Well, no one treats me like a full-fledged royal, said Lissa, turning back to the dresses. No reason to act like one now. Show me your straps and short-sleeves.

Smiling, I cut across the quadrangle toward the commons. I felt better about life than I had in a very long time. We could do this, Lissa and me. We could do this together.

Adrian smiled and clasped my hands, taking a few steps toward me. "And as for who you are, you’re the same beautiful, brave, and ridiculously smart caffeinated fighter you’ve been since the day I met you.” Finally, he put “beautiful” at the top of his list of adjectives. Not that I should have cared. “Sweet talker,” I scoffed. “You didn’t know anything about me the first time we met.” “I knew you were beautiful,” he said. “I just hoped for the rest.

When I saw you fall..." "You thought, 'Wow, she's a loser.

A year. We'd known each other only a year, but we'd lived a lifetime in it.

You made your own jean shorts...with a butter knife?

And I could see his internal struggle become an all out war. "It wouldn't have made a difference. Not with Adrian involved," he said..... "I meant it. I won't be that guy Rose. I won't be that man that takes someone else's girlfriend.