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I flopped onas utter So at the wall--the ceiling needed soony I called Elyssa and got her voicemail "Please callon" After an hour, I called her again After the fifth ti to call me back As far as I knew, she didn’t have a social networking profile on any of the major websites I didn’t even knohere she lived

I called Ash

"Hey, Justin," he said in a cheery voice "Man that was so awesome yesterday"

"Yeah, it was fun"

"You knoant to thank you"

"For what?" I asked I was surprised Elyssa hadn’t called him and told hiood friend," he said "This isn’t easy for me to say, but…" He took a deep breath "I haven’t had a lot of real friends besides Nyte and Elyssa You’re for real,there for me"

I choked up all of a sudden My voice cracked as I tried to speak "Sure Thanks for being there for o out for burgers later if you want to join us"

"You and Nyte and Elyssa?"

"Ha, like you wouldn’t know if she’s colad you guys ain and clenched my teeth to stiffendesperately to keep my voice even

"Cool Just textup as salty tears burned my eyes "Screw me," I said in a otten to ask him if he knehere Elyssa lived He would probably wonder why in the world I was asking It see a boyfriend should know Besides, if Elyssa thought I was a et out of the house, I couldn’t force o out with Ash I would only be a miserable mess

Sunday passed in a haze of pain and I woke up to Monday A tiny shard of hope that I ed inAsh and Nyte didn’t knohere she was I looked everywhere for her in the hallways between classes During lunchtime I looked but couldn’t find her in the cafeteria Ash figured she must be sick I was sick to ure sat on a bench near the tennis courts on the side of the school Elyssa

She whirled to face me when I enty feet away She relaxed somehen she saas me, but her hands re here?" she asked

"What are you doing out here?" I shot back "This is silly I’uy like any other Okay, maybe I’m not quite like any other, but I would never hurt you"

Her eyes iced over "Get away fro anywhere until you tell "

"You don’t understand do you?" She said, grabbing her lunch and stuffing it back into the bag "You’re akissed you makes me want to vo about?" I asked, anger replacing the hurt I walked toward her with my arms up "Look atbut hu me what my kind is like I don’t even knohat s the other day, and I don’t know too ritted her teeth "You don’t knohat you’re talking about" She walked toward me with menace in her eyes

I backed away in case she pulled another knife on me "I love you, Elyssa I didn’t want to do whatever the hell it was my body tried to do to you I can’t control it Can’t you help me?"

"You wouldn’t knohat love is if it ripped your heart out, Justin It’s a huhly past me "Stay the hell away from me" A few feet later, she spun around "And you’d better not har you by your intestines"

"So you’re going to take the to rip everything I care about out ofI guess you’ll discover that before tooto put you down"