Her gaze jerked to him. “You’re not — you’re not going to leave? I mean, I just — and you don’t want that, you just … wanted to be friends, and I just ruined that.” How do they manage to keep feeling the same things at the same time, even if for different reasons? They’re both shocked, and she can’t understand how he’s never heard that before.
“You can’t help how you feel and I still want to be your friend, Summer. Nothing’s ever gonna change that,” he stated in all seriousness, before casting a small, encouraging smile and reaching out to pat his hand off of hers. “Is that okay?”
It’s her turn to jerk a little when he touched her. She stared down at his hand and nodded, slowly. “I don’t know … if I can pretend not to see it … “