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I reach down to help her up, but there’s not much I can do about her pants We had finally dried off after the rain froain This tih Trying being the key word here Because I’hed all day

"Yeah, yeah," she says as she attehing when she narrows her eyes and points down at the mud puddle "Charlie says sit in the pothole, Silas"

I shake ame is called Silas says, not Charlie says"

She arches an eyebrow "Oh, really?" She takes a step closer to me and says, "Charlie says sit in the pothole If Silas does what Charlie says, Charlie will do whatever Silas says"

Is that an invitation of sorts? I’lance down at the pothole It’s not that deep I turn around and lower ed in the puddle ofto witness the attention we’re probably attracting frohter, but I can see the pleasure she’s getting out of this

I stay sitting in the pothole until it even starts to embarrass Charlie After several seconds, I lean back onto s Someone snaps a picture of me in the pothole, so shearound "Hurry"

I shake rabs et up, you idiot" She helps ainstat us"

I wrap in to sway back and forth, which is probably not what she was expecting me to do She looks up at o now? Let’s go"

I shake ether "You can’t be serious!"

There are several people stopped on the street now, so pictures of us I sort of don’t blaly sat in a mud puddle, too

I unclench her fists from my shirt and make her hold my hands as I force her to dance to non-existent music She’s stiff at first, but then she seehter take over the e into people as we go The whole ti like she doesn’t have a care in the world

After a fewher long enough to pull her toup ather head "You’re crazy, Silas Nash," she says

I nod "Good That’s what you love about me"

Her smile fades for a moment and the look she has in her eyes causesShe places her palm over my heart and stares at the back of her hand I already know she’s not feeling a heartbeat inside my chest It’s more like a druain She parts her lips and whispers, "Charlie says…kiss Charlie"

I would have kissed her even if Charlie didn’t say My hand wraps in her hair a single second before my lips h she punches a hole straight through my chest and makes a fist around my heart It hurts, it doesn’t, it’s beautiful, it’s terrifying I want it to last for eternity, but I’ll run out of breath if this kiss goes on for just one more minute My arm wraps around her waist, and when I pull her closer, sheI have rooht now is the firm belief that fate absolutely exists Fate…soul mates…time travel…you name it It all exists Because that’s what her kiss feels like Existence

We’re momentarily jolted when someone bumps into us Our mouths seaparate, but it takes effort to free ourselves from whatever hold just took over Thethe street cohter All the external things that ten seconds of her kiss just blocked out are rushing back The sun is setting, and nighttime seems to transform this entire street fro I want et her out of here Neither of us seehs twenty pounds when I reach for her hand She slides her fingers throughlot where my car is