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"I just want to say I’m sorry," he said "I shouldn’t have acted the way I did to you"

Since Rav rarely apologized for anything, I decided to ainst the door fra I wasn’t ready to accept his apology, even though I was

"Yeah, and I’ered on hiy accepted So what’s wrong?"

"Nothing," he said a little too quickly "Nothing’s wrong at all As a ave a weird little laugh; then he said, "There’s so I want to show you I know it’s late, but do you think you can get out?"

"Sure," I told him "My dad’s not hoht behind me, asked, "Can I come, too?"

The look on Rav’s face said that Say and about usas a third wheel

"No," I told Saot all twisted, and his body all limp boned "Anika," he whined

I looked to Rav, but he shook his head So I made a decision "Sure," I told Sa by"

"What?"

"Yeah, Dad’s gonna do a low flyby and wave to us--maybe even set down and pick us up to take us with hiht on the roof?"

"Maybe," I said "You kno Dad likes to surprise us"

Then I waited for a et it He’ll have to do it another tietting all twisty and liain

"You’re too little to stay here by yourself"

He looked at me, deeply insulted "Aood and not to watch anything scary on TV I left holding hands with Rav, wondering what he had to showthe truth behind it

There’s a before, and there’s an after There are those events that surgically slice your life in two; and once it happens, you know that you’re on the other side of that painful incision, and there’s no going back to the way things were before If you’re lucky, the wound heals into a jagged scar And if you’re unlucky, it never heals at all; it just keeps bleeding The knife caht

As Rav and I walked down the street, he said toabout what you said the other day About that wo stupid It wasn’t who I thought"