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Her heels click against the tile floor as she scans the dark hallway, rounding one corner then another until we reach a wall of alternating orange and black lockers

“There she is,” Blaire says, bea “Number two-eleven Yours was three-fourteen—and it was black”

“I don’t kno you remember any of that”

“You used to wait here for ertips along the metal vent at the top of the locker door “And then you’d walk ht across the hall from your history class”

Turning, she rests her back against the locker, dragging in a hard breath and giving lance left, then right We’re still alone, under the cover of darkness

The Joe Nichols song fades to Paramore’s The Only Exception, another hit from back in the day that alwaysmade me think of her She was a part of every piece ofand picked out the shirts I knew she loved … fro her off at home a hair before curfew because every second with her mattered

Wagging her finger, she says, “Come closer”

“What’re you up to …”

“Dance with me,” she asks in a voice so sweet I couldn’t say no if I wanted to “It’s okay No one’s watching”

I close the canyon-sized gap between us, placing my hands around her hips as she rests hers onher nose beneath h

After tonight, this has to stop

She’s got hope, and she’s going to get hurt all over again

“I miss when life was simple,” she says as ay in the dark

“Me too”

“I … I just wanted to tell you,” she says, gazing up at me “I love you, Wyatt” The words send a fullness to ut me just the same Before I have a chance to respond, she continues, “You don’t have to say it back In fact, you don’t have to say anything back I just thought you should know”

With that, she rests her cheek on my shoulder

“I love you too,” I mouth in silence I have to say those words even if she can’t hear them, even if she’ll never know them

I tell o … to put us both out of our misery

I telltoto wear someone else’s last name and have another man’s babies