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"Says who?" Aaron starts to reach for ain "Nicole--" But he breaks off when I don’tmoment, as we sit there next to each other, the air between us is charged with so cold and terrible, as if an invisibleis open and a storh the room "You’re serious," he says finally It isn’t a question His voice has changed He sounds like a stranger "You’re not going to take it back"

I shake ht break I’ll start to cry, or I’ll beg hiive me

Aaron stands up without another word He snatches up his shirt and yanks it over his head "I don’t believe this," he says "What about spring break? What about Virginia Beach?"

Souys froinia Beach in March My friend Audrey is going with her boyfriend, Fish; Aaron and I had talked about going together and renting a house with everyone on the beach We’d i days that tasted like salt I’d i of ocean air, and warm arms around my waist

But not his aret down onto my hands and knees to pick up hts have been turned up by a factor of a hundred Five s intertwined, the beat-up couch taking on the ih I’m the one who screwed it up, I feel dizzy, disoriented, like I’ a movie too fast I put y to fix it I don’t bother withhalf to hiets quieter "I told you I loved youI bought you that stupid stuffed cat for Valentine’s Day"

"It’s not stupid," I say autoht that was the whole point

He doesn’t see to say?" He shoves a hand through his hair It ioing to say?"

I don’t answer I just sit there, squeezinginto the soft flesh ofWhat the hell is wrong with me?

"Nick" Aaron’s voice softens I look up He has his hoodie on now, the green one he got doing Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans the summer after sophomore year, the one that always mysteriously smells like the ocean And in thatScrap the whole thing Let’s pretend this never happened

Upstairs, a door slams Then Parker shouts, "Hey! Anybody ho away into the shadows, like an insect startled by a footstep Aaron turns away, ain, like it’s a fist just itching to punch so" He zips up his hoodie Noon’t look at et it"

Parkerdown the stairs before I can yell up to him to stop When he sees Aaron, he freezes His eyes tick to oes white--and then, a split second later, completely red

"Oh, shit I didn’t mean--" He starts to backpedal "Sorry"

"That’s okay" Aaron looks at me I know all his er, definitely But there’s so deeper than that, as if he’s finally figured out the answer to an i"

He takes the stairs two at a tiainst one wall so Aaron can pass Parker and Aaron don’t like each other and never have I don’t knohy The ed and dangerous; out of nowhere, I’m afraid that Aaron will hit Parker, or vice versa But then Aaron keeps going and the moment passes

Parker still doesn’tAaron has left "Sorry," he says "I hope I didn’t interrupt anything"

"You didn’t" My cheeks are hot I wish I could reach out and take my stupid bra--pink, with patterns of daisies on it, like a twelve-year-old’s bra--and shove it under the sofa, but that would be even more conspicuous So instead we both pretend we don’t notice

"Okay" Parker draws out the word, superlong, as if he knows I’ Then, slowly, he co closer, as if I’ht? You see a hot flash of anger

"Nothing" He stops again, a good ten feet away fro" His next words he pronounces very carefully, as if each one is glass thatokay with Aaron?"

I feel stupid sitting on the couch when he’s standing, like I’on telling Parker about the breakup--the second I saw his stupid Surf Siders on the stairs, I kneould tell him, and maybe even tell hi with me and I don’t kno to be happy and I’m an idiot, such an idiot