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notepad.
    “Kennedy, I know you’re in there. Open the door.”
    I recognized the girl’s voice, but I couldn’t place it.
    “I’m not leaving,” she said.
    I cracked the door. One of the Black Eyeliners stood on the other side, looking bored.
    She glanced over my shoulder at what was left of my dorm room. “Rough day?” Her tone dripped with sarcasm.
    “What do you want?” I asked, holding the notepad against my chest.
    “If you’re gonna be a bitch, I’ll just tell the hot guy who’s looking for you that you weren’t interested in his message.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    The girl sighed and rolled her eyes. “I caught him wandering around Anderson Hall. He said he needed to find you. That it was a big emergency or something. You’re lucky he ran into me and not one of the dorm mothers.” She held up a damp scrap of paper. “He said to give you this.”
    I unfolded the paper, and my heart felt like it stopped beating. The black ink was smeared, but I still recognized the image—and who had made it.
    Jared.
    In the center of the page, he’d drawn a black dove. Exactly like the one tattooed on his arm.
    Black Eyeliner Girl gestured at the drawing. “So what does it mean?”
    “Where is he?”
    She crossed her arms, indignant. “Are you gonna tell me who he is?”
    I stepped closer, stopping just inches from her face. “Where is he?”
    The girl shrank back against the wall. “Relax. Did you skip your meds today or something? He’s behind Anderson Hall.”
    I pushed past her and raced down the hallway.
    Nineteen days had passed since the last time Jared and I saw each other, but it felt like forever. I thought about him every day, and every day I fought the urge to take off and look for him.
    But now he was here, and finding him was the only thing that mattered.

    By the time I reached Anderson Hall, my wet clothes were clinging to my body. Behind the dormitory, the woods stretched into a sea of black. But for the first time since the night I spent hidden in the back of my mom’s closet as a kid, my chest didn’t tighten from the surrounding darkness.
    My only fear was not finding Jared.
    “Jared?” I whispered. “Where are you?”
    Please be here.
    Between the rain battering the roof and the wind rustling the leaves, I couldn’t hear anything except the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.
    “Kennedy?”
    I spun around and collided with Jared’s chest. My feet slid out from under me and he caught my wrist. It started to slip through his wet hand, the same way it had nineteen days ago as we ran from the crumbling prison.
    But this time I didn’t fall.
    Jared lifted me and slid his hands under my arms, his thumbs pressing against the tender spot just below my shoulder bones. I let my hands trail up his arms, the muscles tense beneath my touch. He stared down at me, his blue eyes even paler in the sea of black around us.
    For a moment, neither of us moved.
    “I found you,” he whispered, bringing his hand up to touch my face.
    The words wouldn’t come. I reached out and grabbed the front of the heavy green utility jacket he was wearing on top of his army jacket, clenching it in my fist. Jared’s hand slid down my jawline and through my hair. When his fingers reached the base of my neck, he pressed gently, urging me into his arms.
    “Talk to me, Kennedy.”
    I let my forehead drop against his chest and choked back a sob.
    “Just tell me if you’re okay,” he pleaded.
    “As close as I’m going to get.”
    Jared lifted my chin, and I could make out the faint outline of his face. His strong features and long eyelashes, the scar above his eye, and the boyish good looks hidden underneath a
Fight Club
exterior. His lips grazed mine, tentative at first. My breath caught, and he pulled me onto my toes, deepening the kiss.
    I felt everything at once—the happiness of seeing him again and shame for allowing myself to feel it, the pain of missing him and the fear of losing him.
    He