“She’d just turned 21,” Duke said. “And I work very hard not to be creepy.”
He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.
“I know this isn’t her fault. I know she’s depressed. And working on getting better. But since she came back this summer — it’s like I don’t get anything from her. And I know love isn’t, like, some barter system of even exchanges or anything. I know that.”
No one had ever offered him as much back as he gave them, after all. Not his parents, not Nathan or Evi, not Audrey.
No one but Octavia, when she convinced him love was real.
Duke’s breath shook on his next inhale, and the hand on his neck started picking at the short hairs below his ponytail.
“But — man, I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”
no subject
He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.
“I know this isn’t her fault. I know she’s depressed. And working on getting better. But since she came back this summer — it’s like I don’t get anything from her. And I know love isn’t, like, some barter system of even exchanges or anything. I know that.”
No one had ever offered him as much back as he gave them, after all. Not his parents, not Nathan or Evi, not Audrey.
No one but Octavia, when she convinced him love was real.
Duke’s breath shook on his next inhale, and the hand on his neck started picking at the short hairs below his ponytail.
“But — man, I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”