here knowing they were right next door. Not even if I blasted the speakers on both my computer
and my CD player. I quickly texted Sabine.
* * *
Need 2 get out.Walk?
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* * *
The few moments it took her to text me back felt like an eternity. Meet u in quad.
* * *
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I whispered, grabbing my coat.
Sabine was definitely going to win the Best Friend of the Year Award. I turned off iTunes, only to
hear a peel of Ivy's laughter that sent my pulse racing. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I
fumbled with the doorknob, trying to pull my coat on at the same time, and tripped into the hall.
My door wasn't even closed behind me when I heard another door click shut. I looked up right into
the stunning--and stunned--blue eyes of Josh Hollis.
He froze. I froze. He clutched his gray wool jacket in both hands. I stood there half in, half out of
my own coat. I guess Ivy had refused to stop doing whatever she was doing to distract him--make
me heave--but I couldn't even think about that right then. All I could think about was how he was
mere inches from me and how much I wanted to just hug him and how I couldn't.
How I'd never be able to do that again.
I was about to say something--anything to break the awkwardness--but before I could, Josh tipped
his head toward my room, silently urging me to let him inside. My heart leapt like a high jumper
on speed. He wanted to talk to me. Alone.
I held the door open, my hand trembling, and he slipped past me. The clean, familiar scent of him
filled my nostrils and almost made me faint. I closed the door behind us and he turned to me.
"Reed, I"
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I held a finger to my lips. His brow knit, but he shut up. I went over to my computer and cranked
up the volume on the Fall Out Boy song my iTunes had last landed on. Then I glimpsed the blue
Holiday Dinner card with his name on it and quickly flipped it over before I faced him again.
"I can hear everything Ivy says when there's no music on," I told him quietly--just loud enough to