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"Who’sher shoes off under her bed and hooking her backpack over her desk chair

"Ty! And Nate! They flipped our dresser drawers," Cass says with a huff, stuffing her clothes back into her draithout folding Paige rushes to her dresser next, biting her lip and waiting for her clothes to spill out When her drawers are fine, I see the disappointment flood her body, and I feel sad for her

"Okay, tell et those assles back," Paige says I don’t know if she’s just mad that they left her out of the practical joke war or if she’s just trying to put on a brave face, but for the first time since I’ve met her, I feel a connection with her, so I hold onto it

"Okay, I have an idea We’re gonna need a hardware store," I start, and they both pull up their chairs to listen

Chapter 10

Nate

Staying away froht it would be I never brought up going to the art gallery, and I avoided accidental run-ins when I could I didn’t have workouts during the first week of school, but I foundme there, but I wasn’t there for theuy, and I knew it With me on the roster, McConnell was in the h tohere on a non-workout day made me look like a teauys Even if the only reason I was here was to keep ht She came over to watch Sports Center with us after dinner, and she’d drop these totally obvious stories about Rowe, taking extra care to say her name nice and clear for me to hear

It’s not like I was angry with her Damn, I’d have to understand her for that to be a part of the equation I guess I was angrier withso intimidated by her, and those pictures She couldn’t even look at them, and the way she ran out of her room when I asked her about theht just have soe I’m not equipped for

"Hey, you about ready to head back?" Ty says, popping his head in while I finish upat the campus--he was hired on to ith some of the disabled students initially, but he’s so disciplined that others started requesting hiot out of the hospital, and the dude is probably in better shape than I am

"One more set I’ll meet you out front," I say

He just nods and leaves hts I could lift a thousand pounds and it still wouldn’t be enough to distractabout Rowe

She takes her showers late at night I heard her in there yesterday while I was taking ain But she’d see right through that Instead, I sat on the locker bench quietly, listening to her sing lightly under her breath She was putting on an act when she was singing with Cass in her rooel I bet if she really let herself go, she would surprise the hell out of a lot of people with her voice--she’d probably surprise herself a little, too

It’s late by the tiet back to the dor "Dinner?" I say, turning my key in our lock

"Yeah Let me just text Cass She wanted to come You mind?"

"Nah," I say Honestly, I don’tthe small connection to Rowe I still want to invite her out withto her after the whole picture incident I think I just need to knohat the guy in that picture is to her first

"What The Fuck!" Ty sees it first It takesme Our entire bedroom, every square inch of the walls, is pink The back of the door--pink The ceiling--pink And it’s not a subtle pastel No, our dorm room is Barbie-princess pink!

I have to hand it to her Rowe is good I ood This took effort and ti Cass’s dresser Ty is fu onhate pink!" My brother isa grand in a Super-Bowl bet last year

"Rowe" I say, sitting down on allons to get it covered so well, and they must have worked on this all day The paint smell was still fresh I have to admit, I am pretty damned impressed