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More silence. I clench my fists. I really need to leave before Ihear something I can’t unhear. They’re not doing anything wrong.I’mthe piece that doesn’t belong.

“That used to be normal,” Luke says.

“I know.”

“Casey told you.”

I cringe at the accusation in his tone.

“Casey loves you and is probably the best friend you have.” Her voice is firm and almost threatening. “No. You need to listen to me, Luke. Last night it wasCaseywho took care of you, not me. It was Casey who wiped the puke off your face and nursed you back to health.”

She stops. “You need to let him back into your life.”

A sharp breath expels from my lungs. I scrub at my face as every part of me wants to run from his response, but I can’t move. I have to know. After all this time, I need the honest truth.

Does he want me in his life?

“I can’t,” he says.

My heart cracks open.

Years of memories burn behind my eyes, peeling away any lingering scraps of hope.

He doesn’t want you.

You’re not enough. You failed him. Like you failed Elena. Like you failed the rest of the band, your siblings, and probably Callie too.

I slump against the wall, crushed beneath an unbearable weight.

“You have to,” Callie says.

“You don’t understand.”

“Okay, then explain it to me,” she challenges. “We’re past the ‘no personal stuff’… He’s a good person, Luke,” she says when he doesn’t respond. “And after what I saw last night, I’d venture to say, better than both of us.”

I lift my head in surprise. Does she really believe that?

“What?” Callie persists when Lukestilldoesn’t respond. “Idon’t know if maybe you’ve had a falling out in the past, but he wants to make it right again. He wants to be a part of your life.”

“He can’t be part of my life,” Luke spits finally. “I’m not doing that to him again.”

Luke bursts into the hall before I can react.

Time stops when his startled gaze locks on me. A flurry of emotions streams across his face, but I can’t read them. Without a word, he takes off toward his room.

I can’t move, stuck between wanting to go after him and run like hell.

All I know for sure is that I can’t let Callie find me spying as well. I fight to remove all evidence of my fractured heart from my face as I rush back to the kitchen.

I pick up my phone as a cover, but don’t even unlock it. My brain is in a tailspin.

She can’t see me like this. She can’t know I’m breaking apart inside. I’ll have plenty of time to shatter after she leaves, because there’s no way she’s sticking around with what I just heard. I never should have trusted Luke to handle that delicate situation, and the fact that it fell apart overmestings that much more.

As usual, I’m going to pay the price for his choices. And based on the way my heart leaps and aches when Callie comes into view, the cost might be more than I bargained for.

Her devastated expression says it all. I’m about to lose the only remaining things I care about…

Again.