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As soon as the door shut behind hi the top blanket one or both of us hadwar that wasn’t the cold tile

I bent down, retrieving the piece of paper that had fallen out of Liam’s pocket It had been folded over once into a sround My eyes were already taking in the neat letters carefully printed there before I could spare a thought to it being wrong

Your nahteen years old Your parents are Harry and Grace Stewart Cole is your brother and Claire was your sister You were in a camp, Caledonia, but you broke out East River did burn You were lost You’re in Lodi by choice because you want to stay with Chubs, Zu, and Ruby You want to be here, helping theo, even if they tell you to DO NOT GO! Ruby can take your memories, but what you feel is the truth You love her, you love her, you love her

I read the words again, and a third ti to make sense of thenized I was reading sentences, but ed It up and left the picture before my heart could make the connection

Ruby can take your memories

It was a note to himself--to a future self, one he apparently was so sure would fall victiain This was a cheat sheet Security; because, clearlyto cut it I could proain, but itI had done it once The trust between us was already broken

I went cold to the core The shock of it--ju from his warm touch to this--it was too much I was the ash brushed aside after the fire had finally been blown out You are so stupid, so stupid, so stupid He doesn’t trust you, no matter what he says

"Stop" The world broke me out of the free fall I dropped into, and all at once the sensation of falling, sinking eased I said the word again, forcing hts I said it again, and one ain, not so to stop the torrent of thoughts shooting throughdown the hall, bare feet slapping against the tile I panicked, shoving the note inside of the CD case just as Liam swept back into the room

He was drenched in randoht side, the back of his sweats, the fabric below his knees--and the expression on his face was the resigned look of soainst his will

I plastered a sJust seeing his face was enough to start unraveling the binding I had wrapped around the hurt

"Soooo," he said, wiping his da people I know a little bit about pluet the water to turn on and off--what? I look that pathetic?"