I Lost 90 Pounds, Only to Find He Tried to Give Me Away novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: Not a Prize

I looked at the roses.

Then I looked at him.

I had a noodle stain on my T-shirt and mashed potato on my thumb.

"This me," I said.

"Yeah." He laughed, easy, like we were already in on something. "Come on. You know what I mean."

"Say what you mean."

He held out the roses.

I didn't take them, so he kept holding them, and the gold paper crinkled in the quiet.

Down the hall, a door opened all the way.

Then another.

A girl from 418 came out in a towel with her shower caddy and just stood there.

"Can we talk inside?" Carver said.

"No."

"Callie."

"Swannsong," I said. "You called me swannsong a second ago. Stick with it."

Betsy appeared behind my shoulder with the empty casserole dish.

She didn't say anything.

She just held the dish.

Carver lowered his voice so it sounded private, even though eight people could hear him.

"Look. The chat thing got out of hand. Guys say stuff. I didn't think you'd ever see it."

"That's not an apology. That's a weather report."

Somebody down the hall laughed.

He kept going.

"And then you show up at the bonfire looking like that, and I'm like, okay, she did that. That's insane. That's dedication. Nobody's ever done anything like that for me."

"I didn't do it for you."

"You literally said you did. In front of everybody."

"I said I did it for you. That's different from it being for you."

He frowned.

I hadn't totally gotten it either, until about an hour ago, on the floor, with a fork.

"Here's why not," I said.

I said it loud enough for the end of the hall.

"You found my mom's Facebook off a shipping label. You put my house number in a chat with forty strangers."

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