What is it about being folded up in his embrace that just absolutely melts away any resistance in her? She doesn't know, and right now, she's too tired to care. Her arms go around his middle and she presses her face against his chest, clinging to him.

'Your girlfriend, huh?' There's another quiet laugh at that. After all they've been through, it feels like a pale sliver of what they are to one another. He came back to wait for her, and she came back to meet him. Even if they weren't lovers, they're something more than boyfriend and girlfriend.

But then, he's twenty-two years old, isn't he?

'I guess that makes you my boyfriend, doesn't it?'

She pushes back just enough to look him in the eye.




God, she has it bad for him.