Page 14 of The Mist of Stars

Before he can say anything, though, I ask, “What’s up, dude?”

He stares at me momentarily. “I was just going to say that I can drive us to your house. I mean, Aislin drove you to school today, right?”

I nod. “I can walk. It’s only a handful of miles to my house.”

He shakes his head again, the muscles in his jaw ticking this time. “Do you seriously hate me that much that you’d rather walk miles home than be in the car with me for a few minutes?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?” As soon as I say it, his expression drops, and this pit of remorse forms in my chest.Well, that’s new.“Fine, I can ride with you.” I hope, anyway. The reality is that part of me wonders if this is some sort of setup, if he’s playing me. All I can do is cross my fingers that he isn’t.

And if he is, I guess I’ll stab my eyes out with my crossed fingers so I won’t ever have to look at him again.

Alexand I are quiet for the first few minutes of the drive. I expect it to stay that way and am completely content with that. But then Alex goes and ruins it.

“So, are you excited to graduate this year?” he asks as he shifts gears.

I rotate in the seat to face him. “Sure?”

He casts me a sidelong glance. “Why did that sound more like a question and not an answer?”

I eye him over. “Because small talk with you seems weird.”

He taps his finger on top of the steering wheel as he contemplates something. “You know what? We should discuss what you said to me in class.”

“What? When I told you why I don’t like you?”

“Yeah.” He gives a short pause. “You said that I should rewind over everything I’ve ever said to you, which indicates that I’ve said something mean enough that it caused you to hate me for years.”

“And you haven’t figured it out yet?”

“No, because I’ve never said anything mean about you. Sure, I’ve teased you a handful of times, but it wasn’t ever meant to be mean. And you teased me, too, so I thought it was what we did.”

“It wasn’t teasing,” I stress, resting my arms on the console. “It was meant to be mean. Like, really mean.” And it broke my confidence more than I want to admit.

He downshifts as we near the entrance to my neighborhood. “I swear I’ve never said anything like that. If you thought I did, you misheard me.”

Anger prickles through the humming that’s been consuming my body since we climbed into the SUV.

“Why are you lying?”

“I’m not.” He parks at the curb in front of my house. “IknowI haven’t said anything like that.”

Gritting my teeth, I shake my head. “Maybe telling me that my eyes are ugly isn’t mean to you, but I was already self-conscious about the color before you decided to point out how freaky it was.” I shove the door open and move to hop out.

He captures a hold of my arm and stops me. “I promise you I’ve never said that.” The shock in his voice leaves me all sorts of confused.

I glare at him. “Stop lying.”

“I’m not,” he insists, his eyes pleading with me to believe him. “I’ve never,everthought that or said it.”

“Well, then I guess it was someone who looked exactly like you.” My voice oozes with sarcasm, but it hastily dissolves when I remember that I just saw another him.

Alex’s expression resembles mine.

“No. There’s no way I saw a vision and didn’t know it.” I’m shaking my head with confidence, but on the inside, I keep thinking about what happened.

Plus, there’s that whole thing with the dreams of stars …

Every time I have that dream, he’s there, and it’s like we’re living a different life. Just like we were in that vision. And I know Alex has had dreams of them, too.

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