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“You know,” Iheavy, “this place would be paradise if it weren’t for all the fucking people”

Leah laughed softly

“Aw Sad, tipsy Talia is the saddest Talia there is” Then she reached over and squeezed my knee, the fake nails she’d worn for her sexy devil costuirl”

“It’s okay” I focused on the ocean in the distance, trying to find soth and calm in myself “I’m still here, aren’t I?”

I stretched on the barre and extended o When I’d pushed just a fraction of an inch beyondslow and steady, letting e of pain radiated out fro off a bit

I’d been getting i such good progress The last thing I needed was to get overeager and push too far, too fast I didn’t want to undo all the solid work I’d done over the past two months

Finn lounged against the opposite wall like always He’d been co every day since the afternoon I’d walked in on him and Ashley, and most of the time, he never said a word All he did atch me and tap away on his phone

He hadn’t mentioned what happened at the Halloween party the previous weekend, and neither had I There was nothing to say anyway Getting shoved into a pool by Adena was just one incident in a long string of bullying and pranks I’d endured—it hardly stood out as the worst

Leah and I had gone into Roseland the next day to buy et the fanciest one in the store, since my old phone had been an ancient piece of shit

“Does it hurt?”

Finn’s voice startled o of the barre and fell on lanced at him in surprise He peered at htly in his hands, the screen black I thoughtwith me, but the look on his face was full of curiosity, not malice for once

I shrugged lightly “Sometimes”

“For everyone or just you?”

“Probably for me more than other

s Itheir bodies to the li themselves to deal with pain I just haven’t had that kind of practice in a while, and I have an… an old injury So now that I’”