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She looked at hiain He was handsome and he liked her and if she hadn’t told hiirl and even kissed hi hiainst the wall

But she didn’t want that She wanted soo for a walk, just her and the pink switchblade They were a good pair Both incapable of opening up without cutting soh

She crept up to the reading room, quietly, so that she wouldn’t wake Ada up the phone, she listened toa psychic experience on the other end Dial tone

She called Gansey

"Blue?" he said

Just his voice Her heart tethered itself Not co so much She closed her eyes

"Take , which indeed seeasoline and the coughing start of the engine The passenger seat was the sahts on the road ahead were the saht

But Gansey was different Though he wore his usual khakis and stupid Top-Siders, he earing a white, collarless T-shirt and his wirefralasses This was her favorite Gansey, the scholar-Gansey, not a hint of Aglionby about hi terrible about how this Gansey ot in, he asked, "What happened, Jane?"

"Adaht," she said "I told hiear "Do you want to talk at all?"

"Only if it isn’t about hio?"

"Someplace that isn’t here"

So he drove them out of town and he told her about Ronan and Kavinsky When he’d done with that, he kept driving into the mountains, onto ever more narrow roads, and he told her about the party and the book club and organic cucu up the steep bank beside the road The headlights only illus up and wrapped her ar her cheek on her knees, she watched Gansey switch gears and glance in his rearview eons and he told her about Helen He told her about everything except for Ada the word

"Okay," she said finally "You can talk about him now"

There was silence in the car -- well, less sound The engine roared and the ane blew fitful breaths over them both

"Oh, Jane," he said suddenly "If you’d been there e got the call about hi on the interstate, you would’ve" He trailed off before she found out what she would’ve done And then, all of a sudden, he pulled hi with trees and Noah keeps reenacting beingterrible I trust?"

"You know reed grandly, and she laughed delightedly "A creature of sihts"

Blue touched the radio knob, but she didn’t turn it She dropped her fingers "I feel terrible about what I said to hi up an even ht have been someone’s driveway It was difficult to tell in these mountains, especially after dark The insects in the close-pressed trees trilled even louder than the engine

"Adalionby," he said suddenly "And for what? Education?"

No one went to Aglionby for education "Not just that," she said "Prestige? Opportunity?"

"But enes"

So ht now"

"What? Oh -- that is not what I "

"I’rew up loved, didn’t you?"

She didn’t even have to think before she nodded

"Me too," Gansey said "I never doubted it I never even thought to doubt it And even Ronan greith that, too, back when it e of reason, or whatever I wish you could haveI used to think, before I ht Adam’s family was too poor for love"

"Oh, but since we’re poor but happy --" started Blue hotly "The cheerful peasants --"

"Don’t, please, Jane," he interrupted "You knohat I ht it was about trying so hard to survive that you didn’t have the tiood parent Obviously that’s not it Because you and I, we’re bothwealthy in love"

"I suppose," Blue said "But that’s not going to get e!" Gansey echoed His shocked emphasis on community hurt Blue more than she could ader seat until he glanced over "Surely you can get scholarships"