"Don’t," came his pained response. "Don’t thank me for that."

"I need to," I pushed myself to say, needing to give him the words that I had been carrying around for eight years. "I would have died that night if –"

"I didn’t come here to talk about that." Pacing the floor, he ran a hand through his dark hair that was perfectly styled. Shaved at the sides with extra length on top that was deliciously disheveled. "I came to apologize."

"For what?"

He stopped pacing just long enough to give me a look that said are you for real before quickly resuming. "I didn’t realize you were back in town. That you were… you." He threw his hands up as he spoke. "And I know that's a piss poor excuse considering you came back sophomore –" his words cut off and a pained groan escaped him before he cleared his throat and continued, "but it's all I have, and I swear to god it's the truth."

"Okay."

He stopped pacing to swing around and gape at me. "Okay?"

"Well…yeah." I shrugged. "What else is there to say?"

"Fuck if I know, but I would feel a helluva lot better if you chewed me out," he admitted, shrugging out of his jacket. "Do you mind?" he asked, tossing it on the chair beside my vanity table. "It's hot and I'm… well, I'm freaking the fuck out here, Molls."

"No, I don’t mind," I replied with a sigh, dutifully ignoring the way his muscular arms and broad chest stretched the white fabric of his t-shirt. "And I'm not going to cuss you out."

That seemed to irritate him even more. "Well, you should."

"My being here might be a new experience for you, but I've spent two years experiencing your indifference," I explained with another small shrug. "I got over being mad at you a long time ago."

Devastation flickered in his eyes. "I wasn’t indifferent. I have never been indifferent to you, Molly."

"Then you're a fantastic actor."

The pain in his eyes was quickly morphed by anger. "So, you what? Decide to walk around town for two goddamn years and not say anything? You just slide back into school and pretend like we're strangers?" His voice rose in anger as a vein throbbed in his neck. "Why, Molly?" He shook his head, looking at a loss. "You knew who I was. Why not just come up and talk to me!"

"I tried!" Now I was the one raising my voice. "I freaking tried, you jackass, but you didn’t want to know, so don’t even think about trying to turn this around on me."

He balked like I had slapped him. "No, you didn’t."

"Yes, I did," I bit out, teeth grinding, jumping off my bed to stalk towards him. "My first day back in town, I went straight to your house and when you answered the door and I said 'surprise', you asked me if I was lost! You told me that I must have the wrong house – " my breath hitched and I blew out a ragged breath before continuing, "right before Jessica Newman, who was a freaking senior at the time, joined you in the doorway in a tank and panties. So you see, you chose not to remember that day, Daryl, just like you're choosing not to remember right now!"