"Andrea? Whatever happened to Andy?"

    Gael sputters, gawking at this "Andy" as if he's having a hard time believing she exists. He runs a hand through the strands of his hair, and as the muscles flex underneath the skin of his arm, I look away. "Andy..." he says. "I...wow. Um—"

    "Why didn't you call me?" Andy blurts, stepping further in Gael's direction. Heavy mascara clumps her eyelashes together, a dark mole underneath her right eye. "You could have came to my house, or anything, anything at all. I just can't believe it's taken me this long to find out you're even alive."

    Gael shakes his head at the ground. "Andy, look, there's something—"

    "Shut up," she interrupts with a laugh, closing the distance between the two of them and planting her lips on his. My eyes widen at this, an angry flush going to my cheeks. Shi's protective hand closes around my arm, and when I look at him, he mouths at me to calm down. As if he, or anyone, can tell me how to feel about watching my boyfriend—who I thought I could trust—gum swapping with another girl. It seems like eternity before Andy finally quits sucking Gael's face, and then she just embraces him.

    By now, I'm already done. "I'm sorry, Gael, do you know this girl?"

    Andy steps back from the hug, blinking. "Of course he knows me! I'm his girlfriend."

    My eyes roll, and before Gael can whirl and say something to me, I stomp inside the house, not able to stand a second longer of this. Every time I give my trust to him, he just throws it away again. Someone once told me that trust is like a piece of paper—you can crumple it up and then smooth it out, but it will never be the same. As I storm upstairs, I can't help thinking: How many times can you crumple it and smooth it before it becomes supple? Supple enough that it just tears?

    I shut myself behind the guest bedroom's door, locking it. Crawling back into the bed I had just gotten out of, I pull the covers up to my shoulders and bury my face in the pillows. How could I be so stupid? To fall for Gael's tricks not once, but twice? Suddenly all I want to do is go home. I want to hug Damien until my arms fall off, powwow around Mother's baking, fight with Finn using Styrofoam swords, and, like I told him I would, annex Shi into our household. I want to go home and forget about all of this, about Gael, about the humans, because they are the reason I'm ruined.

    There's a knock on my bedroom door, and I roll over onto my stomach, slamming a pillow down on my head. I know who it is, anyway, and I don't want anything to do with him, not ever again. "Go away, Gael—"

    The door swings open, and I look up in surprise. Standing in the open doorframe isn't Gael, but Shi, looking at me with a measured amount of sympathy. I sit up, scratching the top of my head. "I thought I locked that door."

    The brass doorknob drops to the carpet with a thud, and Shi, having just released it from his fist, looks down at it with a shrug. "You did."

    "Ah...nice," I say, because I don't know what else to say. I've known other Marisians with surprising strength; Damien, for example, but he never seems to use it as liberally. Shi turns, bumping the door shut. There's now a large hole where the doorknob used to be.

    "Are you okay?" Shi asks me, coming to sit on the bed in front of me. He, too, crosses his legs, and we sit knee-to-knee, eyes trained on each other's. Before I can answer his question, a self-deprecating smile blooms on his face and his gaze darts away. "Who am I kidding...of course you're not okay."

    "Oh my God," I say. "A guy with actual comprehension of a girl's feelings? This is a scientific breakthrough!"

    Another shrug. "I grew up with sisters...a lot of them. It only makes sense. Anyway, Gemma...so you're not okay. Is there anything I can do?"

    My mouth twists to the side. "To make it hurt less? I don't think so. This is the second time he's screwed me over...having a girlfriend all this time. I don't even know what to think. What to feel. I'm such a dimwit—"

    "Hey, hey, none of that," Shi orders. He lifts a hand, and I feel the frayed cotton of his shirtsleeve brush underneath my eyes, drying tears I didn't know had fallen at all. I look up at him with round eyes, and can't bite back a smile. How anyone could disown a boy so sweet is beyond me, especially for something as trivial as a mistake easily corrected. "You are not a dimwit, Gemma. You can't let one guy convince you that everything is always your fault. Trust me, you're not the one with the problems."

    "Shi..."

    "And if you still want to kill him now, I'm in for it," he adds, dropping his hand from my cheek. Sunlight from the window reflects against his glasses, a bit of it catching in his irises and causing them to shimmer like true gold. "He deserves it."

    "Yeah, that's nice, but...no."

