He Told Me to Stay Away, So I Left and He Followed novel · Chapter 32 of 32

Chapter 32: Say Cheese

Everyone lined up in front of the single wall, because Gran said the light was good there.

Pete stood in the back row on an overturned bucket and was told to get down.

He got down. He stood on a different bucket.

Maggie took the end of the row, next to Miles's mother, and Miles's mother took the cellist's arm.

I stood on the left, with my glasses on my own face.

Nobody had offered to hold them. Nobody was going to.

Miles stepped into the middle and stopped beside me.

His shoulder pressed against mine, warm through the flannel, and his arm came around my back.

"Hazel," he said quietly.

"I know."

"I'm right here."

"I know that too."

Gran held her phone out at arm's length and squinted at the screen.

"Closer," she said. "You're all too far away. Miles, move in on her."

"I'm already touching her."

"Then touch her more."

I unclipped my recorder from my strap and held it low against my hip, where the lens of Gran's phone couldn't see.

I thumbed the button.

The little red light came on.

"On three," said Gran. "I'll say three, and you say it. Everybody. Together."

"What do we say?" Pete shouted.

"Whatever you like. One."

The yard went quiet.

I heard a hundred small things at once: the cellist's bow shifting on her strap, Maggie's breath, the new lumber settling, the ferry horn very far off.

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