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"Come in," I said a bit too loudly I applied pressure at my temples and squeezed my eyes closed "Come in," I whispered

The door opened noiselessly--s a tray She smiled and headed my way

"Hey, Lily," I whispered

She set the tray down on the nightstand and whispered a quick Hi back

"What’s this?" I inspected the tray and sniffed the air

"Breakfast," Lily replied so quietly I barely heard her

I could see that It wasn’t what I usually went for, but that ht: a pile of thick-cut bacon, scras coated in e pats of butteron it My usual breakfast consisted of oatet a piece of bacon in h

"Thank you, Lily," I said in between bites I already felt the grease doing its work in my stomach "You don’t have any idea how et into the nitty-gritty of excessive alcohol use and itsafter effects with a sixteen-year-old who, I would bet a le drop of it

"Jesse said it would help," she whispered just a hair louder so I didn’t have to strain to hear her

I stopped chewing "Jesse told you to make this for me?"

Lily shook her head "No, he made it He just askedbit of bacon back on the plate He’d co for me, carried me home in his arms--in his arms for two miles--tucked htstand, and hadI’d been so sure people like Jesse Walker didn’t exist in real life I’d been so, so sure

I’d been wrong

If I’d been wrong about that, what else had I been wrong about? Add that question to the mountain of others I wasn’t ready to answer

"Why didn’t he bring it up himself?" I focused on the plate of food, a rando blurry

"He and so out for a week to keep a close watch on the cattle now that they’ve been her up and farther away They’re always a bit finicky when they get to a new pasture, so souys set up camp for the first week or so"

"Oh" I shifted on the bed Note to self: don’t wear tight jeans to bed "When’s he leaving?" I wasn’t sure if he was ready to see one for a week, soone," Lily replied, lifting a shoulder "He wasn’t really hiruh"

I didn’t need twenty guesses to knohy Jesse couldn’t get away soon enough So he was upset, but not some breakfast I’d hurt hi water and pills onsense

The longer I thought about it, the -it-all-out thing and grabbed the buttered toast "What tier, which o back to bed and get so so much like Rose I checked the door to make sure she hadn’t joined us "Moht I’d turned et ahold of rounded for the rest of the summer?

"Is everyone" I sed and looked down into my lap "Disappointed withrhetorical questions, but I couldn’t seem to kick the habit

"Why would anyone be disappointed with you?" she asked, giving me an odd look "Jesse told us you’d fallen asleep out in one of the fields and couldn’t seem to shake that headache you toldhe found you before it got too late You wouldn’t believe how many fielddown her back "And don’t getaround out there eating those ain, it wasup my neck flashed to ht have run into one of those snakes" I popped the last bite of toast intoits job, and the water andto work its way into uilty conscience had a way of tiring out a person Jesse had covered for me Lied to his family for me Because I’d messed up the way I’d been born to do Daet any worse, and I’d only woken up five minutes earlier

"Thanks for breakfast, Lily," I said, burrowing back down into ht with everyone, I think I will rest for a little while longer"

"That ently before heading toward the door

"It’s a nasty one, all right" I threw the covers over my head and tried to shut out the world

Chapter Thirteen

That next week, I tried not to think about Jesse, which was another way of saying I failed at not thinking about Jesse

When I eed from my monster "headache," no one asked , said she was glad I felt better, and we got on with the day It was such an odd concept totrusted People in my life just assumed that when I opened my mouth, a lie was about to come out My mom had been the first one to take away the trust card, followed by teachers, counselors, friendsyou name it Most people in the past five years had found some reason to not trust me