Page 29 (2/2)

"I’ain in a seeh what?" I asked, leaning back against the counter I stirred hetti sauce that had started to bubble over, shooting drops of red sauce all over the white stove surface

"High school," Tristan h neither one of us believed that’s what he o…

"So, no more weirdness between us, yeah?" I looked up at hiree

"No aze and I wanted to believe hi under control, but his piercing eyes held too much of the unsaid, too much of eren’t allowed to say that they practically overfloith it

My breath caught in the base of erous waters before ere both drowning

"So who are you going to take to the dance?" I asked carefully

"Don’t hateTristan s to like where this was going

"Why?" I deressively

"Well, first of all, this is a funny dance because irls already have dates My options were limited No, worse than that! I didn’t even really have options!" he ra a lot with his hands, which I kneas a terrible sign of things to corowled

"Bree," he said simply and es

"No you are not," I laughed at the irony And he was irl I felt co," he explained, but it wouldn’t have un to his head and kidnapped his fa with Bree

He knew better

He had picked his way through h school, but never asked Bree

"Oh really? You’re not doing this out of spite?" I pressed, diggingto back down

"Spite? Come one, Stel, you know me better than that She didn’t have a date and either did I It just ood friend of ours," Tristan tried to reood friend of yours," I muttered, afraid my parents would hear I reminded myself of Bree’s humanity and that she was one of the billions of reasons I resided on this planet to begin with, trying without success to get over her now rightful claim of Tristan At least for the dance

But it shouldn’t matter anyway

I had Seth

"You’re not really mad, are you?" Tristan had walked up next to me while I stewed about Bree He placed a hand on iveness My head inclined immediately toward him, as if I was a sunflower and he was ers as they widened acrossbeneath his skin, the pads of his fingertips as they burned their mark into ing it up a bit by addinge the subject; I needed to balance our relationship back in the realm of normal

"Meatballs? Is this a special occasion?" he asked and we both laughed

But he did stay, and he laughed and talked and enjoyed s were changing in s could stay the sas would stay the same

Chapter Fourteen

"Stella," mom stood in my doorway, that look on her face… the one that promised me I was in for an important parental lecture "We should talk, sweet pea"

"Sure, coestured to h internally ether in anticipation for whatever this was about

She walked inside ether I sat up froovernment test the next day and waited for her to continue Some of my anxiety was relieved when I realized how nervous she was