Page 85 of Leaving the Station

“I’m glad we met, Oakley,” I whisper into her ear, not wanting to ruin the moment just yet.

She hugs me closer. “I am too.”

It’s how I imagine prom would’ve been; I went to a Science Olympiad competition instead.

“This is all going to be over so soon,” I say as the song finishes and we break apart.

“It’ll be okay,” Oakley says, looking down.

“So soon that you could’ve waited to force Nanami to tell Aya,” I mutter, not able to let this go.

“I didn’t force her to do anything,” Oakley says, and I shrug in response.

Because it kind of felt like she did.

Someone switches the music back to the Vengaboys,and the vibe in the car returns to intense celebration mode.

But I fell out of celebration mode a while ago, so I drag Oakley to the far end of the car, where there’s a booth for us to sit.

“Are you going to ask me again why I did what I did?” Oakley’s voice is colder than it’s ever been with me.

“Obviously, yes,” I say. “Don’t you see how shitty it is?”

“Seriously?” Oakley asks, incredulous. “You don’t think it’s crappy that Nanami was hiding this from Aya?”

I almost laugh at Oakley’s turn of phrase—I’ve never heard her curse, and right now, I wish she would.

“Of course I do,” I tell her. “But you only added to the shittiness.”

She closes her eyes, formulating a response. For once, I don’t want to hear what she has to say.

“Ihadto,” she tells me finally. “I needed her to know the truth.”

I don’t know how she can believe this, but then again, the amount of things I don’t understand about Oakley is innumerable.

“Okay then,” I say, “if the truth is everything to you, canItell you the truth?”

She nods.

“I like you, Oakley.”

She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I like you too.”

“No,” I insist, “Ireallylike you. I know it’s only been a few days but this trip has meant something to me.” I lower my voice. “Hasn’t it meant something to you?”

“Of course,” she whispers.

“Then why are you... ?” I’m not brave enough to finish that sentence, but Oakley knows what I mean.

“Why am I rejoining the Church?” she asks, and I nod. “Did you think you could change my mind?”

“No,” I say, even though I did, or maybe just hoped. “But I don’t understand.”

She leans back in the booth and crosses her arms. “You don’t have to understand,” she tells me. “This is mylife. This is what I’m going to do with it. You can’t expect me to change my plans just because we made out a little. We’ve known each other forthree days.”

I’m trying not to let her see how much her words are hurting me. But I know she knows. I’m pretty sure that’s why she’s saying them.

“If that’s the case, then why did you make Nanami tell Aya about moving to Seattle? Why do you care about her if you’ve only knownherfor three days?”