[𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐍]

𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊

to Seattle, I thought about what my dad had said about forgiving myself.

I decided not to forgive myself, but I also decided to stop agonizing over what I did. When Paris and I arrived home, I once again thanked Diane and Ezra for the first-class plane tickets.

Cosmo seemed excited to see us, jumping and barking and following us around the house. Paris was happy to see her son, too.

"How are you, love bug?" she asked, picking him up off the kitchen floor. I had gone to my room to unpack a little.

I think Paris and I's codependency kicked in when we got to school. We spent a lot of time together over the break, so going back to school and not having some classes together was irritating.

"I wanna go see Paris," I said in Spanish class one day.

"You guys just had a class together," Sean reminded but that just went in one ear and out the other.

"¿Puedo ir al baño por favor?" I asked Ms. Morales.

She gave me the pass and I went to Paris's classroom. The door was wide open, I walked by slowly and kept my eyes on her.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" she asked.

"Didn't you already go already during this class?" I heard Mr. Pearce ask.

"I'm on my period."

"I'll write you a pass."

"Mm-hmm, yeah."

She was in the hallway a few seconds later, she didn't even bother to take her bag and make it look like she was going to the bathroom.

"Heyy," she chirped.

I pulled her toward me to kiss her softly.

She pulled back, took my hand and I let her lead me to the cafeteria where the sophomore and freshman were having lunch.

Students were in line so it wasn't hard to find an empty table.

"How's your class?" I asked.

"Boring. How's Spanish?"

"Also boring."

"I'm seriously a millisecond away from getting my schedule changed to all of your classes."

"We still drive home together, Paris."

"I guess," she muttered sadly, looking down.

I realized that students were beginning to sit down. "We should probably get back to class."