12
He seemed stunned, his fists clenched, then
slowly relaxed. It was almost 10:30. The dorm
matron called out, “Curfew! Lovebirds, get a
move on!”
Noah’s face flushed slightly. I didn’t care. I
tightened my coat and turned to leave.
“Ethan!” he called.
I turned impatiently.
“You didn’t give the jar of stars to anyone
else, did you?” He’d seen the second picture.
He was cautiously verifying.
“No,” I said bluntly, ignoring his apparent
relief. “Why would I give Kai a second–hand gift?”
Back in my dorm, I picked up my phone.
Today’s events reminded me of things. My
L
confession–I’d planned to apologize, but
then I forgot after seeing Kai was alive. And
Noah’s friends were terrible; I’d cut them off.
I opened WeChat, found the group chat,
ignored the 99+ messages and left the group.
Then I texted Chase.
[Can we meet tomorrow?]
He replied immediately.
[Of course.]
[It’s your 20th birthday! I was going to
surprise you at midnight….]
[What do you want?]
[Or a surprise?]
Oh. Tomorrow was my birthday.
