Chapter 34

“What do you want me to do?” I said at last, lifting my head again. “I’m just trying to—”

“Don’t!” he said with unexpected sharpness. “Just—don’t!”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t try—don’t try to do this or be that. Just—just…”

I nodded, my face flushed, and swallowed. “Okay,” I said cautiously. “But, just—what?”

“Just be yourself.”

“Oh.” I considered and smiled a bit sheepishly. But then I felt a rush of pain and sense of forlornness. “It’s not that easy,” I said, my voice choked. “Not for someone like me.”

“Someone like you,” he murmured, repeating the words. Then he looked at me and frowned. “I don’t get it. You were, when we were on that island. Weren’t you?”

I shrugged, nodded, shrugged again, and then laughed embarrassedly.

“It’s kind of complicated,” I murmured at last.

“It’s complicated because you make it that way!” he said with some heat.

“No,” I replied, angry in my turn. “It’s society that makes it that way!”