The Girl He didn't choose

d about Victor wasn't hi

ng breakable things without letting them know they might shatter. The kind of hands that co

new rules. Junior year. The halls at Riverview High were loud with somebody's Bluetooth speake

ld be the one to "help." (Apparently if you barely take up space, adults think you have infinite

e hand under the box, the other steadying my elbow. Nothing dramat

d, voice low and

warm with a ring of honey near the pupil, and my brain did that thing

n't want to scare me with his teeth.

(I startle like a fe

tal rhythm two strangers sometimes find. He kept his hands on the box until we reache

lean, the straps still stiff, not yet

month. My mom thinks a fresh start is a cure-all.

curing," I said, surprising

ing that sentence somewhere careful,

and command, and I was the volunteer again, and he was the new k

he said

e something soft, not like a plant that strangles

d, and the box

but when he did, it was to say something that changed the oxygen in the room. (The ki

Matchmaker of Unwilling Teens. Vivienne slid me a look across the room, eyebrows raised. Cute, her face sa

the book we needed. He'd already flagged a passage. He'd

ework for fu

nks no one's listening. "I read," he said simply. "It's li

ike a warm coat. "Everyone

over, he rested his eyes on me the way you rest you

e my face did what it al

. He likes old movies where the lighting is shadows and secrets. His mom works ni

like a firewor

book instead of me.

ire body has memorized. Victor stacked our papers in a neat square, again with those careful

hallway and ran st

onytail that made its own rules. She looked at him first, and of course, clocked th

Vivienne doesn't

I hated that my voice felt l

iming. He took it, and the entire fluores

end since birth, practically. If you're n

y choke

lashed a smile at Victor that could p

something in the way he said try that I liked. Honest.

rying. "See you Monday!" And then she zipped away, lea

Not long. Long enough that it lodg

I said, trying t

r you," he said so

nd we both laughed, and th

cause I'm always awake at a time that feels like a s

u mentioned in class, you know the one about bri

cean Vuong. I'll

Also I am sorry

jectively. Bu

ool. good

He spelled my na

pillow and pretended I didn't h