“I’m so sorry,” I said. Christian and I rarely saw our grandparents, even over the holidays, and we’d never been close, but the pain in Jack’s voice was so raw, it cut right through me.

Jack really was different from all the guys at school, all the guys I’d ever met. He seemed older, even though he was the same age as Christian. He seemed real, like maybe he also had a wound that needed attention. The damaged parts of myself could see that he carried the shards of his broken heart with him everywhere he went, and I thought it was tragic, romantic even.

“Growing up, my mom was around but she was working all the time,” Jack said. “She’s a flight attendant, gone for days at a time. Grandpa was kind of the one who raised me. He was the one person I could count on.”

I wanted to hold him tight, comfort him.

“I never thought he would ever lie to me. That was the worst part—he didn’t tell me until the start of senior year—” He broke off, looked away.

“What happened?” I asked gently.

“My grandfather hadn’t been feeling well all last summer, nothing serious, just getting colds all the time and headaches and random pain all over. He insisted it was just him getting old.” Jack sighed and turned away, blinking fast like he was on the verge of tears. “I ended up taking the year off school to spend more time with him, and he was so angry, telling me not to waste such an important year of my life.”

“I’m so sorry.” Unsure what else I could say to ease his pain, I shifted closer and pressed a kiss against his forehead.

We remained like that for a while, me leaning on my elbow watching over him, a soft hand resting on his chest, a finger tracing small circles against his black tee.

Jack was so vulnerable, and he reminded me of myself before I met Elise, alone and in need of protection. In that moment, I knew I could be the person to give it to him.

“Remy?” he said. “Tell me something true.”

I looked into his eyes. “I’m really glad I met you.”

His smile could light up the world.

“Tell me something true?” I asked.

“You’re the first person I felt like I could talk to in a long time,” he said, and under the moonlight, he was beautiful.

SATURDAY // APRIL 1 // DAY 204

25.

I texted Elise as soon as I got home, so excited to tell her about Jack, my anger from our fight largely dissipated in the rush of the last few hours. Maybe it’d been an off night for her, I thought. Maybe I’d misunderstood her. I thought she’d want to celebrate her birthday the same way we celebrated mine, but maybe what she really wanted was a party.

Whatever it was, I could never stay angry at her for long, and I thought that things would just go back to normal.