<em>~ Maddi with Elijah and Kira at girl's camp ~</em><br/><br/>If this was a story, Maddi thought, or a romatic film, she'd have gasped, or fainted, or thrown her arms around him, but what happened was a stillness, as though her heart had stopped for a moment........ and then the whole world stopped too, frozen in time, as the effect of his words took hold of her.<br/><br/>The shock actually hurt, as though someone had punched her she ached with it.  She looked out across the beach to the ocean, as she couldn't turn to look at him, she was too scared to.  Petrified would be a better word, she dreaded looking into his eyes and not seeing the truth of his words.<br/><br/>Him love her?  Was she living in a fairy story?  Things like this did not happen to girls like her, they just didn't.  It was just his way of saying to Kira they had been together, that he cared for her.  So why were her eyes prickling with tears?  And why did it feel her heart was filled with helium and lifting her up to dance in the clouds?<br/><br/>Her eyes came to rest on Kira and she shook herself out of her fugue.  She had to try and focus on the realities of the situation.......   would Kira  accept Elijah's apology in the spirit it was given?<br/><br/>Still feeling too cowardly to look at Elijah, she kept her eyes on Kira, swallowing down the lump in her throat and trying to calm the racing pulse that had rocked through he ever since he said those words.