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"Okay" Haley took a sip of wine and then just sat there, holding her glass, like she was thinking "So’ I got good grades all through high school, right? Strike that I got very good grades I was valedictorian And I scored high on the SATs And I had all the extracurriculars e applications I volunteered at asophoood Messed up, right?"

It was at that moment that I realized how truly beautiful Haley was She had a perfect coh cheekbones and there were these cute little freckles surrounding her nose But I don’t just ood to ht call a flexible aesthetic But there was so about Haley that went beyond looks Like how she had these di self-effacing, she’d shrug her shoulders a little and tilt her head and glance at her feet And soht brown eyes locked on toa hand all the way intoaround in there for theshe could find Itthe chance of her not liking what she discovered

"The proble anything--other than I kneas expected" She refilled both our glasses again "And I’ my parents pushed me Or my counselors at school It was h school was based on how I thought it ht make me look on paper I never once stopped to think about what I actually liked to do That’s kind of sad, don’t you think?"

"More like honest" Usually, I liked to keep quiet I liked to listen But the as just reaching my head, and I felt oddly comfortable, so I let myself talk "Here’s a question," I told her "Would you rather be great at so you love?"

"Jesus, I don’t know," Haley said "That’s hard What about you? Sounds like this is co from a personal place"

I stuck lass I felt like I was in aOne about rich British people, like the show Haley hadall deep in a beautiful New York apartlass The only other tilasses, because that’s all we could find at her stepdad’s place "The one thing I know I love," I said, "besides ood at it"

"You play down there so about at ! "Okay, h"

"I knew it," Haley said "At first I thought it was the radio, which ood"

I shook my head, ehed "Looks like I’ compliments"

After a short stretch of silence, one that didn’t even feel that aard, I said, "I guess I don’t really knohat I want to do, either Sometimes I feel like a shook-up bottle of soda Like, I have all this passion that wants to explode, but I don’t knohere to aim it yet Is that kind of what you et worried I’ll never knohere to ailasses, but there were only a few drops left so she got up and opened the second one

We talked for hours after dinner When the second bottle of as gone, I raced downstairs to grab Mike’s bottle of vodka When I came back, Haley fixed us vodka cranberries and we sat on the couch in the living room and we talked and talked and talked Haley told on I told her about life near the Mexican border Haley described what she’d be doing back hoht now--dinner at a fancy restaurant with herone gift by the fire--and I told her about Christht I was officially drunk, and asto Haley, I also wondered what it would be like to kiss Haley, so I started down a very different road "Hey, Haley," I said