It was never effortless to love Aaron Warner. He was a difficult teenage boy who seemed to forget a lot of the time that that was what he was-a teenage boy. He'd always felt that loving or even caring for him would be impossible for all the world to...
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THE NEXT MORNING is purely chaos that Warner left in his wake by leaving. I knew he was going to but the fact that he wasn't right next to me when I woke up worsened my mood ten times more than I would've thought. That thought terrifies me. All of what we did terrifies me.
I know now, especially because I got some sleep and managed to think about it more, that what we did was wrong. Like, the sin of all sins. I feel the guilt poke at my every nerve every time I think about it and Isaac's odd stares don't help. It's like he knows what happened when pretty much all I did was look very flushed and messy when I came to the med bay.
But you wanna know who's especially suspicious this morning? Isaac and Juliette. Those idiots can't even look at each other. Well, actually, he can look at her but Juliette blushes every time their eyes meet. It's really weird, like something happened between them after we went back to our rooms and I fell asleep after, like, five minutes. But trust that I will find out out what's going on.
Yet this morning—this is when it gets real. Just about everyone has filed out of the dining hall. People are saying last-minute good-byes to the old and the young ones they're leaving behind. James and Adam had a lengthy good-bye just this morning. Adam, Isaac, Juliette and I have to head out in about ten minutes.
"Well damn. Who died?"
I spin around at the sound of his voice. "Oh, my God!"
Kenji is here. Standing and breathing. He still looks a little paler and kind of more dead than usual but he's here and he's alive. That's all that matters.
"Holy crap." Adam is gaping. "Holy shit."
"Good to see you too, Kent." Kenji grins a crooked grin. He nods at me. "You ready to kick some ass today?"
Isaac passes us quickly and jumps into Kenji's arms, hugging him so tightly as Kenji slaps his back affectionately. I've never seen a hug between them so intense. They mumble a few words and keep hugging.
Once Isaac pulls away, I finally tackle Kenji. Laugh until I can't anymore. "You really freaked me out."
Kenji hugs me back, squeezing a little tighter than me. "Hey, Mar."
"I'm so sorry," I quickly say. "I never meant to hurt you."
"Uh, you're good," He backs away a little. "Can't blame a guy for being a little cautious, right?"
I feel every nerve inside me cracking into a thousand pieces. "No, it's fine."
"But it wasn't her fault," Juliette quickly goes to say, "You know that, right?"
"I do," Kenji says. "I don't know what the hell it was but I know you never meant to. . .to start a fire inside me."
I cringe, shame beating against my heart for the first time. "I'm so sorry, Kenji. I'm so—"
