

I shuffled back, slipping out of her "Yeah?"

"This won’t ut sunk "What do you mean?"

"I mean…I love him I really do, and I…I can see his face I can see the way he’ll look at me when I tell hiht

"Shh" I kissed her eye, running ether"

"No" She looked up at me "We can’t He needs to be free to have an emotional reaction He can’t do that with you there--with anyone else there"

I sat back a little more "It’s his emotional reaction I’m worried about, Ara"

"He won’t hurt me, Jase"

"Then you don’t know him very well"

"Or maybe you don’t"

I moved back when she shovedthe worst of hioddairl before" I stood beside her, wishing I could touch her, make her see reason "Why won’t you listen to me?"

"Because it’s irrelevant, Jason"

"Why?"

"Look e did" She pointed at the bed "We betrayed hiht to hurt rabbed her ared away "I don’t want this any, Ara You love ain, but she pushed me away

"No I don’t want this! I don’t want to love you!" she screa to rest in the deepest, most tender part of hts, feeling the ache go deeper, appearing in salty pools in ain and again

She meant that

She may have loved ht toso beautiful and perfectly pale there, completely naked in front of me, that I refused to believe it "Ara, I can’t read you right now," my voice shook "I need you to tell me you don’t really mean that"

Her lip quivered as she looked into my eyes, and I felt her soul break free of her heart--felt this icy rush of agony tear through her She sunk to her knees and covered her head She looked so sain And again

"I don’t knohat I feel," she said "I just need you to go I just need to be alone"

"Sure Okay" I grabbedso deep I grabbed a pillow off the floor instead of my shirt "I’ll uh--" I wanted to say I’ll see you later, but I wasn’t sure I would I wasn’t sure she would ever look ataround to see her hate me tomorrow

I opened the door and took one last look at that broken, beautiful girl, and closed it behindthe corridor for onlookers

The halls, the rooms, every corner of thethan any day I’d ever spent alone or in pain I walked slowly back tolon my hips, the rest of my clothes tucked under ht of irl I would ever love, and today, I wouldJason throughon the floor in ht each tis But I didn’t stay there I rose, covered htdress, and tiptoed fro?" I asked er felt like this was just a dream It was too real I felt the air, the chill, the tears fall from her eyes and downoff the ocean in a violent swirl A storhthouse ere suddenly standing on feel rocky and unstable I bent at the knees, reaching both hands out as if to grab on to so, but she didn’t She stood at the cusp of the roof, her toes hanging over the abyss, her heart-shaped locket in an outstretch hand

"What are you doing?" I yelled over the wind

She didn’t answer She didn’t need to Both this girl of the past and the one of the future knehat ca the locket a second before she threw herself over the edge

"No!" I jumped for her, but I ers, following her to the rocky depths beneath "What have you done, Ara? Please--please let this just be a bad dreae and saw David lift her in his arled body to his chest, that all this had already happened I slept with Jason, loved him as I’d never loved any hthouse because I didn’t want to face that pain I didn’t want to love hied soDavid and I once were had now beco entirely different to what our love had been built on before I didn’t want to lose that I didn’t want to be that girl who died for the pain of loving two men equally I wasn’t her anymore

"Let her die" I stood in the field as David carried her toward the manor "David, you won’t love her anymore Please don’t cry for her"