“It was,” he agreed. I felt it again, the cold stab of hatred because I liked him and he was abandoning me, he was turning his back on me just like when I’d started to tell the Skinstealer story.
“It’s fine,” I said again.
“Cool. Thanks man. I know it sucks, but I bet if we don’t walk home together, if we just kinda back off—“
“It’s fine.”
“—they’ll back off too and maybe we can hang out again.” He was settling back into his sleeping bag. He was going to sleep. He was going to sleep while I was breaking in two.
“Maybe,” I echoed, and I pretended like I was going to sleep too, I rolled over in my sleeping bag and turned my back to him and Kevin said something else but I didn’t hear him because my heartbeat was pounding thick in my ears and I’d already decided what I was going to do next.
