Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3)

by Tahereh Mafi

“I don’t want to do this without you,” I whisper. He leans back. “Who said you’re going to do anything without me?” My heart skips a few beats. I stare at him. “What?” he asks. Raises his eyebrows. “You’re surprised?” “You’ll fight with me?” I ask him, hardly breathing. “Fight back with me? Even if it’s with Warner?” Kenji smiles. Looks up at the sky. “Hell yeah,” he says. “Really?” “I’m here for you, kid. That’s what friends are for.”

“I was happier,” Adam says, “when I thought she was dead.”

Meanie

“They were my birthday presents,” he says. “Every year from the time I was five. Until I turned eighteen,” he says. “He didn’t come back for my nineteenth birthday.”

And if you do not shower on a regular basis, do not come within ten feet of me.” Kenji snorts.

“You don’t love him at all?” Warner asks me. My voice is being stupid. “Romantically?” He nods. “No.” “You’re not attracted to him?” “I’m attracted to you.” “I’m serious,” he says. “So am I.”

“Aaron?” “Yes, love.”

“I love you,” I whisper. “I love you exactly as you are.” Warner is looking at me like he might be going deaf and blind at the same time. “No,” he gasps. One broken, broken word. Barely even a sound. He’s shaking his head and he’s looking away from me and his hand is caught in his hair, his body turned toward the table and he says “No. No, no—” “Aaron—” “No,” he says, backing away. “No, you don’t know what you’re saying—” “I love you,” I tell him again. “I love you and I want you and I wanted you then,” I say to him, “I wanted you so much and I still want you, I want you right now—”