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What he had said earlier still stung like I’d kicked a nest full of hornets, but what he was saying now soothed a little of the burn "I don’t think that"

Jase stilled for ato the side again Our eyes locked, and I found that I couldn’t look away "You’re still sosweet"

Sweet? I resisted the urge to spit on the ground Of course Jase thought I eet and nice and as innocent and cuddly as an old, raggedy teddy bear Not exactly hoanted him to see me

He broke eye contact first, and the air leaked out of e of my key card over the soft flannel of my jammie bottoht to tell ht," he said, sht"

My brows rose "That doesn’t hteen-­pack, it justhe was more than just a little buzzed "Why didn’t you just wait until, I don’t know, you were sober and the sun was out to have this conversation?"

"I couldn’t wait," he said without ahow important it was to him "And the party sucked"

"It did?" For so that ether "Thisthis has been banging around in my head Tried to drink it out Didn’t work Decided I needed to tell you before I developed a "

So the party hadn’t really sucked, but h to seek me out I didn’t knohat to think about that or any of this I’d obsessed over him and was convinced at one point that I was ht when he’d kissed s That he would wake up the nextlove and devotion to me in front of baby Jesus and my entire family And everyone would be thrilled by the prospect, even Cah school and a college junior could work Jase would visit me instead of my brother every weekend and he would come to my dance recitals and visit me in New York City when I left for the ballet school and

And none of that happened

Jase and Ca before I even woke up, and I hadn’t seen hi that last year, I’d thought I’d come to terms with Jase, chalked it up to stupid, naive fantasies, and even dated a time or two, but I’d been really off about all this I hadn’t co near hi that had drawn ence And even if some of those qualities weren’t so apparent now, I knew they were still there The fact that it was after one in the ize was proof of that

He leaned back, stretching out his long legs "TessTessTess"

"What?" I forced e for far too long

Jase atching ain, the look on his face coht now, alaze dipped He roan I didn’t understand it My attention followed his, and I drew in a shaky, surprised breath

That was about when I realized I wasn’t wearing a bra, and the cooler night air and thin tank top did nothing to hide what I had going on

And right at thatagainst the material Heat swamped my cheeks and I started to fold , like really looking And for soot away froht now

I folded ed his burning gaze up, and I swore it had lingered over my lips "Why did you couard, and so did the way he asked it, like he’d never in a e as hi" Couldn’t I speak in co my hair around "I didn’t knohat else to do"

"You never planned on doing the college thing, right?"

"No Not like this"

"So what" Jase paused, catching a piece of razeda fine shiver to work its way down ered for maybe a second, and then it fell into the space between us--­a space that suddenly see?"

It took a moment for my brain to turn over the question "Elementary ed"

The corner of his lip curled up once ht ar me "That takes a special kind of person"

"How so?" Thebecause I hadn’t planned on having a noristration ood, stable idea A plan B that I didn’t plan on using

"Kids are tough, Tess, especially at that age"

"You’d know" I smiled as I remembered hoith his little brother "But I like kids"

A sudden shadow passed over his face "Yeah, look, I better get going It’s late and you probably would like to go back to sleep" He started to lean forward but stopped "We’re friends, right? You and I? Likelike before?"

Like before he’d kissedof ht I was beautiful and he was attracted toto act on it Whether it was because of Ca to be enough And it didn’t matter I could be friends with hi time If I was cleared, I’d finish out the semester and then head back to the studio

JaseJase would once more become a memory