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I left without saying a word to Dante because I didn’t knohat to say Not wanting to walk in the same direction as him, I went to Horace Hall I couldn’t confide in Eleanor because she already had enough problems of her own, and Nathaniel just wouldn’t understand The bell rang as I entered the building, and I waited for all the students to ee

The floorboards creaked as I walked down the narrow hallway that led to her office It was tucked into the corner, a thin strip of light peeking out froe’s voice floated through the wood "Co in an ar When she sawoff her reading glasses "What a pleasant surprise"

I wiped my shoes on the doorlow to it, and s wood

"Have a seat"

I took off my scarf and sat in the love seat across from her A thick hardcover book sat on the otto in its crease

"What are you reading?"

Miss LaBarge picked it up "Oh, just some silly stuff Beyond Good and Evil, by a philosopher naht and what’s wrong"

"That doesn’t sound silly at all"

She frowned "Yes, I suppose you’re right"

"How do you tell the difference?"

She closed the book and put it on the side table "So a boy, and he tells you that he’s so else Is that wrong?"

"Would this supposed boy have a good reason for keeping it a secret?"

I thought about it Dante probably hadn’t told ht "I guess so But it’s still lying, isn’t it?"

"It is, but if the lie is meant to protect the other person from harm or pain, is it really that bad?"

"But I didn’t want to be protected; I wanted to know the truth," I blurted out

She shrugged "Sometimes there isn’t just one truth Just because you discovered more about him doesn’t mean the person that he was before was a lie You just had a less complete picture of him"

I wanted to believe that what Dante and I had had before was real; that the things he’d said and done were still genuine even though he was Undead But even if I could, that reality was slipping through ers Dante had an expiration date, and there was no way I could help hiether?"

"Hmm That’s tricky I think this calls for soot up and disappeared into the anteroo out of a kettle, the clatter of dishes, the delicate clinking of a spoon against porcelain She returned holding two cups and a teapot "Chamo is possible"

"But what if he’s tootoo different?"