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"No -- "

Aspen leaped to her feet, tears escaping her eyes and running down her cheeks. She stood in front of him and put her small hands on his upper arms, looking up at him pleadingly. "Don't. Please don't do that. Please. It's not -- I don't agree with it, okay? I don't. I believe in you."
 
"Don't cry. Please don't" Riley said weakly. He could feel all his strength waning from him as he looked at the glistening tears on Aspen's cheeks. His knees were weak, his head heavy. "Aspen, I..." He wanted to crumble into a ball on the ground. He felt like a thousand bricks were suddenly hanging from his shoulders. Riley felt a fear well up inside his chest. He didn't understand what was happening to him. Never before had some emotion threatened to physically cripple him before.

"I...I can't. I want you. I'm afraid..." Riley staggered a step "I need...I'm sorry." He turned and left the school and into the woods.

Riley didn't make it very far. He was maybe a mile in and his legs gave out. He fell onto his knees and then onto his side. His entire body felt like it was weighed down.
 
Aspen drove to her mother's clinic after school. She had stopped crying but she knew Riley would be there. All she wanted to do was bring him a book.

He was sitting in the waiting room. She walked up to him, sat in the chair beside him and handed an aged copy of Coraline to him. "It's supposed to be a kids book, but it's the only book that's ever scared me and I thought you'd like it." She felt guilty even though she hadn't done anything. "I'm sorry."







-- sorry it's so late.
 
"Aspen..." he said softly, touching the book's cover. He looked down and away, hoping the pain in his face wasn't plain to see. Riley almost couldn't bear the look on her face. She looked like part of the light that shone quietly in her eyes had gone out.

Riley's head spun. He shut his eyes tight to block out the whispers in his head, growing louder. Riley's body shook once, but his hand, fingers just touching the book, wouldn't sit still. He gripped the book to steady his hand.

His fingers brushed against Aspen's and he pulled back his hand quickly. Riley's eyes met hers for just a second.
 
It hurt her to see him like this. Not just emotionally -- she could physically feet a dull, blurry ache in her chest whenever she looked at the tortured expression on his face. She choked back tears, not wanting to stress him out more with her own emotions.

"I'll go if you want me to," she said quietly.
 
Riley couldn't stay in the office anymore. He looked once more at Aspen, feeling like his heart was bleeding with each of beat. He choked out something of an apology for the doctor for missing, then left the office.

He wandered the town in the fading light for some unknown period of time, and when he couldn't walk anymore, he looked up. He stood in front of Aspen's old house.

Riley dropped to his knees and looked up at the house. He wanted to go inside, to find the piano they once played together, to touch the wall they had kissed against.

He walked to the front door but he felt alien on the large porch without Aspen's warmth near him. But not wanting to leave, he sat on the porch steps, his head falling into his hands.
 
Aspen looked terrible -- she wore sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt under a jacket, and her hair was scraped into a sloppy bun. She couldn't be bothered putting her contacts in, so she wore her glasses. She sat in her seat beside Riley's but he wasn't there yet. She glowered at the wall.

She missed him. She had seen him in the halls but they hadn't spoken to one another.
 
Riley came into class late for maybe the fifth time today. He sat in his usual seat in front of Aspen, ice in his veins. The class moved at a crawl toward the inevitable group reading assignment that the teacher was all too fond of. And inevitably, Aspen's name was called with his. He turned in his seat.
 
Aspen sighed and flicked to the page they were supposed to read from. "Phineas Gage, that guy in Vermont that had a pole launched through his skull," she said after reading the title. "I've already read it. I've read the whole textbook." She looked up at him, unable to handle it anymore. "Riley, what are we?"
 
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