Anna's POV
I find him at the edge of the school grounds after last bell, where the fence gives way to the scrub that runs down toward the water, in the one corner nobody bothers with. He's alone, leaning against the chain-link with his back to me, and for a moment I just stop and look at him, and something in my chest unlocks so hard it almost hurts.
He's alive. He walked out of that building. I didn't let myself understand how much I needed to see it until I'm seeing it, and my eyes sting stupidly, and I blink it back before he can turn around and catch it.
He turns around anyway. He always seems to know when I'm there.
"You shouldn't be over here," he says. But there's no heat in it. He looks worse than I've ever seen him, the shadows under his eyes gone almost bruise-dark, a stillne
