He watches me and suddenly I’m uncomfortable with my confession, with opening up so much to someone I only met once before. When I was eight. For heaven’s sake, I’ve had three dozen awful run-ins with Will, but only one beautiful moment with Gavin. And this moment.

“Say something,” I whisper. His eyes are shadowed and tired and filled with deep regret and self-recrimination that I don’t understand.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

There’s so much sorrow in his voice that I can’t help it, I lean forward and I press my lips to his. He stiffens in surprise, but instead of pulling back like I thought he would, he stays where he is. His mouth is warm and his lower lip is soft and full. I’m finally having my first kiss. With Gavin. In our tree. It’s more perfect than I could’ve ever imagined.

I reach up and touch his jaw. My fingers stroke over his skin. His lips soften even more and I try to move closer. I let out a small sound against his lips. When I do, he pulls back. I blink up at him, wrapped in the heat of him and the drunken excitement of my first kiss.

“That was…” I shake my head, try to clear it, and smile at him. “Gavin…that was…”

I can’t explain it, it was more than words. I finally felt connected again. I knew he’d come back. I knew he felt it too.

“I’m not lonely anymore,” I say, and so much gratitude and happiness wells up inside me, I feel like I could fly into the night sky and shine with the stars. That’s how happy I feel.

“Gavin, do you think…will you come here tomorrow night? We could…”

He pushes away from me and slowly draws the back of his hand over his lips. “Jessie,” he says, and the mocking tone of his voice sends a prickling of alarm down my spine.

I squint and try to get a better look at him. His upper lip curls into that sneer I’ve seen a hundred times. I gasp and my blood goes cold.

When he sees the look on my face he lets out a low, horrible laugh.

Oh no. No no no. I cover my face with my hands. I told him my secrets… I felt connected to… I had my first kiss with…

“Will,” I choke out.

He wipes his hand on his pants and sneers at me. “To answer your first question, no, we aren’t friends.”

I gasp and panic bubbles inside me and burns at the back of my throat.

It’s Will. It’s Will. It’s Will. The words thud over and over in my mind. He looks down and gives a small smile at my tightly clenched fists.

“We’ll never be friends,” he says.