“Warn me about what?” he yelled, holding his hands in front of him. “That it feels amazing to be with you? That it’d be incredible to watch you give up everything and fight your ass off just on the hope your sister will notice from half a world away? Or maybe you warned me that you’d make me laugh like an idiot?”

I used my sleeve to wipe away an escaped tear. “You could find that with any nice, normal girl.”

“I don’t want a normal girl, Ellie. I want you,” he snapped.

A laugh tumbled from my lips, but my smile quickly faded. “I warned you that I would make you feel like shit. I warned you that you were too nice to get involved with someone like me.”

“Someone like you?” he said, both frustrated and desperate. “You should have warned me that I’d smile every time I think about you—which is all the damn time! You should have warned me about that, too. You should have warned me that you’re beautiful in the morning, in the moonlight, just out of the shower, or with ten days of dirt on your face.”

“It’s not funny.”

“No! It’s not! Goddamn it, Ellie, I’m standing here saying I wanna be with you and you want it, too. I know you do. Your reasons don’t even make sense.”

“They don’t have to make sense to you.”

He breathed out a laugh. “All this time I thought you were a masochist. You’re a fucking sadist.”

“I warned you!” I cried.

“You didn’t warn me that I’d fucking fall in love with you!” Tyler’s veins bulged in his neck, and he put his hands on his hips, catching his breath.

“What?” I choked out.

“You heard me,” he growled. Immediately the anger extinguished from his eyes, replaced with remorse.

“I’ve been trying to stay away from you, Tyler. I really have. I don’t want to drag you down with me.”

“Too late!” he yelled. He rubbed his forehead. “I didn’t come here to fight,” he said, exasperated. “I’m so tired of trying to hate you.”

His words cut deep, the pain settling in my bones. I could barely form the words. “Then why did you come?”

“To see you,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I had to see you.”