“What’s with that?” Ariel asks, disgust clear in her tone. “What?” I ask, as though my heart hasn’t fractured. Since Crosby returned, he hasn’t shown interest in any other girls. “Don’t act like you don’t see it, El. I really wish you hadn’t made this deal. I can handle Mom and Dad.” Ariel fights my decision like she did earlier when I told her to go ahead and take Spencer home for the parents to meet him. “Ariel, you’ve sacrificed a lot because of me. If I can give you this happiness without any of the pain, it’s worth it.” “It’s worth your own heart never feeling whole? El, I know you love him.” We sit on the rock, and we dangle our feet into the water, watching all the college kids be carefree, Crosby included. “We were young. Who’s to say we’d even make it? Our story is like a tragic love tale. Take Romeo and Juliet.
