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his eyes. Realization washed over him, and he relaxed, letting go of my arm but not breaking eye contact.
    “Sorry. It looked like someone grabbed your arm extremely hard,” he apologized, looking a little guilty for his reaction.
    “It was from my friend Liz. She grabbed my arm yesterday, but not hard; she was just trying to get my attention,” I explained and forced a small smile.
    Monique came back and Kyle stepped away, giving us room. She handed me a book, and I sat down in the chair and flipped through it. There was every color imaginable: reds, browns, black, purples, blues… I stopped when I got to the pinks and an idea formed.
    “Can I get highlights?” I asked, looking at Kyle and Monique.
    “Whatever you want,” Kyle told me
    “Do you know what color you want?” Monique asked. I looked back down and then back up and grinned.
    “Pink!” I exclaimed excitedly. Instead of doing a color like brown or black to blend in, I decided I wanted something fun that would stand out.
    “Thought you didn’t want blonde hair?” Kyle questioned my choice.
    “Decided to improve it instead of hide it,” I beamed at him.
    Monique got the dye and began working on my hair. She put this weird bonnet thing with small holes everywhere on my head, pulled hair through, and started coloring it. She talked to me, keeping the conversation light and asking things like how I knew Kyle and how old I was. The process was lengthy, but Kyle waited patiently. Monique eventually washed my hair, dried it, and left it down. She turned me toward the mirror, and I finally saw my hair. There were bright pink streaks all through my blond hair, and it looked awesome.
    I ran to where Kyle was sitting. He had just stood up, and I threw myself at him, hugging him.
    “Thank you!” I squealed. “I love it!” He chuckled as he carefully placed his hand on my back to return the hug.
    “No problem,” he said, brushing off my thanks. When I let go of him, he went over to Monique and paid for it. I hadn’t even processed the fact that it would cost money and immediately felt guilty. I knew I didn’t have the money to pay for it. He thanked Monique and then headed back toward the exit where I was standing.
    “You didn’t have to do that.” I tried to tone my excitement down.
    “It’s okay. I wanted to.”
    Kyle took me to a diner after, and we ate burgers and fries. We didn’t talk a lot, but every so often I would catch him watching me. He was probably waiting for me to break like I had yesterday, but I wasn’t going to—not yet, anyway. He’d distracted me from my problems by giving me something I had wanted to do for a long time. He’d made me take control of something in my life that I could for the time being, and it had felt good.
    After lunch, he drove us back to our street and parked in his driveway. He walked with me to my front door, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and handed it to me.
    “In case you need a stranger to talk to again.” He began to walk away as I opened the folded paper and saw his name and number handwritten on it.
    “I’m not sure that I can still call you a stranger,” I called after him. “I mean, we’re on a first-name basis and everything.”
    He had turned around when I was still talking. “Plus, I know your secret,” he yelled back to me. My mind went right to my cancer, and my expression sobered. I started to look away, but then he spoke again. “You like rock music.”
    I laughed, not having expected that.
    “Thanks for today, Kyle; it’s just what I needed.”
    He nodded and flashed a half smile. “See you, Taylor.” And with that, he went into his house.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    Sitting on my bed, I retrieved my iPhone from my purse to enter Kyle’s phone number and noticed I had a missed text message.
    Austin: You never called yesterday.
    The phone works both ways, I thought, irritated. I knew I needed to tell him what was going on, so I texted him