Chapter 53

“You liked me?” I blurt out accusingly. I don’t understand. That memory was long before the wars catapulted into our lives and changed everything. A time I can barely remember, and I don’t recall that day either, of us having any kind of memorable interaction. He stayed with his friends, and I stayed with mine, and then I went home with my mom before the sun went down. I would have to claw through the memories to be sure, but there was nothing to suggest he even noticed me. “I had a crush on you like you wouldn’t believe. I don’t know how many times I tried to talk to you and got completely blanked or lost my nerve. I used to hang out where I knew you would be, but then the war happened, and you became ….” His voice trails off, eyes averting, shame washing over his expression, and I know what he means without him finishing. I became a black sheep—one of the shamed. My family died, and our people scraped up the remains and shunned my kind to the darkest corner. One of the rejects, and m