Cinder had gone to wash her hands, saying she didn’t like how sticky they’d gotten. I watched her, aware it was an excuse. She’d been trying to get away since the candy store. The entire time she’d trailed behind us.

Kade kept glancing in the direction she’d wandered off. I kept my gaze forward, disinterest crumbling as time went on. The girl in question was not one who’d I pay attention to usually. My eyes slid to Kade. A crack in my exterior.

He raised his eyebrows, “What is it?”

“…She’s too good for you.” I was surprised at the hardness in my voice. It sounded like a piece from a play. A line I’d plucked from my head. Kade blinked once, the softness he tended to wear also crumbling.

“You haven’t forgiven me.”

“No.”

Stolen story; please report.

The air was chilly. The noise from the people around us distant. Kade set down his cup, eyes sliding away. There was a firmness to his jaw I hadn’t seen in years, “I won’t hurt her. Or you.”

“It’s easy to say.” I watched Kade. Looked at his veins as though they’d start to turn sick. He only stayed still, thoughts likely whirling. There were no goosebumps on his arms. He didn’t feel the chill like I did.

He watched nothing. “What would it take?”

“Time.” It was objectively the correct answer. If time went on, I’d forget how’d I’d felt back then. It didn’t ring right. I don’t think Kade noticed. He accepted it at face value. He wasn’t ever good at noticing things around him.

“…Why did you agree to help her, anyway?”

I didn’t think it was so unlike me to help, “Why did you start talking to her?”

“We…kept running into each other. She helped me, before.” He traced his hand. I noted it was one that had been hurt prior. Multiple times. I never knew why he was so prone to wounds there, until summer hit. “I guess I just…stuck around.”

“Is that so.”

“I won’t hurt her.”

“You don’t have to repeat it.”

“I do.” He swallowed hard. “I really do.”

I already knew why. Cinder would, too, soon enough.