Page 23 of Steps

I counter, “Well, maybe that’s the problem. You’realways alone.”

His shoulders sag. He turns and stares out thewindshield at the star-speckled night sky. The car’s still running.

“Drive,” I tell him, buckling my seatbelt.

“Where?” he grumbles.

A smile sneaks onto my lips as a memory from mychildhood comes to mind. “I know somewhere you can clear your head.”

“Seriously?” Varen ridicules, arching a thickbrow. Looks like my idea to hang out near the airport runway might not be socool to him. “What stupid romance novel did you read this in?”

I pout. “Actually, my grandmother brought me herewhen I was a kid. We stood at the fence and screamed at the top of our lungswhenever a plane takes off or lands.”

He relaxes. “Oh. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” I stare out the windshield at theflashing red lights in the distance. There’s a plane preparing to take flight.“Thought maybe you…”

Varen shuts off the car. We sit in silence,waiting.

I flick my nails. “So, you ended up getting morepills, huh?”

“What’s up with you and your mom?” he asksinstead.

My head snaps around to him. “What do you mean?”

“You’re hella cautious around her.” He pauses.“It’s like you go out of your way to please her.”

Wow. He can see right through me.

I scoff awkwardly. “How could you possibly make suchan assumption? We’ve known each other for four days.”

“Guess I know when someone’s hiding,” he whispers.

His words hit me in a strange way. I can barelysee the blues of his eyes in the shadowy car, but his intense gaze stillmanages to make me nervous.

Damn it. This is what I’m trying to avoid. Why thehell did I turn into an idiot, get in his car, and come out here with him?

If I give it too much attention to this crush,it’ll only grow and complicate things.

The plane begins to move along the airstrip,picking up speed. Varen opens the door. He gets out and hurries down to thefence.

The airplane’s coming this way now, increasingmore and more as it speeds down the runway.

I step out of the car into the fresh grass andslowly move to his side. We watch as the plane takes flight. Deafening soundslike thunder rumbles above us as it soars into the night sky. In the midst, Ihear Varen’s painful shouts.

My heart races as I watch him, feeling the urge tothrow my arms around him.

When it’s quiet again, he takes a deep breath andrakes a hand through his hair. “That felt good actually.”

“Told you,” I whisper and bump his arm.

We turn to tread back to the car. “Ouch,” I wincefrom stepping on a rough stone in the grass.

“Why the hell did you run out without shoes?” hescolds me.

I shrug, feeling silly. “I was trying to catchyou.”

“Pfft. Unbelievable.”

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