Page 22 (2/2)

"Not a fan of hiain

She pulls an apologetic face "Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to come out so rude He just makes me uneasy"

"Me, too"

"Really?"

I nod "Yeah, really"

This seehten as she walks into the next aisle She has a funny way to her walk, like she’s trying toit on purpose, but she keeps stepping over the cracks in the tile I thought I smelled a hint of weed beneath her perfume ere back at her house, and I wonder if she’d been sh, and that’s why she’s acting a little off I’h Since she doesn’t look very stoned And I don’t get why she’d be s it It didn’t seem like she was an expert when she smoked it at my house

"Nova, are you okay?" I ask, as she continues to walk up the aisle, staring up at the signs above our heads There’s a really old school song playing fro to the lyrics

She peers over her shoulder at ht, her eyes a dark blue, and her lips shiny with gloss "Yeah, why?"

I glance down at her feet "Because it looks like you’re walking funny"

She stops walking and stares at her flip flops There’s this gnarly scar on the top of her foot "Yeah, my feet hurt a little bit"

I inch the cart up to her "Hop in then, and I’ll give you a ride"

"Seriously?" she says looking alarmed

"A… yeah" I’m really confused

She eyes the cart and thenherself around the boxes and sleeping bag She looks unco on therips her phone in her hand "Don’t crash it, please," she says

Her words stab edot here and who I am and how in no way do I deserve to be here, in this world, this life With her

Nova

When he tells et in the cart, I seriously about have a heart attack Because I’ sure to step over the cracks in the floor while I clutch my phone for dear life

When I’d went into oing to be disrupted Not only would I be surroundedroutine would be ruined Sure I could count the seconds it takes for the sun to rise over the hill line, but I couldn’t stare at Landon’s file for the usual fiveable to nearly aveat concerts In a panic, I’d sent the file to o, afraid that I’ll lose the file or so

And I’ve never been to this store before, and I don’t knohere anything is Plus, there’s these giant animal headsives me an out to the controlled footsteps and I want it, yet I don’t at the sahim not to crash it please For some reason, that makes hi anything, and I can tell he’s upset and I don’t want him to be

My dad used to say then when so random because it’ll make them smile I never did this with Landon, because I was too afraid he’d think I was crazy, and I’m not particularly fond of randomness I don’t know if Quinton will sain

"Do you know that bears are bowlegged," I say and try not to laugh when he gapes at me I point up to one of the bears on the wall "You can’t tell because only half of the body is up there, but it’s totally true"

He stares at hing "Please tell me why you chose to share that little fact with ot you to sain control over his s, he pushes the cart forward We start talking about music as we load up the cart around me with all the stuff on Dylan’s list When we reach the tent area, Quinton insists that we need to try out the ones on display in order to knohich one is the best to buy

So I stand up, finally putover the cart He takeshands, we crawl into one of the smaller domed tents and lie down on our backs

"What do you think?" he asks, our hands intertwined between us "Is it first-ti worthy?"