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I stride toward our bench and slide into ?" Lennon asks

"I need to think," I tell him "I justneed to think"

20

And that’s exactly what I do Alone withthat’s just happened all the way up the last hundred or so steps of the ry with ry with Lennon, too And I’hts, it doesn’t quite register that the water is getting louder And louder When the steps begin curving sharply to the right, I suddenly see why

Waterfalls Two of them Not the small, tranquil cascade of Mackenzie Falls If that was a roar, this is God herself speaking And she is fierce

Blue water plu white foaood third of the falls are nothing but gauzy s--and the base of the falls ood quarter e lookout area on a plateau twice the size of the one below No one’s up here How is that possible? I spy another set of stone steps at the end of the lookout leading to the topmost point There appears to be a trail all the way around the falls, and at the top of the falls is where several tourists are taking photos and looking through viewfinders If I’m not mistaken, there is a tram and a couple of toilets up there Guessthe world’s e of the lookout, duap to watch the waterfalls

"Emperor and E his pack next to mine "They’re actually part of the same river, but that bumpy rock formation that sticks out between them is what splits the flow Three hundred fifty feet tall"

They are beautiful I’m truly stunned By the view, and by the entire conversation we just had I wonder if I can just keep looking at the falls, just pretend it never happened until I come up with a plan--

"Zorie," he pleads fro Please"

I have to speak louder than normal to be heard over the roar of the falls, and it sort of turns into yelling "If you confessed everything to your parents, then e" I swing around to face him, bitterness in my voice "Why didn’t you tellto me"

"Because I was under the assury that you shutyou with him in front of your locker was one of the worst days of my life--and believe me, I had a lot of bad days last year"

"I was only with Andre because I was trying to get over you" I’rief--and I feel as ifto fall over the edge of the lookout and die in the waterfallabout what I did with Andre, but I’ with Jovana Rae is worse

"And then," he yells, "I had to listen to Brett--fucking Brett, of all people--brag about how close he was to ‘hitting that’ "

Ugh! What did I see in him?

"It was just a kiss!" I tell Lennon "One kiss, and it wasn’t even that good It wasn’t good with Andre, and it was less than nothing with Brett Is that want you want to hear?"

"I don’t nation

"And what about Jovana? Andre and I had sex one time Once! You probably screwed Jovana’s brains out for nify that She’s a nice person"

"Aha!" I say "You avoided the question"