He let go of my other arm, getting off me and pulling me up with him in a single movement so that our bodies slammed together when we reached our feet. His expression was a mix of things I wasn’t sure I could read. There was some anger there, but also a bit of confusion, and maybe even the shine of what I now recognized as dwindling excitement. Or perhaps that was a description of my own emotions, and I was projecting them onto him because I never had been able to read this maddening man.

“Hate you? I don’t hate you.”

I sighed, stepping away from him and straightening my jacket, all bluster gone. I felt as deflated as if I were a balloon and he’d stuck a pin in me. You’re a sellout. They could have picked up any pretty girl off the street and created Nova. The insult echoed in my head like the whistle of the last of the escaping air. No, he didn’t hate me now and he hadn’t hated me then. He’d been indifferent, and just like the old days, my instinct was to incite a fight—even a fake one—in order to get a reaction. Any reaction. And I did. I always did. But then it was over and if I wanted his attention again, I’d have to find something else to provoke him with. My God, I was pathetic. And my stupid class had turned out to be useless after all.

He watched me for a moment longer, seeming to be working out some puzzle, before Charlie’s voice made us both look to the right where he was sitting on a guardrail on the side of the road, eating a stick of beef jerky from his backpack. “Can we go?” He tore off a bite of dried meat, his expression miffed.

I nodded to Charlie and then mumbled something to Tuck that even I couldn’t interpret, and then picked up my backpack where I’d dropped it and walked over to Charlie.

Tuck had moved ahead again, and I waited as Charlie stuck the jerky wrapper back in the front pocket of his backpack and met me in the middle of the road. “That was weird.”

“I know. Uh, sorry.”

“What’s up with you two, anyway?”

“Nothing. He hates me. And I hate him.”

“Doesn’t seem like it,” he muttered.

I gave him a look and slowed my walk so the distance grew between us and Tuck. I didn’t want him to overhear what we were saying. “What does that mean?”

“You seemed to be enjoying yourself. Same with him.”

“We were just messing around, Charlie. Not enjoying anything. He pissed me off. He treated me like a child and…well, I admit I acted like one. All that comes from growing up together, you know? It’s old habit to fight like siblings.”