contemporary

I plastered on my best poker face, attempting to appear cool and casual even thought I had never been so eager to deliver two Chicken Parmagianas in my life."Just be careful, hon," Rosanna said."Oh, are the plates hot?" I flinched back just before my hands made contact.Rosanna laughed. "No, but hot boys can burn just as easily.

His name feels like a secret, and now he's wearing it on his wrist. I want to know all about this girl who put it there. What she looks like. If she's got freckles, fair hair or dark, like his. If she's scrappy or etheral, funny or serious, scrape-kneed or ladylike. I know that she loves him, so I want to know everything else. But West doesn't want to share her with me. I shouldn't keep trying to scale these walls he puts up. I'm a terrible climber.

I broke up with her to avoid getting into a serious relationship with her, and now it

Around eighth grade Margot started getting really sensitive about her weight, even though she wasn__ remotely fat__ust a little round-faced. So Margot did what any normal fourteen-year-old girl would do. She started puking on purpose, every day after fifth period. Of course now, she does more than puke. But we don__ talk about that. Because real friends don__ judge each other for what they do to survive in hell.

The accusation raises my hackles. __hy? Because I__ a player?_ Indignation makesmy tone harsher than I intend for it to be. __ave you ever thought that maybe it__because I haven__ met the right girl yet? But no, I couldn__ possibly want someone tocuddle with andwatch movies with, someone who wears my jersey and cheers for meat games, and cooks dinner with me the way you and Garrett_

Moments like these are fleeting, and we have to grab onto them while we can. From the instant I saw you, I wanted to give you my heart. But today I__l settle for giving you a flower.

It wasn__ fair. It wasn__ fair that I__ stumbled across the kind of man I used to find irresistible, or that he__ managed to stare right inside my head to locate my weaknesses. The thrill of being wanted while pretending not to be interested was a game I__ played over and over during my youth. I__ thrived on it. I__ done more than my share of getting mixed up with men who were all ego and muscles, and Radleigh McCoy reminded me exactly why I__ given them up. Danger, the chase. It was never worth the pain in the end.Unfortunately, my body hadn__ got the memo yet.

I shrugged uncomfortably, leaning my head against hers, almost forgetting Mr. Gardner__ presence as Mo and I fell into that sort of exclusionary, near-telepathic best-friends communion. She knew that I would argue that I wasn__ ashamed, but that I hadn__ quite figured out how to truly mean it when I held my head up high. My entire life, people had been telling me to keep it down and stop being an embarrassment. So, I was still in that __ake it __il you make it_ stage, hoping genuine pride would come if I pretended confidence long enough. For now, I was relying on bravado and a complete lack of give-a-fuck to carry me through.

See, the thing is, I had a little misunderstanding with Trent Gibson in Pre-Calculus earlier. I dropped my textbook on his face__ccidentally, while we were discussing some_equations__nd he thought I was trying to brain him. So of course, he narked to Shoemaker, and apparently accidents are grounds for disciplinary action these days.

someone like Grace. Someone exactly like Grace, with her Ted Bundy rantsand her calming presence and__ello, irony.

With the music of our singing in the background, I looked at the church candles and thought about the surreal connection between images and memory. The peaceful and joyous candles flickering there during the Christmas ceremony projected warmth, comfort, and familiarity _ even though thy emitted the same kind of fiery energy as the flames caused by the war.

Maybe he would see me as weak and stupid. Maybe he was right.

His eyes are a hazy swirl ofgray, like a thick mass of clouds gathering before an impending storm

Don't think about that. Just believe I'll be okay.

Ew. Can you not talk about my dad ogling people? Scarlett Johansson may be gorgeous, but still.___t__l be a challenge, but I think I can refrain from licking the screen,_ Brendan deadpanned, placing the wine bottle on the coffee table next to the bowl of popcorn before settling into the chair where he__ been working on his computer ea

If he would see me again, I would die happy. In the meantime, I was merely dying.

I never felt in love with anyone. Though right now with Luna, I__ pretty sure this is what it feels like to be in love with a person.

You__e like a newly discovered universe, and I plan on taking my time exploring everything about you.