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Seth raised his eyebrows at her as he pulled out a chair at the table "Do I like the holidays? No, not really" He sat down and I joined hiot from Luke

Luke: Did you hear from him?

Me: No… have you?

Luke: No, I stopped by his house, though

Me: Is he okay?

Luke: I don’t know His brother answered and said he hadn’t seen hih

Me: I texted him a couple of times He never texts back

Luke: I’h soh sood-awful house

"Callie, did you hear lanced up fro at me "Huh?" I said

Seth’s eyebrows dipped beneath the square-fra, not to correct his vision but because they are fashionable "Are you okay?" he asked

I nodded "I’?"the boith a whisk

I quickly locked the screen on my phone and set it down on the table "No one"

My mother dropped the whisk on the counter and batter splattered all over "You were texting Kayden, weren’t you? I can’t believe this, Callie I told you I didn’t want you spending any time with him after what happened--after what he did to Caleb"

Seth looked atnot to cry "It’s not Kayden," I told ain

"Even if it was, I think Callie’s old enough to decide who she wants to talk to," Seth chie of character" He said it with an attitude and any chance of ht there

"More than most people, who seem to miss the mark all the time"

She didn’t fully understand the depth of his words, but his snippy tone was enough for her to decide she didn’t like hi she told me later when she pulled me aside

"He’s rude," she said "Does he talk to his own mother that way?"

"He doesn’t talk to his ainst him

After that, I decided it’d be better to keep them separated, because Seth wouldn’t keep quiet ifridiculous and s

I’ve been home for almost a week Time seems to move in slow motion Each hour feels like days, and days like months

Christ topresents with her I do as s up Caleb, I bail I even took off during our trip to the mall and had to call Luke to cory," I tell Seth as I pour syrup on the stack of pancakes in front of ht chitchat after a very unco me on pancake overload"

He butters his toast and then adds so a blue shirt with a logo on the pocket and his hair is still a little daht before we left the house "Well, you don’t have to order pancakes every time," he says and sets the butter knife down on the table

"Or rabbing soar packets from the bowl Seth had taken it upon himself to order foron ordering pancakes

"I think we should eat pancakes everythat we’re on break" He takes a bite of his toast Crumbs fall to the front of his shirt and he dusts them off with a sweep of his hand "It’ll be fun"

I stare down at my pancakes buried in a puddle of syrup

"Are you sure?"

"I’ aloud" He sets the toast down on the smaller of the two plates

I seal h at his, just like I’ht, we can try to eat pancakes everyday over break But if I end up puking you have to promise to hold my hair back"