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. Closing her eyes, she shook her head. Something weshouldn t. That cut deeper than last night s rejected kiss had. Why not? I whispered. You know why. No, actually I don t, I replied with a ferocity in my voicereserved for rare situations. Why don t you enlighten me? Her drifting eyes settled on mine for an instant before theyturned away. My life just doesn t work with you in it--I don twork right when you re in it. Her jaw was set, but it couldn tdeflect the effect the sheen her eyes had taken on.I was gettingclose to something if it brought tears to the surface.I couldn t backoff now.Knowing this, I shoved ahead, knowing the road immediately infront of us wasn t a pleasant one. Liar, I said, gripping the steering wheel so hard I was in Liar, I said, gripping the steering wheel so hard I was indanger of ripping it off. We made a promise that we d be honestwith each other, and you can t be honest with me if you can t evenbe honest with yourself. That came out harsher than I d intended,evident as I felt sick to my stomach after saying it and the wayEmma recoiled from me like she couldn t put enough spacebetween us. I m the liar? she asked, her eyes forming slits.Her handpulled away like mine was made of acid. Tell me, PatrickHayward wealthy, supposedly reformed playboy, good ateverything, too beautiful to be real why are you so interested inme? she asked, yelling every third word. Huh? she added when I didn t answer. A girl from the otherside of the tracks who s going to spend the rest of her life there ifshe screws up just once.Once! she said, pointing at me. So why,champion of honesty, why is someone like you so interested insomeone like me? someone like me? I d not only never seen Emma so emotional before, I d neverheard her say so much in one breath. What do you mean? I asked, turning in my seat. Dammit, Patrick! she shouted, slamming a fist into thedashboard. The question is so simple even you should be able toget it.Why are you pretending to like me? Three things crippled the speech right out of me.The secondcurse word I d heard from her, PG-13 rated as it was, her insult tomy intelligence, and her assumption that I was pretending to likeher.It didn t make sense, none of it did.That could have been thereason I was unable to form a word, let alone an intelligent reply. That s what I thought, she said, staring at me like she couldsee right through me. Hypocrite. Lunging out of the car, she spunback around and, leaning down, she said, Leave me alone. No, I said, gripping the steering wheel again. Leave.Me.Alone. And then she slammed the door and ran Leave.Me.Alone. And then she slammed the door and ranaway like she couldn t get away from me fast enough.I watched her leave, all the way until she disappeared inside thebuilding.My eyes lingered on the spot she d disappeared. No, I whispered to no one.The first couple hours after that were rough.I d gone back andforth between chasing after her and professing the way I felt abouther in every detail down to the way I lost my sense of balancewhen she tilted her head back and laughed to getting the hellaway from here and forgetting I d ever met Emma Scarlett.I ended up hanging in my car past lunch time, once I settled onfinding the middle ground between running away or becoming acertified stalker.On my way to Psych, I still hadn t decided on the best way to smooth things over.I considered ignoring her, leaving her alone as she yelled at meto pretend she didn t exist but I was wise in the ways ofwomen and I knew pretending you don t exist was the final strawthat would break the back of the relationship.It doesn t matterhow pissed they are with you, never unleash a full scale ignoreattack on a woman you want to make up with classic rookiemistake
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