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I pause with the folding, regretting that I even brought it up The last thing he needs is to hear any of ot soon Just school stuff"

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really" I feel bad for lying to hi "Let’s talk about so person for that," he says with honesty, his ht want to try Tristan or Lea"

"Tristan’s pretty sick right now, so he’s not feeling that happy either" I put a folded-up shirt on top of the pile "Besides, hearing your laugh is alreadyme feel better"

"Yeah, but you’re the one who h I was a little bummed out before I called"

"How co theripe abouta bad day," he says

"Please, tell ers out "In fact, it’ll make me feel better to listen"

"You’re too easy to please, but if that’s what you want, then…" He sighs heavyheartedly "It’s nothing ? Well, I was sort of hoping ht he told me that he listed the house with a Realtor, and he had boxes for us to pack our stuff in And I think he "

"Did you ever tell hio with him?" I collect a stack of jeans in my arms and turn for the dresser

"Sort of… I mean, I said I’d think about it, but I knoon’t loomily "And I don’t want hi I have left ofto cry for hiot to spend twelve years with hiot to know her

"I understand that coh it tookrid of les for words "Did you ever get that dent fixed that Donny… that… drug dealer put in the fender?"

I’ as hoas so out of it when it happened "Yeah, you can’t even tell it happened anymore" I place the stack of jeans in the drawer, then walk back over to the bed

"Yeah, but it did And it’sup "For everything… all that shit that went down in Vegas"

I pick up a hanger and a shirt "You don’t need to be sorry for anything I told you that and I mean it What happened in the past is in the past We’reforward now Remember, a clean slate"

"You sound just like er "He keeps pushingup inIn fact, I need to reo back… if I forget all the bad stuff that happened"

I get what he’s saying, but I still wish he didn’t feel so bad about sos Besides, they weren’t all bad Like the couple of kisses we shared, the dance The few talks we had a year and a half ago during the suoing to a concert And the couple we had this last suenuine "I think it’s okay to hold on to the past just a little, but at the sa forward and letting go As for the pictures, I actually had all Landon’s boxed up for a long time I finally took theh every once in a while"

"And it doesn’t hurt to look through the the shirt up "Not really In fact it feels good to reood moments"

He’s quiet for a while "Still, it feels like everything’s going to fall apart the as, I had sketches lying around I just can’t i"

"You’ll get there," I pro to oing to have a nagging therapist to answer to every other day" His tense tone relaxes a ss could be a lot worse I could be living in that shitty apartlad to hear hiinning when I was co down I didn’t," he says with honesty "But now, yes I don’t want to go back to that place again I think it was a good thing when it burned down… of course I wouldn’t be saying that if anyone got hurt, but so bad"

His co of that, can I ask you a question?" My voice carries caution as I slide the re, it’s kind of an intense question"

"I don’t care," he says "I want to help you hatever it is"

I hope I’ "Were you around when the apartment burned down?"

He doesn’t answer immediately "Yeah, why?" he finally asks ariness

"Well, Delilah’sif I knehere she hich eird since she never cared where Delilah was all during the few years that I knew her" I flop down on the bed onand I just want--need to know if she’s okay And I ondering if maybe you knew"

"If Delilah is okay?"

"Yeah, or maybe where she could be, possibly"

Silence takes over the line and my heart squeezes insideand it’s really, really bad

"I don’t really remember much" He eventually speaks with hesitation "Other than the fire was started intentionally and…" He ss hard "A gunshot was heard right before it happened"

"Gunshot?" My eyes widen and I cover my mouth as I start to breathe loudly

"Yeah, and it caradually exhales "It came from our old apartment"