Janie’s hip buzzes again. Maybe she'll have to have her whole leg amputated, she thinks sadly. That would really suck.

So, ah, I'm not sure if you know this, but you're not wearing a shirt." "Distracting, isn't it?

She gets to school late. Bashful gives her a tardy, and won't reconsider. Janie always hated Bashful. Stupidest. Dwarf. Ever.

You - best secret boyfriend ever.

Time to stop crying, time to get her act together and do something. Time to move beyond the pity party.

The thought of being with Shay Wilder makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a butter knife

And he's pressing into her and she into him, bodies shivering, like they are two scared, lost children, starving, starving to be touched, to be held, by someone, anyone, the first one they can find who seems familiar enough, safe enough, strong enough to rescue them. They breathe, heavy. Hard. Their fingers strain at cotton. And then they slow down. Stop. Hold. Rest. Before one of them, or both, begins to sob. Before they break another piece that needs to be fixed.