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I finish the first letter I bues inside Instead of relying on my friends, I deliver it to Noah myself He seems a little surprised, but not un-receptive I i with the h ins to explain itself--I a, but that seems okay, since I’ve already tried to show somy third letter to Noah in study hall when Kyle sits down across froed me But now it’s clear he wants to talk I cover the letter I’ and say hello

He’s nervous

"Look," he says, "I don’t want it to be this way again"

"Neither do I"

"So what are we going to do?"

I realize at this e

"We’re going to be cool with each other," I say carefully "We’re going to be friends And I really ether doesn’t mean we have to be apart Does that make sense?"

Kyle nods "Yeah"

"So we’re good?"

"The last couple of days I’ve been talking to Tony But you probably know that At first when he called, I thought, what’s going on here? It was probably the first time he’d ever calledfor you I didn’t knohat to say to hi a lot now, and the funny thing is that part of lad that all this happened, because if I become friends with him and I’ out of the bad And the bad isn’t really that bad I feel silly about the other day I thought so was there that wasn’t But now ’s there that’s actually there"

"It is," I tell hiht wasn’t there wasn’t entirely not there I can’t tell his for him will always be unresolved, and that part of the desire to have him back in my life was to disprove all the reasons he left in the first place I can’t point out to hier’s crypt--even though I’ him in the way that he wanted h to know that a different tiht have led to a different outco this ti

We start talking about the dance so to start showing up again at our committee and help with the final architecture

When Kyle’s gone, I finish my third letter to Noah The fourth I slip into his hand as he leaves school The fifth is the one I take ho it for the next day

Instinct and Proof

On the seventh day, I give hi hi I do this by dissolving the distance between us I do this not knowing how he’ll react Perhaps this will be the one thing that I give to hi because I don’t think I can wait until the afternoon He hasn’t even hit his locker yet--I wait for hiht still new He sees me and I walk over I hand hireen When he holds it up, it brings out the green of his eyes

"Paul…" he begins

"Noah…" I begin

"I don’t knohat to say" The tone of his voice is more I don’t knohat to say because I’m speechless instead of I don’t knohat to say because you’re not going to like what I have to say This is a good sign

"You don’t need to say anything"