Page 33 of Rewind It Back

“That’s never going to happen, Hallie. I’m not good.”

“You don’t know that. You’ll be in high school next year and your coaches will be even better. You’ll get better too. And I like going to your games to watch you, even if you don’t get to play.”

He stays quiet and that feels like I said too much, so I fidget with my hands to keep the silence from turning too uncomfortable.

Rio looks at my lap out of the corner of his eye.

“What’s that?” he asks, nodding towards the pocket of his sweatshirt I’m wearing where there’s an obvious rectangular outline.

“Oh, it’s um...” I pull it out. “A mixtape.”

He eyes the label. “Thirteen? Thirteen songs?”

“Thirteen, like how old I am.”

“And what’s that?” he asks, his forefinger running over the H and the heart.

“Me. Hallie Hart. H and a heart.”

The heart has a little extra tail that I accidentally drew, not stopping it where the two ends were supposed to connect.

Rio covers it with his finger to hide the imperfection. “That’s cool. H heart. Hallie Hart.”

My cheeks hurt from holding back my smile.

“What songs?” he asks.

“All my songs from this year. My important-moment songs.”

“You put them all together? On one tape?”

“Yeah. This is my third year doing it, so I have three of them now.”

He nods approvingly. “That’s so cool, Hal.”

Eyes on my lap, I turn a little shy. “Thanks.”

“Can I listen to it?”

That grabs my attention. “You want to listen to it?”

“Yeah, and I want you to tell me what happened to make them important songs to you.”

Oh.

“Well... I... I don’t know. Some of the songs aren’t good songs. They’re just songs I was listening to when something important happened, you know? You probably won’t like the music.”

“I still want to listen to it.”

“I... but...”

“Please?” he asks gently.

It washes away any nerves I have.

“Okay.” I hold it out to him. “You can have this one to listen to. I can make another.”

His green eyes sparkle. “Really?”

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