    I expect Shi to be surprised, considering this was the entire reason we'd traveled all the way here, but he isn't. His expression is still. "No?" he repeats, almost as if it would surprise him if I said the opposite.

    "No," I say with narrow eyes. "I don't want to waste another second on him. All I want to do is go home." I'm about to add on to that, but stop when I see Shi smiling at me. Confused, I ask, "Why are you smiling like that?"

    "Because you've grown," Shi says. "Not spending another minute with someone who only wants to hurt you is outstand—"

    "Who says I only want to hurt her?"

    The voice makes me freeze. I don't dare to look towards the door I already know is open, since I can't stand to see his face. I'm afraid of what I'll do, what I'll feel; I know myself, and I know that I can do stupid things in the spur of a moment. I guess I'm allowing myself to hope that not looking at him will somehow subdue my need for him. The fact that the need is still there is almost more annoying than he is to me right now, if I'm honest.

    "Gael," Shi says. "I don't think she wants to talk to you right now—"

    "Let her speak for herself," interjects Gael. It's the bitterest I've ever heard him, uncharacteristically so. "I know Gemma, and I know she's quite articulate."

    "It's okay, Shi," I say. "You can go." No! What am I doing?

    I lift my eyes to him, and only him. He stares back at me as if I'm crazy, his shoulders bent towards me. "Are you sure?"

    No. Please stay so he'll go away. "Yes, I'm sure." I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. This must be the annoying thing called "listening to your heart," because my brain is certainly rebelling against everything coming out of my mouth right now.

    In response, Shi just says, sitting forward to briefly peck me on the forehead. He whispers, just loud enough so that only I hear it: "Please be careful."

    When he pulls back and gazes at me, I see he's looking for some sort of confirmation, and therefore offer a brisk nod. As Shi gets up to leave, he still looks skeptical. I can't help but notice the flame of loathing in his eyes as he brushes past Gael in the doorway, his lips curled in a sneer. I've never seen Shi so ticked off, not even when he speaks about his parents.

    Shi's disappearance leaves Gael and me alone. He comes into the room, closing the door behind him. "He'd better replace my doorknob, the brute," Gael mutters, tapping the hole with annoyance. Flakes of sawdust fall to the carpet underneath his bare feet. "Why are you with him, anyway?"

    "Gael, this isn't about Shi."

    He pauses, and as if the crestfallen look on his face isn't enough, I hear him swallow. His eyes are nowhere near me; in fact, he scrutinizes his toes as if something's wrong with them. "Yeah, Gem...I know."

    I sit back against the pillows, folding my arms. "So where's Andy now, huh?"

    "Downstairs. I tried to get her to leave, but that's Andy for you. All too stubborn."

    "Do not tell me you came in here just to give me Andy's character profile," I hiss. Again, I'm surprised all of this is coming from my mouth, since it takes a lot to push me over the edge...but then again, this has been quite a lot. "I trusted you, and I keep trusting you, and...and you keep breaking my trust. How long is this going to keep happening? Tell me now, Gael, or I'll—"

    "Leave?"

    The dejection in his voice startles me, and I peer at him, but he still won't look at me. I've known Gael long enough to know what this sudden reticence is; he cares for me, but has a rather introverted way of showing it. This is what makes me stop. "How much of that did you hear?" All I want to do is go home.

    Gael shoves his hands into his pockets, finally lifting his eyes to me. Curls hang in them, as they always do, and my heart begins to speed: I remember what it was like to brush those curls back, to stare at those eyes just for the sole reason of love. I thought I had gained that, all of that, back, but it's just been torn from me again. "Enough," murmurs Gael. "So this is it, then? Goodbye?"

    "Don't do that."

    A flicker of confusion passes on his face. "Do what?"

    "Don't stand there and not try, Gael," I elaborate. His lip quirks up at one side; it's evanescent, but I catch it. That's the thing about Gael. A lot of things about him are evanescent, and you have to be quick and adamant to catch them. Once you do...that's when you know him. Perhaps I thought I'd accomplished that. "Don't refrain from apologizing...don't just say goodbye."

    "You don't want to go, do you?"

    "No! Of course I don't! I don't...I don't know, Gael," I itch at the back of my neck. I'm not even making any sense to myself. "A huge part of me wants to believe you have no intention of hurting me, that you do love me, but you just keep messing up. These aren't minor slip-ups, either. These are the kind that form huge rifts."

