He lays me on the bed. I say, right before he kisses me again, “If you kiss me again, I’m going to knee you in the balls.”
His hands are incredibly soft, like a cloud touching me.
“I won’t let you just…” He searches for the right word. “…fly away from me, Cassie Sullivan.”
He blows out the candle beside the bed.
I feel his kiss more intensely now, in the darkness of the room where his sister died. In the quiet of the house where his family died. In the stillness of the world where the life we knew before the Arrival died. He tastes my tears before I can feel them. Where there would be tears, his kiss.
“I didn’t save you,” he whispers, lips tickling my eyelashes. “You saved me.”
He repeats it over and over, until we fall asleep pressed against each other, his voice in my ear, my tears in his mouth.
“You saved me.

He knocks once against the side. I don’t get it at first, and then I laugh.
Let’s establish a code for when you want to go all creeper on me. One knock means you’d like to come in.
“Yes, Evan.” I’m laughing so hard, it’s starting to hurt. “You can come in.

When I wake up the next morning, there's a Hershey's Kiss sitting on the table beside me.

Aren’t you coming with us?”
I feel his hand on my cheek. I know what this means and I slap his hand away.
“You’re coming with us, Evan,” I say.
“There’s something I have to do.”
“That’s right.” My hand flails for his in the dark. I find it and pull hard. “You have to come with us.”
“I’ll find you, Cassie. Don’t I always find you? I—”
“Don’t, Evan. You don’t know you’ll be able to find me.”
“Cassie.” I don’t like the way he says my name. His voice is too soft, too sad, too much like a good-bye voice. “I was wrong when I said I was both and neither. I can’t be; I know that now. I have to choose.”
“Wait a minute,” Ben says. “Cassie, this guy is one of them?”
“It’s complicated,” I answer. “We’ll go over it later.” I grab Evan’s hand in both of mine and press it against my chest. “Don’t leave me again.”
“You left me, remember?” He spreads his fingers over my heart, like he’s holding it, like it belongs to him, the hard-fought-for territory he’s won fair and square.
I give in. What am I going to do, put a gun to his head? He’s gotten this far, I tell myself. He’ll get the rest of the way.
“What’s due north?” I ask, pushing against his fingers.
“I don’t know. But it’s the shortest path to the farthest spot.”
“The farthest spot from what?”
“From here. Wait for the plane. When the plane takes off, run. Ben, do you think you can run?”
“I think so.”
“Run fast?”
“Yes.” He doesn’t sound too confident about it, though.
“Wait for the plane,” Evan whispers. “Don’t forget.”
He kisses me hard on the mouth, and then the stairwell goes all Evanless.

I should have asked, I guess,” he says. “I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“What?”
He rotates around on his butt to face me. Me on the sofa, him on the floor, looking up. “That I was going with you.”
“What? We weren’t even talking about that! And why would you want to go with me, Evan? Since you think he’s dead?”
“I just don’t want you to be dead, Cassie.

Let’s establish a code for when you want to go all creeper on me. One knock means you’d like to come in. Two means you’re just stopping by to spy on me while I sleep.” His eyes travel from my face to my shirt (which happens to be his shirt) to my bare legs, lingering a breath too long before returning to my face. His gaze is warm. My legs are cold.
Then he knocks once on the jamb. But it’s the smile that gets him in.