- Stay Aw

RA

eled further than I had in

and eyes cut sideways, the particular quality of attention that came from being talked about r

ppened with Kaiden? I heard her father betrayed

tected in my chest. I'd spent two years learning how to make myself smaller in rooms that did

ting toward me and away again in that deliberate, performative way that made sure I knew I was being discussed. I scanned the

before someone dropped int

essing features. Unlike Kaiden's cold stillness, this boy's presence felt calmer, quieter, like he'd already worked out exactly how the room

I said carefully. "N

plan." His mouth curved, though

at suppose

d why, that same electric shift from this morning's classroom rippling outward as Kaiden crossed

. Then hardened when they lan

ss from me muttered, soundi

d beneath it, which, for all I knew, he might have.

leaning back in his chair with an

n't c

cessary. "I can leave, if this is

regretted speaking immediately. "You

naturally he'd said it, like the room already agreed with him before he'd finished the sentence.

on slipped out before I could stop it, sha

a went compl

ifting behind his eyes that felt darker than simple

t," he sa

er I'd endured all day suddenly unbearable, all of it converging into a single moment I desperately

tered, and walked away as

wed immediately. O

****

silence there felt colder than the cafeteria's noise, but at least it was mine. I leaned against the wall and pressed my palms flat a

e at hiding whe

ce, arms crossed, like he had every right to be there and

now?" My voice came

o make some

lief than humor. "You've already ma

s face before disappearing just as fast.

aught me off guard. "You're the

making me n

*want* your

g...sharp jaw, restrained aggression coiled just beneath the surface of every movement. But that wasn't the strangest part. The stra

ent, something shifted in his expression,

iet and clearly irritated with

ed. "Ex

nough that I felt it everywhere, and the air between us thickened into something I didn't

id again, colder this time, and

xamine too closely, furious at him and furious at myself in equal measure for the fact that I stil

**

bruise, and my legs ached from the walk between the bus stop and our apar

r her knees, the television on low. She looked up and smiled the way she always did, like my wa

day?" s

ing in the familiar smell of her - lavender lotion and the faint hospit

d say tha

hat had followed me down every hallway, or the way an entire cafeteria had gone silent bec

yway, like she already knew ther

etter," she

badly to b