    "I know," he says, "which is why I have no idea what to say to you. I can tell you that Andy was a lost cause before I was kidnapped, that I was planning to break it off anyway. I can tell you that you're the only girl I love, that all I want is to be with you. I can tell you all of this, Gemma, but I can't make you trust me again, and I get that."

    He comes over to the bed, easing himself on the side of it, his back to me. I frown in his direction, though he can't see me. "That's the hard part," he mutters. "The fact that I...I don't have an infinite number of chances. Every time I mess up, I have to pray you'll let me in again."

    "And if I do?" I say. "Let you in again?"

    He looks at me over his shoulder, pensive. "Then I hope it's not a mistake."

    I bite at my lip, squeezing the covers around my legs until I can feel my nails through the material. This is the same thing, all over again. A mistake, a painful heartache, and a dilemma. How am I supposed to know that this isn't a never ending cycle that I'm throwing myself into? Will I even have another chance to get out, if there's a next time?

    I had said something to Gael, back when I had first arrived here yesterday. I remember holding him to me, telling him there was no number of chances I wouldn't give him. But that had been before he'd messed up again, and on the next morning. This has to be a bad idea. I have to go home. Damien and my mother are going to kill me, but I have to go home.

    "What else can you do to me, Gael?" I say, after a beat. "How else could you possibly mess up, after this?"

    "I'm hoping you nor I will ever find the answer to that question," he replies with a laugh. He pivots, facing me. "To say goodbye or not to say goodbye, that is the question. I want you, Gemma, I really do, but if this is the final straw...I have no choice but to accept it."

    I stare at him. "I can't."

    His eyes drop from mine, and the expression on his face is as if someone had carved into him with a knife. "It's okay. I get it..."

    "No, Gael," I say, reaching to close my hand around his. He's startled when he looks up at me again, lips parting. "I can't leave you. Not yet, maybe not ever. I still have hope for you."

    "I have hope for me, too," he says with a laugh, unable to fight the smile growing on his face. He scoots toward me, his hand sliding around my cheek as he smiles at me, the smile I fell in love with, the smile I saw the morning after we first kissed. The smile that sent tingles through me, even if one of his teeth is slightly chipped. Imperfection is perfection.

    "The more the merrier," I say, and have no time to say much else before his lips meet mine. My mouth opens as I breathe him in, and he slips closer to me, until our chests are against each other's. The bed's headboard presses up against my back as Gael kisses me, one of his hands sliding from my cheek and to my waist. I let the ultimate bliss flood through me...there is no better feeling than this, knowing you're loved and feeling it too. I'm transported to the past, the first time Gael and I ever came this close, and it's just as exhilarating.

    With a laugh, I detach my lips from Gael's and shove him backwards. He hits the bed with a soft thump, the mattress cushioning him as he lets out a laugh. "God, I missed this," he says, his eyes twinkling as he looks up at me. "I missed you, Gem."

    I crawl on top of him, straddling him as I lean down until our noses are barely inches from touching. With his hair splayed across the comforter, his forehead exposed, his eyes are the most luminescent I ever remember seeing them. I love him, and because I do, I'll trust him. "That makes two of us," I say, giggling as I lean down towards, shutting my eyes to kiss him once more—

    The sound of a door opening startles both of us, and I sit up straight, my eyes darting towards the entrance. I can already feel my cheeks heating, and a glance down at Gael tells me he's just as embarrassed as I am. Pushing hair back from my face, I can see that the person standing there is none other than Andy, a hand clapped over her mouth as tears well in her eyes. "Oh my God!" she squeals, then, instead of saying anything else, just turns and runs way, her bawling echoing through the hallway.

    For a moment, Gael and I stare after her in astonishment. When it settles into me what this means, I just laugh, sitting off of Gael as I try to gain control of myself. In fact, the two of us spend a good few minutes laughing until our stomachs hurt, the blood still hot in our faces. "I see that she's not a problem anymore," I say, once I'm even able to speak.

    Footsteps sound out in the hall, and before I know it Shi has come barreling into the room, his glasses astray and his eyes wide. He blinks at the two of us for a second, then just shakes his head and says, "A girl just ran screaming out of the house. What the heck happened?"

    Gael chuckles, wiping hair back from his face. "Let's just say she saw something she can't un-see."