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Vince: I’ about you…I just wanted you to know

Ian to stir As te the very sa of him, she dare not; she couldn’t! Almost afraid to ask, she did anyway

Rose: What are you thinking?

Vince: How glad I aed lad I screwed up and was forced to go; otherwise, I knoouldn’t have I would’ve never ine what a damn shame that would’ve been

Rose tried so hard not to read too s he said, but how couldn’t she? Her insides were a mess with this weird excite wildly Grace, as lying next to her, was looking at her again with concern all too apparent in her face

"Last text, I proan to text back to him

It would’ve been a shalad too that you did mess up, but I’m even happier and so very proud of you that you say you’re staying out of trouble now My sister is staring at o to bed now But I look forward to to look As prohtstand and made herself co her back; he was usually very respectful about not texting her once she said goodnight And earlier, she hadn’t said goodnight, so even tonight’s out of the blue text hadn’t crossed the line Thoughts of hi He’d been sweet to her since day one, but it see things like this:her feel like she was so incredibly special She couldn’t decide if his being so far aas a good thing or a bad thing

Being near hi hard Via text she felt safe, but in person she still wasn’t sure she could handle a guy like Vincent He seeuys her age at her school

The next day histext had her stoain if this was a good or bad

Vince: Good , Vincent And I’ so just tell , butout and staying with theet to spend the suain It appeared this was good news to hi excited and being scared to death about spending time with hi as I write this, but I don’t think we can be friends any away fro with his friends and Lorenzo after reading the text fro?" Lorenzo asked "You’re up next

"TakeRose back

Vince: Why? What did I do?

They’d been playing dice against the stairs of his apart Normally, Vince would never let anyone take his turn when they were playing for ht now, he didn’t give a shit about anything except Rose’s text

For weeks, he’d been doing his best to stay out of trouble and in his parents’ good graces He wanted to prove to the incident But et back to hi for him over the summer, Vince knew he had to be smart about this He understood why they were apprehensive about hiood reason to behave He wasn’t about to give his uncle or parents any reason to not allow hih their communication consisted of only texts and e so sweet about her Unlike his cousins, she hadn’t judged hi incident and so the past few years He was sure she’d hear about it eventually, and he wanted her to get it straight froh Rose had never been in trouble in her life, she’d had nothing but positive things to say She even praised his efforts to straighten out She was funny, had a good head on her shoulders, and was a good girl Surprisingly, what ood was that she was proud of hi to her again in person, not just texting and e Now that they were so close to suine what he’d done or what she’d heard that would have her crying about not being able to be his friend

He took a deep breath when his phone dinged and her e appeared

Grace and Sal broke up, and she is so devastated it’s killingabout you I’ to do with so that Rose could so easily dis between them for weeks was like no friendship he’d ever experienced with anyone, let alone a girl He wasn’t even sure if he should respond or if her sorryhim off just like that, but he had to