"I think I finally get it."

"Get what?" There was something about the look in his eyes, the confidence, the surety, that had me swallowing hard.

"You." And as he smiled, it was almost smug. "I get you, Oz. You're a little, Aren't you?"

If only I had known at the time just how much those few little words were going to change my life.

The Little Of Oz Series

He didn't give me the chance to reply. Shaking his head, spitting on the ground, he turned his back on me. I didn't try to stop him. Further and further, until he became but a silhouette in the distance, I watched him go.

/"Bright side,/" I found myself murmuring. /"At least he didn't hit me this time./"

But then again, that wasn't much of a bright side, was it?

Isaac was wrong. Love didn't fade. It just hurt. I loved him. I loved him the way I would my own flesh and blood . . . and his dismissal, his disregard for everything we had been through together, for twelve years of friendship . . . it hurt.

It hurt, and I wasn't sure if it would ever stop.

Oz stayed at my house that night. My father, thankfully, was still out of town, and I had been taking full advantage of that.

Chapter53