What good is a prepared body if you have a scattered mind?

I pause a second. He doesn't look at me the way Will, Christina, and Al sometimes do - like I am too small and too weak to be of any use, and they pity me for it.

"I'll be your family now," he says. "I love you," I say. He stares at me. I wait with my hands clutching his arms for stability as he considers his response. He frowns at me. "Say it again." "Tobias," I say, "I love you."

I decide to do what I always do when I'm not sure what's going on: I act like everyone else.

Not like Tobias, who is almost shy when he smiles, like he is surprised you bothered to look at him in the first place.

though he does not touch me, he steadies me.

I hear my heartbeat. I have been looking at him too long, but then, he has been looking back, and I feel like we are both trying to say something the other can't hear, though I could be imagining it. Too long - and now even longer, my heart even louder, his tranquil eyes swallowing me whole.