Free Classic by Cecily von Ziegesar Page B

against her. That just wasn’t his style.
    “Well?” he asked. “Should I sing a different song?”
    “It’s Easy,” Callie said. “And Brandon.”
    Alan blew out a breath, as if he’d just climbed up a huge hill. He shook his head. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s… a whole thing.”
    “It really is,” Callie agreed with a sigh.
    Before she knew it, the whole long, tortured saga poured out of her. She and Alan were the only people in the whole of Maxwell,
     and their little couch felt like a safe little oasis from the drama of her life. She told Alan everything, going all the way
     back to when she and Easy had started making out in the rare books room in the library at that party at the beginning of sophomore
     year, even though Callie had been dating Brandon at the time. She went over every single excruciating detail of her relationship
     with both boys—well, not
every
detail—and she didn’t spin the story to make herself look any better.
    As she talked, she played with the edges of her open, cream-colored Joie cardigan and the belt loops of her brown Theory slim-legged
     cargo pants. It was as if she couldn’t sit still. And when she was finished telling Alan all of her secrets, she feltmuch better. It was like finally getting her legs waxed and her eyebrows shaped after letting it all go for far too long—she
     felt smooth and clean.
    “Whoa,” Alan said after a few moments. “That’s some intense shit.”
    “I know,” Callie said, and suddenly she was giggling again. “But it’s my life.”
    Alan laughed. “I guess you’re stuck with it, then.”
    “I guess.” She let her head fall back against the couch. “What would you do?”
    Alan shifted his position on the couch with a thoughtful frown. He stuck his long legs out in front of him and shoved his
     hands into the pockets of his Diesel jeans. “I would go back in time and choose one of them,” he said, after a moment or two
     of intense consideration. “With no overlap.”
    Callie sighed and closed her eyes. If only time travel were an option. Unfortunately, Alan’s brownies weren’t
that
powerful.
    “But I get that you can’t exactly do that,” he continued. “It’s like the three of you are caught in a vicious circle. Like
     it’s an undertow, and none of you can get your heads above water.”
    Callie tugged harder at her belt loops. She pictured Easy and Brandon caught in the pull of the ocean off some deserted beach,
     tossing and turning in the waves, and she could save only one of them. She looked at Alan. “That’s exactly what it feels like.”
    Alan shrugged. “So you break the cycle,” he said matter-of-factly.
    Callie frowned. “How do I do that?”
    “You break up with
both
of them,” Alan said, stroking his beard. “The way you should have years ago. Then you wait and see who fights the hardest
     for you.”
    “They’re not going to fight each other, Alan,” Callie said, rolling her eyes.
    “They would if this was a Bruce Lee movie,” Alan replied immediately. He shook his head, as if to clear it of images of martial-arts
     masters. “But that’s not what I mean. You watch and see who fights for you. In, you know, a nonviolent way. Whoever that is,
     well, that’s the one you’re meant to be with.”
    Callie stared at his goofy stoner grin and his kind brown eyes. She thought about how helpless she felt when Easy was around.
     He was like a fire she could never quite put out. And she thought about how good Brandon was to her, how understanding and
     sweet, never angry or demanding. And she thought about how little she wanted to hurt either one of them yet again.
    Alan might possibly be the most brilliant person she’d ever encountered.
    “Oh my God,” she breathed. It was all clear to her. Finally. “Thank you, Alan!” she cried, and gave him an impulsive hug.
    “You got it,” he said, grinning.
    Callie flopped back against the couch and couldn’t help smiling. Because for the first time