I walked a little to the back of Toby, paranoid of having someone to where I couldn’t watch them. I knew it was stupid. The trips had always protected me. They would never hurt me. My heart knew this, but my thick head kept getting in the way. “Are we going to avoid conversation?” Toby asked, looking at me with one eyebrow raised. ‘Of course not. Why do you ask?’ I signed. “Well, I can’t walk backwards to watch you speak, so it would be nice if you joined me up here.” I just looked at him warily for a minute. I guess he could feel my conflicting thoughts, because he stopped, turned to me, and grabbed both of my hands. I flinched at the contact, but didn’t take my hands away. He looked into my eyes, I guess to try to read what was really going on, before he spoke. “Pea, I’ve always cared so much about you. The four of us have had a connection from day one. We didn’t let too many people in back then with all the crap going on in our family at the time, but we all took one look at you and knew you were something special.
