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From the life you had? It was wrong and it’s still wrong and if

they don’t know that you’re here, then maybe it’s you who

thinks something is wrong. Maybe there’s a reason that you

didn’t tell them. One you haven’t told me yet.”

“What I just told you. That’s the reason. I was totally

overwhelmed. I didn’t know how to talk about it.”

“Right. So you lied about it instead. That’s so much

better.” A few strands of Quinn’s long hair flew into her eyes,

she shook her head so hard. She tried to blow the hair away,

but when it didn’t budge, she scraped her fingers across her

eyes and flung it aside. “This is not going to work. It’s not. I

don’t think we really ever thought it was because that would

be insane and we’re adults now and we should know better.

We should be more cautious and jaded about these things. I

wasn’t cautious, and I’m sure as heck getting to be freaking

jaded.” Quinn sighed furiously. “We’re going to go inside.

You’re going to say that you have to go and you’re going to

make it sound like you really do and then that’s it. It’s

Danica’s night. I don’t want to ruin it for her.”

“Quinn-”

“For real, Dallas. Can you just do that for me? There isn’t

anything else to figure out. You live in Tampa. I live here. You

keep telling me you have a life there, and I have one here. That

isn’t ever going to add up to being this happy, nice life where

everything works out. We’ll just end it here, as sort of friends.”

Dallas had no intention of doing that, but she could see

that Quinn was upset and when Quinn got upset, she tended to

get very upset and cool down later. Quinn was super soft-

hearted, and that left her vulnerable to being wounded and

when it happened, she got angry. With herself mostly. Dallas