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His chest clenched even tighter One of the biggest movie stars in the world wanted her to be in his fil ine his life without her in it now, but if Sone off the rails, Sean would still be searching for nu his life lad you’re here So dalad"

"I am, too But I know it’s hard for you to be with someone like me"

"It’s not hard"

"It is hard," she insisted "Stuff like what just happened downstairs would never have happened if you were dating anyone else on caht I’d be able to date anyone or live a normal student life"

"Of course you can" He didn’t like the direction this conversation was going Not when they were just starting to figure things out Not when they were finally dating out in the open And not when he was in love with her "I don’t care if we have to work a little harder at s work You’re worth it"

"So are you," she said, "but are you sure you want to keep having to deal with things like this? With paparazzi rando to run into pictures and clips ofat? Even your friends?"

"Do you knohy I reacted the way I did down there? Not because you were in that video Sure, I don’t like knowing thatover you But even if you hadn’t been athat What killsjust how hten up and your eyes cloud over like you’re getting lost in a bad o back in time to save you from all of it, but I can’t, Serena I can’t and I hate that no one else did, either"

"You knohat," she said slowly, "you’re right You’re not the only one who’s going to need to figure out how to deal with it I do, too"

"It wasn’t fair," he said "You were just a kid, and if you didn’t want to do any of those things, you shouldn’t have had to"

"But I did And they’re done There’s no going back in ti pictures and video clips that will be around forever" She could have played the victim, but didn’t, and he was pretty sure he’d never respected her more than he did in that instant "I never had anyone to talk to about any of this Not until you But at the sa it flat over his heart which was still pounding way too hard "--when you smashed the iPad--"

"I scared you" He covered her hand with his "I didn’tif I didn’t say I wanted that, too But do you think that maybe" She shook her head, but this time after a bit of a pause, she didn’t finish her sentence