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"You didn’t tell any of this to the specialist?"

I shake my head "No"

"Did your parents ask her to meet with you?"

"They don’t know," I say "The headht it best that I don’t bother thenites my nervousness It takes so much to upset him

"Don’t tell this specialist any of what you told me," he says

"I couldn’t," I say "I barely had the courage to tell you I thought you’d say it rong"

He leans toward , our eyes downcast "You aren’t wrong, Morgan" Waves of coldness and heat bloom in my stomach "Not at all"

I don’t kno it happens We move our faces at the sa I’ve lost my worries Traded theht that in sixty years we’ll be ashes--we’ll be tossed into the air and after a htlessness we’ll be everywhere and nowhere But for now there’s quick breathing and the feeling like he has my heart in his palm as it beats outside irls--the nor city, and he doesn’t care He doesn’t care

Maybe we’re both beyond saving

13

Love should be a staple in our history book Wasn’t it an act of love when the god of the sky chose to keep us? Isn’t love what ible Gods," Daphne Leander, Year Ten

THE FIRST KISS LINGERS IT TRAVELS AWAY from the lips once it’s over, and it breaks apart and settles in strange places The sto the cobbles and onto the train

The train’s ruh now that the train is croorkers on their evening cootten trapped inside the car, vaguely thruh a layer ofhtened

Basil keeps h to protect me from the crowd He kissesin the sensation of it Now that we’ve had that first kiss, the tension is severed He can kiss me a thousand times Ten thousand

Then, too soon, the train rolls to a stop and his arm around me tenses to keep us steady for the final jolt I stand with the feeling that I’ awoken

Alice told e I wasn’t prepared for how right she was

We take our ti I watch a cloud swirl over the atoes entirely white, it’s like Intern on a piece of paper, and the rest has yet to be drawn

"Do you have to see the specialist again?"

"Every day, until I hear otherwise," I say

I see in his face that he’s unhappy, but it isn’t because of anything I’ve done; he’s being protective I’lad I told him I’d want hi to bother my parents with it," I say "They’ll worry They’ll think they’ve done wrong by us First Lex and now me"

He stops , takes e, come and find me," he says

It takes e to look at hio mad and I juo alone"

Itanyone has ever said to ratitude

"Shall we go inside?" Basil says

"Not yet," I say, looking to the clouds again This afternoon has been one long moment that I haven’t wanted to end I want Basil beside er I want this warmth in my cheeks to stay

He puts his hand on the s under his touch "You could ith round," he says "I’m supposed to find ht," I say

The playground isn’t far fro there, but Basil doesn’t see for it to hold still

There’s only one child left on the playground, hanging by his knees from the dome of metal bars

"Leland," Basil calls, and the boy topples cluotten better," I notice "Last ti on his head"

"He practices on the furniture," Basil says, and sighs

"Is it dinnerti his knees as he ambles toward us The necklace that holds his betrothal band has fallen against his collar so that the band is behind his neck Basil stoops to fix it

"Almost," Basil says "Where’s your tie?"

"I lost it"

"Lost it where?"

He shrugs Leland has never been a child who can hold on to things; he’s careless even by the standards set by other seven-year-olds He does his best to seem contrite for Basil’s sake, an effort that’s less than valiant He scratches the bridge of his nose "Hi, Morgan"