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the hall, and even though it was seriously only a few feet, it looked like a few miles.
    I lay down in the middle of the hallway floor and waited to die.
    *~*~*
    “Hey,” Emmet’s voice was close to me.
    I forced my eyes to flutter open and found him kneeling beside me.
    “What are you doing on the floor out here?” he whispered. “I told you to stay in the bedroom.”
    “I puked,” I murmured and rubbed a hand over my aching head. “When I came out of the bathroom, Emmy was sleeping funny on the bed. There wasn’t any room for me.”
    “So, you were going to just sleep on the hallway floor?” he questioned.
    “No, dumbass,” I growled. It hurt my head. “I want to go into Lucille’s room.”
    “Unbelievable,” he said under his breath. Then his arms were under me and he was carrying me down the hall.
    It was only a short trip, but I curled up close to him anyway. I was freezing and he was warm even though he had just come out of the cold. As he pushed open the door to Lucille’s room, he gazed down at me with frustration, anger, and something else I couldn’t put my finger on.
    Emmet carefully put me on my feet and made quick work pulling the blankets back on the bed. Then he steered me to the bed and made me sit down. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the spinning room. I felt Emmet pulling my shoes off of my feet and I thought how weird it was that he was pulling my shoes off. When I felt his hand on my cheek, I opened my eyes.
    “I told you not to go to that party,” he said softly.
    His hair had fallen across his eyes. It was a little too long, but I always liked it like that, even when we were younger I liked his longish hair.
    I smiled and pushed his hair out of his eyes with my fingers. I pushed my hand through it and gasped. His hair was soft, but a little thick. It felt right between my fingers and under the palm of my hand.
    Emmet’s eyes closed, and for a very short time, we stayed just like that – his hand on my cheek, my hand in his hair, his eyes closed and mine wide open. Then the moment ended.
    Emmet opened his eyes and pulled his hand back as if it burned him to touch me. He stood up, his hair out of my reach, and then he took a step back. He closed his eyes again, pinched the bridge of his nose, and then opened his eyes once more.
    “I need to check on Emmy,” he said, not looking directly at me. “Lie down and try to sleep.”
    “You stole my first kiss,” I told him quietly.
    The room was still spinning, more now than before. My heart beat uselessly in my chest, like it was dying. I carefully swung my legs into the bed and laid down.
    “That isn’t the kind of first kiss you want, Donya,” he said, studying me through angry eyes.
    “What kind of first kiss do I want, Mr. Know-It-All?” I challenged.
    “Jorge would have kissed you and he wouldn’t have stopped there,” Emmet said bitterly. “He would have convinced you to follow him upstairs and he would have done all kinds of things to you that you don’t need to know about at fourteen years old.”
    “You talk to me as if I am so much younger than you,” I snapped quietly. “You’re not that much older than me, Emmet. Girls my age date guys your age.”
    “Doesn’t make it right, and it doesn’t mean they’re…having sex.”
    “It’s high school, Emmet. We’re all still kids. It’s not like I was in middle school kissing a senior. I’m a freshman.”
    “And you think you know so much,” he said darkly.
    “Maybe I don’t know too much about anything, but that kiss wouldn’t have been so bad.”
    “It’s what would have come after the kiss that worries me, Donya.”
    “Why does it matter to you what I do?”
    I don’t know why I was so argumentative. It’s not like I was really interested in following Jorge upstairs and losing my virginity where probably several other girls also lost theirs. I just hated that Emmet was always being so…brotherly to me but then earlier in the night denied me