"Yeah, well, that was a long time ago," Tracey muttered. For a moment she missed those days, when she still had people who loved her, when the lines between friends and enemies were so clearly drawn, and when she was still able to blush when a boy looked at her the way Theodore was looking at her now. Those days were long gone, though, and so was the girl who'd lived in them.
But she didn't crawl back onto his lap when he took her hand, and just rested her head on his shoulder instead. "I'm not that person anymore. I wish I could be, but I'm not. And no one's going to believe me even if I tried. I bet those friends of yours are talking about how horrid I am right now. Are they looking at us? Tell me."