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"No girl wants to be kept a dirty little secret, son," she says, as I walk up next to her Her line of thought i about the trouble about how I rudely kept her a secret fro, she says, "I trust your judgood person, then I have to trust that"

"If Jaxon were awake, he could vouch for me Em loves her Quinn and Cole have become friends with her as well"

"Wow, Eed her into telling her the story of everything that happened Shit, Mo"

"And then you shoved her out of here right before I arrived, correct?" she questions

"How did you know?"

"Jace, your greatest weakness has always been caring too much about what others think of you And I’m your mother, I can read you like a book"

I groan and lean ainst the wall outside of Jaxon’s room "Yeah, I yelled at her to leave In front of everyone I freaked out, Mo to coasps and asks, "Jace, didn’t you learn anything from Jaxon’s mistake? At what point did I ever teach you two that it was okay to publicly eirls? Especially the ones you supposedly love"

"We’re idiots"

"You got that right," she grumbles When she disappears inside the room, I try to call Audrey Three times No answer

- Seventeen -

AUDREY -

Five days into roove I’ve picked up all of E ive so schoolwork like a nments for this semester

I rarely sleep, and when it does come around, it’s only for a few hours here and there I feel as if I’ on pure adrenaline, but I know eventually it will hit me and I’ll crash hard I’ve scrubbed down the apart to a gyuys are I never want to be that self-conscious about the way I look while working out again

I get off work early tonight because the custos under his eyes froure what he can do forthis fine I’et on with my life

I realize that for five days I’ve kept Lane froht So when I climb into bed, I force in to calm down and think about the idea of sleep, s slip through theChuck gets up with a wagging tail to greet my intruder

I can instantly tell by the size and build that it’s Jace I stay quiet and watch hih my room He steps out of his shoes, slips off his pants, and yanks his shirt over his head Slowly, he crawls into my noisy bed and searches for h breath to forrabs a hold ofheavily and he buries his face in ht and it’s hard to catch a breath fro on me, but I don’t have the heart to pull away He needs me

"Jace" I whisper in the dark But he never responds and when I wake up in the , I’m the one left all alone this time

~~~~~~~~~~

I bend down to pull out my newest batch of blueberry muffins The apart to do with all of these baked goods

"Jesus Christ, Audrey If you pull one rumbles from behind me

"I think you’re already there," I reply cal You’re not dealing with this right Shouldn’t you be crying or bitching about hi a chocolatebite

I look around the kitchen at all of the pastries I’ve made this past week and a half I don’t knohy I did it, except that it helps to keepout of ideas Since sleep doesn’t co is the next best thing

He looks down at the rowls loudly He glares atthe baked goodness, and harshly throws the re this junk! Make it go away"

"Shouldn’t you be happy I’ down the counters

"No, because I know you’re sad, but for so it all in Pretend I’m a chick" He props his elbows up on the bar, rests his chin in his hands, and looks at htfully Brat "Seriously doll, pour your little heart out I’m here to listen"

"You’re ridiculous," I reply, while searching for a container that can hold the blueberry ht visit a few evenings ago I don’t knohat to think of it rowls

"No," I reply flatly

"Talk"

"Where do you think we’ll live after we graduate?" I ask, changing the subject

"That’s not what I wanted to talk about and you know it But I figured I’d have to follow you to Texas"