Then she crouched.
She picked up the plastic cup she had thrown.
She walked over, knelt in front of me, and gently pressed the edge of her shawl against the wet hem of my skirt.
She was shaking.
"I don't know how to say this," she said.
I looked down at her.
"Don't say it yet," I said.
"Show up first."
PART 5 — FINAL
The music started again a few minutes later.
Mr. Lombardi gave a small nod to the DJ, who looked like he wanted to hug somebody.
I did not dance.
I sat on the edge of the stage with a paper cup of warm punch and Colton Vickery on one side of me and the tall girl in the green dress on the other, and we said almost nothing at all.
Sometimes that is how you say the most.
At ten o'clock, Aunt Kaitlyn walked into the gym in her work scrubs and her wet raincoat.
