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He didn’t say anything, just scowled at a leaf that skittered by on the pavement

Hmm "So what do you want to be?"

He shot a quizzical look es every few months," I answered in consternation My friends all knehat they wanted to be when they were older I still hadn’t made up my mind between a writer, a teacher, a doctor, or a librarian "I really need to focus"

"Maybe you should be a reporter"

I snorted at his teasing "The twenty questions? Right Sorry"

"It doesn’t bother ether, as if he were surprised by his own confession

Encouraged, I jumped to my next question "D’Alessandro? Like the restaurant?" There was an Italian restaurant with that name, only a five-minute walk from my house

"It’s my uncle’s"

"Great food," I said honestly

Again, he didn’t respond

I got the feeling he didn’t want to chat about anything related to fao is the best"

That received a grin "You heard right"

"Do you ht he wasn’t going to answer this one either I was thinking it was a no-go on any really personal questions, but then… "I didn’t really have friends Not good ones anyway"

Our footsteps slowed as we found ourselves on h a cloud as I looked up at hiood ones here"

When he looked at me my heart alot a na my body’s reaction to hi to a stop to hold out his large hand

Feeling the butterflies riot in nored them and placed ling that shot up rip and had toso

"Nice too of my hand and I instantly be to leave, but I grew still at the suddenly stern expression on his face "Try not to ain"

He disappeared down the street before I could say anything, and I stared after his broad back, feeling sointodistracted, I came to one conclusion: I had my first crush On Marco D’Alessandro

I should have joined the debate tea toward theof the year my politics teacher had asked me to join the school debate team, and because I was sure I’d never be able to speak up and articulate in person what I was so good at saying on paper, I’d turned the offer down

Now I’din an empty music classroom and had stopped to listen to thee to just stride in, introducemy opinions I had loads of opinions inside of me I also had this fear that one day they’d just explode out ofdisaster in their wake

There were soout on because of how damn quiet I was And in truth, I wasn’t really that quiet anyht at home, consequences be damned

I frowned back in the direction of the school as I opened the exit door It was definitely tiret, I hurried forward,alone by the gate for me

For whatever reason, over the past year Marco had waited at the gate et on the bus There had been several times I’d been late and he’d walked me home Most of those ti deliberately late a few times in the last couple of months just so I could be around hiether, or even when I was thinking about hiht about him a lot He didn’t hted surprise, I discovered that I could make Marco – this boy as definitely prone to brooding – laugh He laughed atand he constantly re to respect rather than to mock When I looked at hiet this delicious tingling all over my body

I wanted him to kiss me so badly

I couldn’t tell if he felt the same way I was fifteen now and five foot nine Boys at school had started paying rown boobs and my hps had filled out But I didn’t know if Marco had noticed those things

He’d surprised me over the last year He wasn’t the most talkative person on the planet, but he was patient with my questions even if he didn’t answer a lot of the and theto and actually seemed interested when I did

He’d also been there for h one of itssister, Ellie, was diagnosed with a brain tu scared the crap out of us all As had the brain surgery she’d had to have I’d never really talked about it with anyone, or the effect it had on ivethat he was a great confidant, I’d also discovered that he wasn’t as terrible at school as he’d h some of his friends found themselves in trouble at school, Marco was quiet and kept out of the draht and broad build had ood looks and the fact that he was Aiven his coarnered him respect I kneasn’t a typical bad boy, no matter what rumors I heard He studied and he worked with a tutor He’d passed his exan and tech, rades were passable

"Why were you late this tied, not really wanting to talk about the fact that I was failing at life

"Should I be worried?"

The fact that he h to be concerned for ave him a soft s to tella stone out of my way "You don’t tell me stuff"