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You did the saed silently
I hadn’t told Ian about Cubby; he’d found out all on his own And then he’d confronted me immediately
"Addie, not him Anyone but him" Ian’s voice startled me so much, I almost fell back out theIt o am, just a few days after our field trip to the troll, and he was sitting at my desk in the dark, his headphones pushed down around his neck
I recovered just in ti to pull theone "What do youtheht--it et out of his car" Ian stood, sending"Addie, not hi
A slow fury built inot a say in who I dated? "Ian, I get that Cubby’s your tea out with hi them into his fist "Addie, I’irls You don’t want to hang out with him Believe me"
But I didn’t want to believe him And so I didn’t
I can usually count on sleep to polish out the hard edges of whatever I’h waves to becoed as they come
The mattresses were, as promised, utter crap, and a little after one a Ian and Rowan, descended on the bunk beds in a sta softly through the barred s I rolled topatterns wafted through the room Most of the beds still contained lumps of people Everyone’s, that was, except Ian’s
I ju Ian’s and Rowan’s beds were eone
"Are you kidding ain Even Rowan I hurledover a child-size backpack propped up againstloudly into a bedpost
"Hallo?" a startled voice said from the top bunks
"Sorry" I raced barefoot out into the hall and into the dining roo a stea
"Addie!" he yelled, the drink sloshing everywhere "Why are you running?"
The relief was so intense that I nearly folded in half I rested ht you left me"
"Left you? What would possibly make you think that?" He opened his eyes wide and then snorted, laughing at his own joke
Laughing He was laughing Had he forgotten about last night’s fight? He grabbed a handful of napkins from the kitchen table and swiped at the spill on his shoes
"Yes, really funny So, so funny" I jabbed him in the shoulder His black eye looked a little better today The outer edges were already fading to a dull green
"What’s so funny?" Rowan asked, joining us in the hallway
"The fact that I now have PTSD over being left behind," I said Rowan’s hair was nicely rumpled Today’s cat shirt featured a bespectacled cat with the words HAIRY PAWTER