Page 82 of And They Were Roommates

I flick my face away. I’d rather die than have Jasper witness me turn red. “Okay. Well. How could that have thrown you off? We’d been spending so much time together after our workshop. You flirted with me every chance you got. You called me beautiful, and you always sat so close to me, and—”

“I do that with everyone, Charlie!” Jasper says, tossing his hands.

The words stun me. I scoff and leave the booth.

He calls my name, but I don’t turn around. The rage inside me is too hot.I do that with everyone.Unbelievable. I keep going until I’m at the gate. Our bags of letters are still where we dropped them. Thankfully, the guard didn’t notice. When will she be back?

I pick up a bag. “Hurry up.”

“That came out worse than intended.” Jasper’s not picking up his bag. “Yes, I acted overly romantic toward others without realizing any of it was being taken seriously. That’s a problem. But after summer was over, you were all I could think about. None of them.”

I ignore him.

“We never met at the beach on the last day of camp,” he goes on, “so I didn’t have your number, and I couldn’t find your social media. That’s why I posted my poetry online. I hoped, someday, you’d come across my name.”

Clenching my jaw, I lift my bag over my head and align my aim with the bushes off to the side. “I deleted most of my pictures after that summer.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, Jasper, what do you want me to say?”

He finally picks up his bag, but he’s not tossing it. “I was just a poet back then, okay? I had an overemotional personality.”

I narrow my eyes at him.

“Okay, fine, Ihavean overemotional personality,” he says. “I didn’t even think those letters I sent to those other girlswerelove letters. I thought we were practicing poetry together. At a Shakespeare camp! Right? So, I apologize, Charlie. Truly. But now I’ve learned.”

I chuck the bag over the gate as hard as I can. “I’m glad that I could be your love tutor, Jasper, even though I didn’t sign up for it.”

“But I—”

A groan releases from my deepest depths. I snatch the bag in his hands to toss it myself. Mom’s varsity ring catches on it andlocks with his bracelet, trapping us in place. I try to free myself. Nothing budges. I pull again, again,again.

“If you wanted to handcuff me, you could’ve just asked,” Jasper mutters.

Heat flares through my face. “Shutup.” Summoning my strength, I whip our conjoined arms up in one quick motion and fling the bag high into the air. Our ring and bracelet pull taut, snagging on something, and Jasper’s bracelet snaps in half. Crunching leaves come from beyond the gate as the bag lands, finalizing the mission.

We stumble away from each other, sticking out our arms to steady ourselves.

Jasper blinks at me. With only the moonlight and the distant lamppost light, his blue irises look so magically shimmery. I didn’t notice until now. “How’d we do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“I hope it landed okay.”

I scan the path again for any figures in the distance. “We need to go.”

Jasper steps forward. “Will you forgive me?”

“What? No, Jasper. What are you talking about?”

“What more can I apologize for? Tell me what I can do to fix this.”

“Nothing.”

“Then why won’t you forgive—?”

“Because I never want to forgive you!” The words erupt so loudly that my voice echoes through the night. I’m so past my limit that I don’t care if the guard hears. Anyone.

---