Ducking my head, I gave a slight nod. I couldn’t try to talk about my feelings for a person who obviously had a crush on someone else.
Don’t be so embarrassed. It’s not as if we were naked. And it’s bound to happen in the future.
I wish I was as true an artist as you so that I could find a way to tell you what you’ve become to me. America, my love, you are sunlight falling through trees. You are laughter that breaks through sadness. You are the breeze on a too-warm day. You are clarity in the midst of confusion.
At home I sometimes ran for fun, to play with Gerad or just to feel the ache of exertion.
It’s the most wonderful and terrible thing that can ever happen to you,” she said simply.
I looked down at my bedspread, tracing the seams with my finger.
I’m looking at the others, and I’m being fair. It makes me nervous to feel some of the things I do. But I want you to know, I’m still looking at you, too. I think you know by now I can’t help it.” He shrugged, seeming so boyish at that moment.
They were so lost in each other; they didn’t notice me walk away, heading off to find the one person I really wanted to see.
For now, I would enjoy this tiny bubble of peace and rest securely in the arms of the man I loved.
His stare, combined with his voice being so low, was doing funny things to my heartbeat.
I need to polish you up a bit, but your aversion to all things fake might just be your greatest asset here.
Shhh, don’t say a word. If anyone hears, there’ll be hell to pay. Just let me look at you.” And so I obeyed. I stayed there, quiet and still, while Aspen stared into my eyes.
Aspen had shifted to fill a desperate place in my life. Not my boyfriend, not my friend, but my family.
Miss Lucy was there, seeming back to her usual, cheerful self. I kept wishing I could do something to help her. I knew a puppy wasn’t a person, but so far my only idea was to get her a pet. Mom.
I walked away, angry with Maxon for making me feel this way... and angry with myself for making things so much worse.
In an instanta thousand secrets that Aspen and I had built and saved flooded my mind: the names we’d picked out for our imaginary children, our tree house, his ticklish spot on the back of his neck, the notes we’d writen and hidden away, my failed efforts in making homemade soap, games of tic-tac-toe played with our fingers on his stomach... games where we couldn’t remember our invisable moves... games he’d always let me win.
They already looked at us funny anyway.
I don’t think the lady should go. As if he’s won the argument, Maxon looked at me with a face that said, See!
It was terrifying to put myself out there like that, to make it absolutely clear how deep my affections ran.
Intrigued, Maxon propped himself up on one arm to listen. Tell me everything.