Chapter 12
It was senior year, and graduation was close.
Noah and I had grown closer over time.
I had promised him that if I wasn’t tired of him by graduation day, then I would be with him.
So, if you counted it all up, he had been pursuing me for three full
years.
On the day of the graduation ceremony, I saw Adrian. I hadn’t seen him in almost two years.
He was standing not far away, holding a bouquet of flowers.
But I had no intention of going over, so I pretended not to see him.
He just stood there under the sun, motionless.
“Tess, he looks kind of pitiful. You’re really not going over there?”
I waved a hand. “That depends on whether my boyfriend allows it.”
Zoe gasped. “You two are together? Wow. Unbelievable. We said we’d stay single together, and you went and got yourself a boyfriend.”
So I walked over to Adrian with Noah beside me.
“You two…”
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“We’re together. So whatever you came to say, don’t let me see you again. Unless you’re dying. If that happens, contact me, and I’ll personally bring a gift to celebrate.”
My hand was clasped tightly in Noah’s.
“I… I really am dying now. Could you talk to me for a little while?”
He lifted his shirt. A terrible scar ran across his waist.
“If you want to settle accounts, you should go find Chloe. Why come to me? That looks awful. Cover it up.”
I turned my face away.
A flash of hurt crossed his eyes. “I understand. I’m sorry. Will you at least take these flowers? I picked them out carefully. They’re your favorite.”
In a clumsy panic, he pulled his shirt back down and held the bouquet
out to me.
I took it and tossed it into a nearby trash can. “I took them. Are we done now?”
He lowered his head. For a moment, he looked a little like the old me -the me who had once been insecure down to the bone.
“N–no… that’s all, Tessa. I hope you can be happy in this life.”
I lifted Noah’s hand and gave it a little wave. “I will.”
Noah hadn’t said a word the entire time, as if he somehow understood
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the history between us.
Only after we had walked some distance away did he finally speak. “He looked devastated. Like he…”
“Doesn’t want to live,” I finished for him. “He looked like he didn’t want to live.”
“But what am I supposed to do? I can’t comfort him. I can’t help him through it. He owes me a life.”
Noah reached out and brushed a hand across my cheek, and that was when I realized I was crying.
But I wasn’t crying because of Adrian. I was crying because, after all these years, the memories I had buried were rising back to the surface again.
“It’s okay. As long as you’re happy, that’s enough for me. I don’t care about anyone else.”
I looked up at him; his doe–like eyes were full of tenderness.
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