“What does that have to do with anything?”
He looks up, his expression almost bored—like the question and my answer mean little to him. He motions to the paper. “You’re what, seventeen?” I nod. “Just figure it’s a relevant question for the biography of a teenage girl.”
“No. I don’t have a boyfriend,” I say after some moments. I wait but he doesn’t ask any more than that. I don’t have to say anything else, but I hear myself confessing, “We broke up. The night you picked me up. That’s why I left. I got mad and stormed off.”
He considers me. His eyes deep, absorbing. There’s no judgment there.
“He couldn’t handle it. None of my friends can.”
He looks down at the tip of his pencil. He starts to pick at the thin splinters surrounding the lead.
“So he let you walk off? After curfew?”
“I didn’t give him a choice.”
“He had a choice.”
“No. Really. We had a fight and then I refused to get in the car.” I wince, unable to confess the slap. Even to him. I regret that slap. Regret losing control.
“I would have convinced you.”
I release a short, breathy laugh, and look away, my face hot at the idea of what this boy would have done if he were my boyfriend. An unlikely scenario. I shift uncomfortably in my chair.
“Think I have enough.” He stands abruptly and moves back to his desk. I blink and look straight ahead. For a minute there, things had felt . . . friendly. Like he wasn’t a carrier. Like he hadn’t warned me to keep my guard up around him and everyone else in my life.
Like I wasn’t so alone.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
HarperCollins Publishers ..................................................................
* * *
Tori
R U coming???
Zac
Don’t do this Tori
Fine. Will go w/o u. Carlton agreed 2 come. Others 2. There were plenty witnesses Zac She used 2 be ur friend Tori
She slapped u. She’s dangerous. It’s the right thing 2 do. Meet us at Agency Zac
I provoked her Tori
Listen 2 urself. U still luv her Zac
. . .
Tori
U don’t even deny it.
Zac
What time r u meeting there?