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"Positive"

"Okeydokey, then We’ll be over later"

Just like every year, I was apparently still under a suicide watch and would be for the next week I had to adet too terribly depressed about my parents Still, the minute they left my company, the sadness leached back insidein the shadows until it got the chance to slither inside My dependence on their presence was getting ridiculous It was high tirew up and learned to cope with my parents’ disappearance on my own

With a wave to shoo him inside, I turned and headed toward the library, determined to overcome the blahs all by my little lonesome The public library stood in the middle of the town square in as once the courthouse Though I often went there to read and relax and just catchwith the director of the library, and randmother’s best friend, Betty Jo, instead But what better place to do research? Librarians had an uncanny knack for a not only the talk around town, but the talk’s history to boot

As I approached one of the three stoplights Riley’s Switch had to offer, an overenthusiastic skateboarder decided to stop right behind me He failed He tuan ankle, I turned and stared hi and Asian with a slight build, which was probably a good thing I could have been crushed

"Sorry," he said as his friends snickered behind his back, joking and shoving one another

"No probleht Freshto block the crisp wind, and oose burand She always seemed to knohat I should and should not wear in an eerie, sixth-sense kind of way

As I waited for the light to change, the skateboarder, who’d been practicing tricks on a park bench, lunged into ain I couldn’t believe it I turned and narrowed y between laughs This was getting ridiculous Still, as a sophomore, I needed to exude a certain level of h not likely

When I turned back to the light, I heard his friends teasing hiiven hi a boy

Probably ainst any actual offense, he pushed one of his annoying co him into reat to keepraveled road on my palms and knees Before I could even conjure an emotional reaction, I heard led to my feet and turned to see Jared, tall and solid, on the curb where I had just been standing My breath caught at the sight of him The breeze tousled his dark hair His full h for a dimple to appear at its corner He stepped off the curb and walked todown into my eyes, he asked, "Do you trust me?"

I smiled warily "Shouldn’t I?"

"Close your eyes," he coently