Page 73 of One Word, Six Letters

Still, when he catches your eye and grins, it doesn’t hurt as bad this time. Maybe someday the two of you can be back to how it was.

He looks toward the hall, says something, reaches out, and drags someone in with him.

Not just someone.

Dayton.

Nour’s jaw drops, sending cookie crumbles tumbling onto her keffiyeh before she brushes them off. “What’s he doing here?”

“I don’t know.”

You and Dayton didn’t magically become friends after the wholelocker thing. You did your presentation together, and that was that. You still don’t talk much, and you’re fine with that. Yeah, he did the right thing, but that doesn’t erase the wrong he’s done, does it?

Maybe it does, because some people smile at him, welcome him to RC, clap him on the back like he’s some sort of hero for turning in his ex–best friend. But then again, some folks are hanging back, looking at him warily, because he’s still the guy who shouted a slur at an assembly, too.

He spots you, and his cheeks flush, but he doesn’t look away, and you don’t, either, not until Cooper takes him to the cookie table and you can breathe again.

“Well. Maybe he’s trying to do better,” Nour says.

“Maybe.”

You don’t know how to feel about that. You don’t want to deal with him, here, the one place in school you can truly relax, where you don’t have to have any hackles at all.

But he’s coming your way.

“Hey,” Cooper says, smiling at you again, and he still smells nice, like always. Dayton does, too. You’ve noticed that in history lately. Maybe he’s always smelled nice, and you’ve been unwilling to admit it. He and Cooper are friends again, and you don’t know how to feel about that, either, because him and Cooper being friends, and you and Cooper being friends, feels like it shouldn’t mix.

“Hey,” you say.

Dayton swallows his bite of chocolate chip cookie.

“Hey,” he says.

You should sayheyback, but your voice isn’t working. Your throat has clamped shut.

Dayton hurt you. He was friends with people who hurt you. Heand Reggie and Brody made this year a nightmare. Made you afraid to walk down the halls, made you afraid of yourself. But he also stood up to them, eventually. He tried to keep your secret.

And he’s here now. Doing what you told him.

Taking action.

So, what? Are you supposed to be cool with it, cool with him, like nothing ever happened? And if you’re not cool with it, does that make you the problem?

He’s still looking at you, and he looks hopeful and wary and sad, those big blue eyes of his wide and open.

You’ve spent all year feeling afraid, feeling paranoid, feeling helpless, but you’re not anymore.

Now he’s the one who’s afraid, who’s nervous, who’s not sure if he’s welcome or wanted.

One word from you can shape his future. You’re the one with the power.

How are you going to use it?