It was fine. You were fine. You'd handle it yourself, because that was how it'd always been. You grew up with two parents who so clearly didn't want a child but unfortunately had one anyways. You liked to pretend it didn't bother you but you had a big problem with letting people get close to you.

Neither you nor Joel put a label on what you shared, kept things on the low. Yet you'd spent more and more time together. And it was making you nervous. Because you liked him. You really liked him. But you didn't know how he felt about you. So you did what you did best. You pushed him away. It's been a week of you avoiding him now, and it was starting to piss him off. Suddenly you couldn't even bear to look at him. Joel couldn't stand it. Had he done something wrong?

"Hey, you. Where you scattering off to now, huh?" He's got you cornered, like a caged mouse down some alley in Jackson. He doesn't plan on moving until you talk to him, because he misses you.