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"Leah!" Paxton snapped, forcibly turning my head toas tears pooled, stinging me with my oeakness "Don’t you want to know? You all do You all want to dig inside, to know every detail like you were there, like it’s your story Like by knowing edy you can somehow touch it Well you can’t, it’s mine I was alone then, and I’m alone now"

He flinched before his eyes narrowed in focus "Stop assu sure that no one is like me, so don’t lump me in with those assholes"

"But you looked," I whispered, a tear slipping down my face

He wiped it aith his thumb "I can’t say that I’m sorry I looked Because I looked, because I fucked up and slipped, we’re having this conversation now Yes, it was a violation of your privacy Yes, you did it to s I’ine what you would have done had I tried to take off your pants, and believein your pants has been at the top of ht drained froht, that I would have spazzed out on him and ran the minute he tried to slip my jeans down my hips, but that didn’t excuse what he’d done How he made me feel

"I’m not sorry that I know," he continued, his expression softening "But I wish you’d been the one to tell me That you would have trustedopen scabs I’ve barely let heal That accident, losing Brian that way…it was the worst thing that has ever happened to ed who I am, what I’ht to cut open my scars Just because you live your life in some transparent, camera-ridden world doesn’t mean that the rest of us believe in cellophane for our bedrooht Soht," he said, wiping another tear that I hadn’t realized had fallen "My life is a public spectacle But please don’t think that you can find everything aboutthat has ever happened to you? And I’ about broken bones or failed stunts" I wanted him as raw as he’d scrapedup to the cabin ceiling before he took a deep breath "What’s the one quality you have to see in someone you care about?"

My forehead puckered "Honesty You don’t lie to so my answer "Mine is loyalty With e do, I have to know that I can trust my friends with my life Hell, withwith this?

"My best friend betrayed irl I’d ever called irlfriend"

I couldn’t decide if I was ue, or more surprised Paxton was anyone’s second choice

"I know it’s an anthill next to yourto coh that I didn’t even try to sleep with her I dated her by the book, and the book gotwas that it wasn’t even the girl who broke me, it was him It was my notion of who and what I trusted about my life For months he looked me in the eye and called me his best friend while he stuck a knife in uy who helped me tune hed "It ripped the ground froravity, spun the world backward, you name it She didn’t breakto iht The loss of the friendship would destroy me

"I couldn’t stand to be around the around each other, looking at e’d cost the other We seriously couldn’tin the same room, so ent our separate ways until we could"

Nick That ade was Banished for taking his girlfriend That’s why they kept hio was it?"

"A while," he answered, giving iven him about my own heartbreak

We sat in a tense silence for a few minutes while the normal noise of the plane caht entertainment anymore

I looked out of the , over the bluest water I’d ever seen Mediterranean blue It was its own unique color, deep and bright all in the sae between us now? Would I be off his radar since he kne dahed Maybe it was better this way, that I hadn’t stressed about how to tell his and blanched Yeah Maybe this was better And h, I’d believe it

He was quiet so long that I figured he’d fallen asleep

"Leah," he said, startling me