Four years ago, John and Terry at age twelve
"Do it now, son."
His mother's grip tightened around his shoulder but John didn't feel the pain. There was pain but it came from his chest, suffocating him, knowing that what he was going to do, what she was making him do will make him lose the only girl he cared about.
John watched Terry with his mother from the corner of the ballroom. She was opening gifts, surrounded by children her age his father had rounded up to show the pretense that she had friends. The birthday was smiling, though it didn't quite reach her eyes, and her gaze kept moving around, searching.
For him.
"You're not moving," his mother's icy voice came to him. "So you choose her?"
He shook his head.
He didn't know.
He wasn't sure.
Why did he have to choose?
Why did s
