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"Yeah We A long tio" Shelby wouldn't look at her

"Okay" Luce focused on breathing She could handle this But the whispers ying around the wall of girls made her skin crawl, and she shuddered

Shelby sco ed "I'usts you so usted Disgusted with herself "I alwaysI thought I was the only--"

Shelby put her hands on her hips "You thought every time you disappeared for seventeen years that Daniel just twiddled his thumbs? Earth to Luce, there is a Before You for Daniel Or an In Between, or whatever" She paused to give Luce a sideways squint "Are you really that self- involved?"

Luce was speechless

Shelby grunted and turned to face the rest of the hall "This estrogen force eld needs to dissipate," she barked, waggling her ngers at theirls scurried o , Luce pressed her head against the cold metal locker She wanted to crawl inside it and hide

Shelby leaned her back against the wall next to Luce's face "You know," she said, her voice softening, "Daniel's a crap boyfriend And a liar He's lying to you"

Luce straightened up and went at Shelby, feeling her cheeks ush Luce ht now, but nobody talked smack about her boyfriend

"Whoa" Shelby ducked away "Calm down, there Jeez" She slid down the wall to sit on the oor "Look, I shouldn't have brought it up It was one stupid night a long tiuy was clearly ht all the lore about you tassupree I've held with your name on it"

She patted the oor next to her, and Luce slid down the wall to sit too Shelby gave a tentative sht I'd meet you I de nitely never expected you to becool"

"You think I' quietly to herself "You were right about ht You're one of those ihed "Fine I' you before I knew you I won't do it again"

This eird The thing that could have driven two friends instantly apart was actually drawing theer Luce felt about it was soht, Shelby had said But what had really happened?

Sunset found Luce walking down the rocky steps to the beach It was cold outside, colder still as she got closer to the water The day's last rays of light danced o thin sheets of cloud, staining the ocean orange, pink, and pastel blue The cal like a path to Heaven

Until she got to the wide circle of sand, still blackened fro down there Then she found herself crawling behind the tall lava rock where Daniel had tugged her away Where the two of them had danced and then spent the precious fewas stupid as the color of her hair

Callie had once had a boyfriend at Dover whoht over a toaster One of theel; the other one had ipped out Luce couldn't re, Who breaks up over a kitchen appliance?

But it was never really about the toaster, Callie had told her The toaster was just a sy else that rong between the into ghts The one on the beach, over her dye job, reminded her of Callie's story It felt like a preview of so herself against the wind, Luce realized she'd co the other night She was idiotically looking for signs in the water, so everywhere except inside herself Because as inside Luce was just the vast enigma of her past Maybe the ansere still somewhere in the Announcers, but for now, they rerasp

She didn't want to blah to assume that their relationship had been exclusive across time But he'd never told her otherwise So he'd practically set her up to walk right into this shock It was e list of things that Luce thought she deserved to know and that Daniel didn't see t to tell her

She felt soht was rain, a drizzly sensation on her cheeks and her ngertips But it arht, not wet She turned her face toward the sky and was blinded by shi to shield her eyes, she watched even when it grew so bright it hurt The particles slowly drifted toward the water just o shore, falling into a pattern and li the shape she'd knohere

He seeeous His bare feet hovered inches o the water as he approached the shore His broad white wings seeeous His bare feet hovered inches o the water as he approached the shore His broad white wings see nearly ih wind It wasn't fair The way he made her feel when she looked at him--awed and ecstatic and a little bit afraid She could hardly think of anything else Every annoyance or nagging frustration vanished There was just that undeniable pull toward hi up," she whispered

Daniel's voice carried over the water "I told you I wanted to talk to you"