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Neil knohat Peter is doing, leaning his shoulder in like that He knohat Peter is saying He doesn’t move away But he still doesn’t tell Peter what happened, and still doesn’t understand why

Cooper leaves McDonald’s Walks back into the world Waits for night to fall

Craig looks around the crowd for his family and doesn’t see the in, all the posts He barely has the strength to hold his phone, but he types asto lose hi to pass the time in words

Harry’s father watches his son and feels so enormous inside of him His own father would have never understood what he was seeing, what he was feeling His own father would have had s to say about this But his own father was not, in randson, just as Harry’s father is feeling, in many ways, unworthy of his son What he feels isRight here in front of hiht next to Mr Raht here, we tell hi you want to do?" Ryan asks when they get to Avery’s car

I want a do-over, Avery thinks I want the last two hours back

Craig sees the look on Tariq’s face before he sees his own phone in Tariq’s hand For the past few hours, Craig’s let Harry be the texter, let Harry be the person saying thank you to the inexplicable thousands who’ve been tuning in But Tariq’s expression lets hi else

Tariq hands over the phone It’s a e from his brother Kevin

Went for a drive Good luck

That’s all That’s it

His fa

At soht his father must have decided It had to have been his father

They’ve left They won’t be back until it’s over

Craig feels like his skin has been ripped off fro, all of these people can see what’s happened, can see everything that’s never going to happen No reunion No cheering section Nothing

The tears fall even before he thinks about the, this is the one that makes the most sense When you are sad, it makes sense for the body to want your eyes to clear quickly

Harry still doesn’t knohat’s happening, although he has a feeling he knows Craig gestures to Tariq to share the e with Harry, and Harry’s fears are confir so

The crowd cheers louder, calls out the boys’ na’s parents gave hi co it He tells Rachel to watch the coh the crowd This is the first ti and Harry, this is the first tiy is coh the press of people, he’s sprinting like a goldis heavy and all his old wounds feel like they’re on the verge of opening, but he powers through that, pushes hi’s driveway, running up Craig’s front walk Then he’s pounding at the door--really pounding--yelling at the that he knows they’re in there, pleading with them to be there, to come with him, to not be this stupid, to not make this mistake "He needs you," he tells theain, until his hand grows too tired of pounding and his lungs grow too tired of yelling

The house creaks and settles, as if to tell Tariq of its own abandonment The sun blinks under a cloud There’s not a word of response, because there’s no one around to craft one

Tariq does not cry He does not bother the house any further He wanted to be the one to ht, as so many of us do That he’s failed is al when it’s over, he will probably forget to tell Craig that he tried this, that he did this

We tell him it was a nice try As he walks back to the school, we try to walk beside hi realizes howfor them anyoing toTrying so hard Just when it feels like there can’t be anything new to say in the kiss, he tries to say this And Craig hears it Craig starts tracing so on his back At first Harry thinks it’s a P, or a lowercase e But it doubles on itself--a heart

Harry responds with an exclamation point

"You are not alone," he says, hisasks

"You are not alone," Harry says again

And this ti hears it

Neil leaves Peter’s side, walks over to Peter’s co Neil leans in, tries to get a sense of their thoughts He makes it full screen, but that only o there," he finds hiive us a ride?"

"I just want to drive past," Ryan says "To see if they’re still there"

Avery wants to refuse But instead he silently coht

There it is again The abandoned one

Avery can’t tell if Ryan is disappointed or relieved Maybe both