The Penderwicks in spring again

Part 7

In the days leading up to her birthday Skye's wariness about Jeffrey lessened mostly because  she hadn't interacted with him in nearly two weeks. She had no problem with him coming as long as he behaved and she was confident that he would behave. However many romantic feelings he may have, he wouldn't risk losing her over them; right?
   Jeffrey, on the other hand was a bit of a wreck. She doesn't love me she doesn't love me she doesn't- no matter how many times he told himself this, there was still a little part of him that believed she might. Might let herself feel for him. In his small dorm in his Boston boarding school, Jeffrey thought about Skye, during his classes and performances, while eating, while sleeping. His feelings weren't particularly thought out, Skye certainly would have shamed him for his lack of planning. If Skye didn't love Jeffrey he would be torn apart, if he tried to make her love him, she would throw their friendship away, probably never speak to him again. And Jeffrey  couldn't live without Skye and he presumed that's he couldn't live without him. So all that Jeffrey was left with was hope, terribly planned, under researched hope. It was all he could hold onto. It wasn't that he was jumping into his feelings exactly, he'd thought about this for ages. The feelings he felt when he was around her, how he couldn't help smiling at everything she said. And staring, by no fault of his own, Jeffrey's eyes were constantly glued to Skye's. There was something that pulled them together, there always had been. It isn't nothing Jeffrey thought she can tell herself over and over it's nothing, but it isn't. It can't be.