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When the elevator stops and the doors slide open with a soft whoosh, I bolt out and then turn left and dash for the front doors I practically run over John, our doorize to him as I hit the sidewalk

The BART stop is one block down and half a block over, and luckily the sidewalks are fairly e rush hour but it hasn't hit lunchtime yet I race around the corner of Mission and Freo to the bench in front of the bus stop There's only two people there waiting, and neither of them are Sela

My chest heaving for air, I look both ways down the street, desperately hoping to catch a gli her to appear

FuckI can't even re

Totally fucking useless

She's gone and I know it, so I start a slower paced jog back to y to John as I brush past him into the lobby, head over to the service stairwell, and take the stairs down oneto her apart I'll just be waiting at her front door for her, and hopefully by then I'll have soured out to undo this clusterfuck I've created

TEN YEARS AGO

"Bryce is such an asshole," Whitney says as she leans her elbows on the rail bordering the upper level of the reasy burgers and stale Chinese food filter upward My nose crinkles in disgust

"Agreed," I say asout the action tonight I'd already scanned the food court below, and nothing of interest was going on down there

"He didn't say why?" she asks

"Nope," I say calh my stoot yesterday after school Bryce and I had been dating for three months, and my face flushes with embarrassiven hih school and I had fallen head over heels

Bryce was very tall with sunny good looks that would have been common in Southern California, but only made him stand out like a beacon in our school in Menlo Park He was the star of our basketball teairl wanted to be with him, and every boy wanted to be hi through the hallways between periods, htly in his as he'd walk me to my next class

It was like a dreaiddy, and happy, and in love

And then he crushedoutside the driver's door of his Mustang, surrounded by his buddies I thought he'd be driving me home as he did every day after school since basketball season was over Instead, he simply told me, "Listen, SelaI want to break up"

I was stunned, and sure I heard hi "What?"

"It's the end of e in a few irl as young as you You're not going to be able to hang with me and it will just be aard, you know?"

No, I didn't know

I didn't understand at all

"But I'm sixteen," I told him lamely

"Tomorrow you'll be sixteen," he pointed out, and one of his friends snickered loudly At least Bryce had the grace to shoot him a dirty look and a small shake of his head

"And you're breaking up with me the day before my birthday," I said in wonder and not to him in particular, and not a question either Just a statement as to his douchiness

Bryce just shrugged and reached for his car door But then, as an afterthought, he said, "Lookyou're a nice kid and everything"

I tuned him out as I turned and walked away That's all I needed to hear from him

He thought I was a kid

And now ht floors of theout, looking to have some fun My eyes cut over to the Gap, directly across frouys walk out All in jeans, T-shirtslook about uys are okay, but one is really cute He's carrying a bag in his hand and laughs at so one of his friends says He then pauses, takes his phone out of his back pocket, and answers it His eyes travel left as he talks with a smile on his face, sweeps across the expanse of the ht on me

While he converses hoever is on the other line, he stares at ht with interest I s interest because he's really, really cute with light brown hair that's worn a bit long and what looks to be brown eyes

My pulse starts fluttering when he ends the call, says so his eyes off e that connects to the opposite sides of the second story

Whitney is ra to crush his nuts in a vise, but I don't pay attention to her He gets closer, his friends following a few steps behind him

I can tell the minute that Whitney sees him because her voice trails off with a soft, "Oh, "

"Hey," he says when he stops a few feet from me His eyes cut to Whitney and then back to me While he doesn't overtly check me out, I can tell he likes what he sees I' jeans and my mo the out the door in sedate black flats Those now reside in ht

"Hey," I say back, ?"