r Warn

's

ay for it, f

free from the loops. I curled into myself and took it, counting the seconds the way I always did, the way

ver he left w

t came back down to something manageable. The welts across my back and legs burned. I didn't cry.

the darkness outside the win

I g

..

ggiest pair of sweatpants I owned coverage, always coverage, and pulled my hair into a knot w

downs

are. No lunch money. No bus fare. I went upstairs and opened the drawer where I kept the small a

as e

mething cold move through me. He had gone through my room. He had fo

ay you close things when you don't t

k. Not like I had

he last of Sandra's cookies standing at the counter, they were stal

..

olded against the morning chill, eyes on the pav

n't l

my

ice. I l

ia leaning across the passenger seat with a small frown on her fac

urse

doing walkin

exercise,

he morning and i

fin

et in t

I had to go, and weighed it against the look on Lia's face. Sh

ot

ogne Leo's, that was his scent. I buckled m

msy," Leo said from the front

d not

lare today? You mu

es pass outside the wind

, her voice car

ust sa

e doing, and I'm a

eo exhaled through his no

her studying my face the way she had started to do quietly, lik

t breakfast

The cookies tec

idn't entirely believ

park I had the door open before he had fully stopped, murmuring a thanks tha

..

the morning

ke I was paying attention, which was different from actually paying attention. Every time I shifted in my c

good a

Mia said, appearing at my shoulder between second

t tired,

tep on my other side. She and Mia exchanged a l

t useless sentence in the English lan

ey knew when to pull back, which somehow made it harder to keep

..

, for the fourth time, that I

om breakfast because there had been nothi

d steering me toward the cafeteria. "You

hungry,

," Lia said from behind u

ia

simply, in the tone that meant

cause fighting it would hav

and let them order, keeping

ving?" Lia asked

I'm not

my

t frustrated, just very calm and very

said quietly, looking somewhere past her

turned back to the counter.

u don't

ng up her tray. "I want to. There's a difference

le, sat down, and stared

ithout looking up

at

ad all day and it took everything I

..

al bell went

bus, do the same thing we had done yesterday. And I couldn't. I couldn't sit in that car with Leo or stand at that bus stop making small talk, and I

, and ducked into the narrow alcove behind the languages block where the old vending machine had been taken out and never

against the wall away from t

oise of the school empty

ting hid

I knocked my elbo

n expression that was more curious than amused. He had a jacket on now dark green, collar turned up,

hiding,

guages block," he said. "Alone. After the be

oked

g for you," he sai

kno

s wor

sn't nee

h through it the way Mia might. He just stood there, easy and unhurried, like he had

d eventually. It wa

ine,"

e was filing that away a

just..." He paused, chose his words carefully. "You've looked like some

f my throa

in his face except what he had said. No agenda, no angle. J

said again, qu

second longer, then p

Like he was actually going to let me h

ds in his jacket pockets, disappearing a

another few minutes, long a

re of y

ast time someone had said

oul

ped out of the alcove, and sta