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“Our schedules are never going to line up” I sounded almost desperate, so I tried to calm my voice “We’re both so busy, we barely see each other We didn’t even do anything for your birthday” He’d had a ga championship in Denver

“Jas a little Then he seeet it I don’t fit in with your world Your cheerleading friends make fun of me Your buddies on the football team try to beat me up for sport You haven’t introduced iving, you said no”

“I was busy!” I cried

“You stayed in town, just like we did,” Matt said “We could have seen each other, even if it wasn’t a big family dinner But you said no, and then you didn’t answer ”

I felt my cheeks flush hot I hadweekend—but not for the whole thing I could have made time to see his parents, who had always been nice to le Christmas Tree farm

“Well, you didn’t visit family, either,” I said

“The only member of your faoes to this school I’ve gone to school with him for years, and the only words he’s ever said toto dump you, moron’”

My jaw dropped Okay, maybe Brad was a bit of a snob He was a football player, after all And he’d teasedMatt, asking if I was “still seeing that hockey goon” Maybe that teasing had gotten to me a little bit I didn’t know he’d said that to my boyfriend

But I couldn’t back out noas too far in The only as forward

“You see?” I said “We’re too different This was never going to work Besides, you’re already being scouted by agents You’re going to get a hockey scholarship And then you’ll be gone, and I’ll still be here in Salt Springs”

This, I kneas going to happen I le was very, very good, even at seventeen If I wanted to be honest with myself—which at this mole was going to leave for an aet about hts of crying and freaking myself out about how much I liked him, I had decided that the end date needed to be now

If you got ahead of the pain, then ht noith my throat closed up and tears in ht at all

“This is what you want?” Matt asked “To break up with me?”

Iaway, and I would still be here, going nowhere “Yes It is”

He bit his lip, as if he was going to say so else, but he didn’t He turned and walked away

And so I broke Matt Kringle’s heart By spring, I was dating Gareth Green, the quarterback of the football team Gareth had no plans to leave town My brother really liked Gareth So did my parents

Matt never spoke to ain

That was fine I was fine

It hadn’t been a ht?

Right?