He was the kind of man you didn’t notice at first…but then found yourself staring. There was something…something she’d never been able to put her finger on…that inspired a double, triple, quadruple look. He was forever lurking in corners with a cigarette, and seemed to draw her eyes anyway. She didn’t know if she liked him, wasn’t sure if she trusted him, and definitely was afraid – a little bit – of his eyes.

So anyway. If I let Corey take me out again, he’s got this buddy – Kyle maybe? Dunno – anyway, he’s single. Maybe you could come along and we could go doubles.”Lisa thought being involved in a shop class accident sounded more fun, but she managed a somewhat pleasant expression, or so she hoped. “Isn’t Kyle the one who spent a week in ICU after he tried to jump over a UPS truck with his bike?”“I think so. Why?”Lisa sighed. “If I have to explain it…

I was afraid,” she said, “and I wanted to hear your voice.

You can’t love anything properly from a distance.

They’d dueled in the lamplight of her kitchen that night, savaging each other with accusations that could never be recalled. Now, he couldn’t remember half of what they’d said, only the colors and lights and seething tide of fear all around them. He could still taste the acrid burn of unfairness.

She'd put her teeth in his heart, long ago, and he'd left the print there, evidence that he wanted her love. That he returned it.

He felt her heartbeat against his shoulder, through his jacket, light as raindrops.