Page 43 (1/2)

Oh, yes, who better? I could think of a few

I trainedmy mortification to sink into my bones With any luck, I could just disappear—poof!—into thin air

Carson nudged me in the arly handsome boyfriend?”

I chuckled, his joke allowing lance back at him and rollto beat out of my chest

“How to describe Mia Randalls…” Carson’s voice trailed off, and I squeezed e to twist around in his arms and cover his mouth with my hands I wanted to stop him Because suddenly this didn’t seem like a joke anymore It was personal, and I wasn’t sure I could bear to hear what he had to say—to see h his eyes

“She’s smart, but it’s not just that she’s smart She works harder than anyone I know, yet she’s too hard on herself Everyone likes Mia Froroup of kids in our class has nothing but the best to say about her because she never judges She’s not petty like other people She doesn’t gossip, but instead, she gives people the benefit of the doubt I’ve seen her put others first, one too many times because she hates confrontation Unless it’s with me, of course, and then she’s brutal”

Carson’s voice grew soft as he turned me around in his arms to face him “But she puts too much pressure on herself to be perfect And I hate that It eats away at me when I see it”

My heart pounded like a druht burst All I could do was stare up at hi as I blinked away my shock

He reached up to h my locks, and for a moment, I wondered if he reer—standing only feet away froh the length of my locks as he said, “Her hairit ree, and fiery pink, and pale yellow at the saood friend—loyal to the core and trustworthy, the kind ill be on your side through anything And her laughShe has this laugh The one where she doesn’t think soh doesn’t reach her eyes But her real laugh, now that’s soets into it It’s uncontrollable It sounds like wind chimes, and she crinkles her nose and eyes”

Reaching up, he touched the bridge of asp “And every tih like that because it’s ih”

Breathing beca down at ht line as his eyes searched —but the words were stuck in s he said about me, they didn’t sound like observations of a boy who loathed me Quite the contrary

“Well,” the saleswo extraordinary Hold on a moment” She breezed past me, toward shelves at the back But I barely noticed I hardly noticed anything except the boy in front of me

And every tih like that… His words were a sucker punch They formed a lump in my throat and left me disoriented I wasn’t entirely sure what just happened, but I could feel the floor shift underneath us Soed

But before I could say anything, the wo out a small crystal-shaped bottle with an amber liquid inside I watched dumbly as she took my arm and spritzed some on the insides of aze tracked herhis prey

“Try this,” sheCarson room