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been crossed.
    Laughing to myself on the inside I tried to focus on the important things. Hailey Martin was standing next to me on my deck, talking to me like we were deciding which homework assignment to tackle first.
    The silence between us began to grow. I knew I was supposed to say something. Preferably witty and entertaining. Skills I had never mastered. Maybe something to make her feel welcome or reassure her that everything would be okay. Different scenarios ran through my head, but they all seemed lame and condescending.
    Just as the tension reached that awkward stage, Hailey said, "You didn't tell me your sister was blind."
    Her statement surprised me. Where did that come from? She hadn't said, 'I didn't know your sister was blind.' No, she'd said I hadn't informed her, as if I had some obligation or something.
    "Um. I guess I didn't think about it. It's not something that I think about all that much." Okay, that sounded dumb. "I mean, I think about it, just not that it's new or anything. You know, it's always been there."
    You're babbling Ryan. Stop. See, this is what happens when people talk, they say too much.
    Frowning, she shook her head. "It's just that I felt like such an idiot," she said.
    Now it was my turn to frown. Why had she felt like an idiot? When? What part? I swear I'll never understand. Besides, why was it my fault?
    "Don't worry about it," she said. "Next time, a little heads-up would be nice, okay?" Smiling she reached up and patted my shoulder, then turned back to staring at the darkness.
    My insides froze and the air seemed to tingle around me. Right then, for that moment, I wanted this to go on forever. The two of us, standing next to each other in the dark.
    "Why haven't I ever seen you visiting your grandmother?" I asked, desperate to keep the conversation going.
    She shrugged her shoulders. "My mom and Nana don't get along very well. Mom's a little controlling and the one person she can't control is Nana. She's always had to visit us at our house."
    Smiling up at me with a twinkle in her eye she said, "Besides, you were probably buried in your computer or a chessboard on those few times I did come over to visit."
    Wow, maybe she did know more about me than I thought.
    "I heard you broke up with Numb N ... um, your boyfriend."
    She cringed for a moment and I worried that I'd said the wrong thing. It wouldn't have been the first time. Holding my breath, I waited for her answer.
    "Yes, I did. Everybody thinks he broke up with me. An impression I hoped to fix tonight online. How'd you know I broke up with him and not the other way around?" she asked. Her eyes focused on mine, desperately wanting to know the answer.
    Now it was my turn to shrug my shoulders. "Jarret McGee has always been dumber than a bag of potatoes, but he isn't an idiot. No way did he break up with you."
    She laughed, her smile lighting up the night. "Thank you, that's sweet."
    Our eyes locked for a magical moment. Even in the faint glow from the flashlight, I could see the yellow specks of gold in her blue eyes. They seemed to melt something inside of me. We held each other's stare for a moment more before she turned away to look out over the dark valley again.
    "Why?" I asked, wanting to bask in her attention again.
    "Why what?"
    "Why did you break up with him?"
    She was silent for a moment, continuing to stare into the night. I wondered if she was going to answer.
    "I had my reasons," she said with that beautiful shoulder shrug of hers. "We just weren't right for each other." She glanced at me with a raised eyebrow as if asking whether I understood. Me, being as socially adept as a potted plant, didn't understand.
    "What does that mean?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. Even I knew that I was probably getting way to personal.
    "He wasn't who I thought he was," she said with a resigned sigh. "Besides, I wanted to be more than an accessory.  Does that make any sense?"
    "You're asking me? What I know about