Chapter 54:

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The Rowan Tree


She doesn't talk to me

in school
the next day.

But when I text her

after soccer
with my friends:

WHAT DID YOU MEAN
YESTERDAY?

She replies:
SORRY FOR LOSING CONTROL.

Ming looks over
at me
and grins.

The girls are laughing
around us

at something Jasper said.

I didn't hear.

Kumar asks him
to explain the math joke

—he didn't get it.

Nora responds
with a mocking tone of voice.

There's laughter.

I tilt my phone
away
from Ming

who just grins wider.

Kumar puts an arm
around Ming,

asks him to explain the joke instead.

I text Rowan back:
I LIKED IT WHEN YOU DID.

She reads the message

but it isn't until
we say goodbye,
go our separate ways,

and I'm alone with Ming
who keeps grinning

when she responds.

If she was
like my other girlfriends,

I would have guessed
she waited on purpose.

But Rowan's
different.

When she gets excited,
I know it.

So it's more likely
that she was

seriously

agonised

about almost having
abandoned
her morals.

'See ya,' I say to Ming.

He unlocks his door
and disappears inside.

I hesitate outside mine.

There's shouting
coming from inside.

The lock is hanging
loose, key still in it.

I push the door open.

A broken vase
in a puddle of green water
greets me.

I LIKED IT TOO.

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