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He nods He’s probably relieved I don’t want to talk about it

"What do you want to do?" he asks

I wrapwheel, then crank the car "I don’t care e do"

"Me neither"

I put the car in drive

"We could go to Breckin’s house and let you get your aggression out on a video gain to drive toward Breckin’s house "You better not fucking tell hiht

"You look like hell," Holder says, leaning against the locker next to ht?"

I shake my head Of course I didn’t sleep How the hell could I have slept? I knew she wasn’t sleeping, so there’s no way in hell I could have slept

"You gonna tell me what happened?" he asks I shut my locker, but keep my hand on it as I look down at the floor and slowly inhale

"No I know I usually tell you everything, but not this, Holder"

He taps the locker next to him a couple of times with his fist, then he pushes off of it "Six isn’t telling Sky anything, either Not sure what happened, but" He looks at me until I make eye contact with him "I like you with her Get it worked out, Daniel"

He walks away and I close my locker I wait next to it for a few minutes more than necessary because my next class is down the hallhere Six’s locker is I haven’t seen her since she left the park last night and I’m not sure I really want to see her I’ I have soto ask her any of the breathe

After the final bell rings, I decide to walk to ether, but I figured it would be worse just sitting inabout it all day I’d rather be preoccupied for as long as I can today because I know as soon as school is out I need to confront her

Or ht now, because as soon as I round the corner, my eyes land on her

I come to a quiet stop and watch her She’s the only one in the hallway right now She’s standing still, facing her locker I want to walk away before she seesher Her whole demeanor is heartbroken and I want so bad to rush over to her and wrap my arms around her butI can’t I want to screale ju to process

I sigh heavily and she turns to look at , but close enough I can see the tears Neither one of us moves We just stare Severalto her

I clear et, the louder her soft cry becoet to her, the harder it is to breathe

"Is he" I close ain and try my hardest to finish my sentence with dry eyes "When you talked about the boy who broke your heart in Italyyou were referring to him, weren’t you The baby?"

I can barely see the nod of her head when she confirhts I squeeze my eyes shut and tilt my head back

I didn’t know hearts could literally ache like this It hurts so much I want to reach inside and rip it out of ain

I can’t do this Not right here We can’t stand in the hallway of a high school and have this discussion

I turn around before I open ain I walk straight to my classroo back at her

Chapter Nine

I don’t knohy I’m still here I don’t want to be here and I’m pretty sure I’ll leave in half an hour I just can’t leave before then because I’ht think if I don’t show up to lunch I could text her and tell her I’ll talk to her later, but I’ her a text yet There’s still so nore it all until I find the strength to sort through everything

I walk through the cafeteria doors and head straight to our table There’s no way I can eat lunch so I don’t even bother getting food Breckin is sitting inNot so sure I could sit by her right now, anyway

Her eyes are focused on the textbook in front of her She’s not crying anymore I take a seat across from her and I know she knows I just sat down, but her eyes never move Sky and Holder are deep in conversation with Breckin, so I watch theh, because I’lances at her toat s

"You’re not eating?" Breckin says, stealing ry"

"You need to eat soood, too Maybe you should go ho

"If you do go home, you should take Six with you," Sky says "You both look like you could use a nap"

I don’t even respond to that with a nod My eyes fall back to Six just in tie in front of her She quickly swipes it aith her hand and flips the page over

Fuck if that just didn’t make me feel like complete shit

I continue to watch her and tears continue to fall onto the pages, one by one Her hand is always quick to wipe thee before she could even possibly have read the last one

"Get up, Breckin," I say He looks at me blankly, but doesn’t make an effort to move "I want your seat Get up"

He finally realizes what I’, so he quickly stands up I stand and walk around the table, then I take a seat next to her I sit down beside her and when I do, she brings her arms onto the table She folds them and buries her head into the crease in her elboatch as her shoulders begin to shake and da this way I wrap an arm around her and lower my forehead to the side of her head and I closeI just hold her while she cries into her arms