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Scrounging through the change jar my mom still kept in the kitchen, I took a pocketful of quarters, deciding to walk the ed ent Trulanced in every possible direction, and then I tore it into tiny bits and tossed it in the trash bin onto anyone froency aboutdo with ht be

The Gas ’n’ Sip had always been my favorite junk food dealer When ere finally allowed to walk there on our own, Austin and I used to pool our allowancethe sues of powdered doughnuts When Austin got his license and started driving us to school, we’d stop there in the est-brewed coffee in town And sohnuts too

I’d spent almost as much ti here now, though, I felt like a total loser A loser with a pocketful of change

I strolled the aisles in record tihnuts, before dropping lared at nored her,it her probleazines displayed in front

Not one; a lot of the sa into rehab One of the less-reputable newspapers had a headline that ly of my dad because of how far-fetched it was: "Bat Boy Spotted Living in Cave in Arkansas"

I glanced away guiltily when I realized just how far my opinion of my own father had fallen

I noticed hi in the same aisle I’d been in just a moment earlier, rapt in concentration over the selection of Snickers and Milky Ways

I lance, if it hadn’t been for his eyes Eyes that I’d seen before

Eyes that were strikingly copper colored

He was the same boy from the bookstore Not the hipster cashier who’d sold Tyler his , but the one I’d run into on my way out The darker-skinned boy who’dat h, and I tried to study his features without hiuishable about him His hair was cut short, almost to his scalp, and his skin was se height

He was justnor?"

I turned back around to face the lady at the cash register "Iyeah, sure" I took ed my loot I took that too

And when I turned back around, the boy was gone

As if ot back,on the front porch of ed there and had been sitting there every day for the past five years without skipping a beat If it hadn’t been for her oversize shoulder bag, an accessory she used to insist was for woht have overlooked howgrown-up she looked

Except that I probably wouldn’t have Because she did Look grown-up, Ithere in h, that Cat expression of unbound exuberance that no one else in the whole orld could e up the sidewalk, that liveliness that I’d always loved about her lit up her entire face

"Kyra!" she gasped, jurown-up purse in front of her

"Cat? What the hell?" I grippedin front of me as if it could sonant about, being blindsided by her visit or suddenly realizing just how different she was from the last time I’d seen her, and how exactly the same I was "Shouldn’t you be at school? Shouldn’t you have called or so?"

She frowned "I did I called like a es with your ht of the sticky-note rainbowdown the deluge of feelings I couldn’t sort through I was more than just confused or hurt Yes, she and Austin had betrayedher in person now than it had been seeing Austin It was harder, sonore the years--the lifetime--that she’d just been Cat, my BFF "You shouldn’t be here" It was difficult to say, but I so wasn’t ready for this

In the fringe of my vision, I saw her take a step closer "What did you think, that I was gonna stay away? You’re one for five whole years I had to co ly blond hair looked less high school and er ponytailed or braided ild strands flying loose the way it had been e’d been on the field Now it fell in perfect waves that made it clear she’d made a skilled effort with it "You were my best friend"