All the trees were bare now, but I liked them that way. I tried to draw a bare tree once, following the trunk line up to the last little branch-it's surprising how intricate a tree is. I stuffed my hands in my puffy pockets as I walked, my eyes down on the sidewalk. I looked up when I got to Ren's house. I was surprised he hadn't come looking for me when I was late. He didn't text me either. Had the kiss ruined our friendship? Is that what we were? There should be some kind of alarm that sounded when you crossed from the friend zone into the boyfriend zone.

As I walked by I heard someone's door open and slam. Someone on their way to work, probably.

"MacKenzie?" I stopped in my tracks at the sound of his voice. I turned to look behind me. He was staring back at me. Stunned, I didn't answer right away. He was supposed to be in school already. His hair was all messed up, like James when he woke up with bedhead.

"Hey, you're late," I said. Oh no. I was wearing the puffy coat. Not good.

He walked up to me and I waited for him because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want to see him, but it would be ridiculous to walk ahead of him all the way to school. And suddenly I remembered the kiss and my heart was beating faster. Under layers of feathers and penguins.

"I...slept in," he said. "What are you doing so late?"

"I slept in, too." It was mostly the truth. I wasn't going to tell him I did it on purpose to avoid him.

We stood for a moment in the cold. He was wearing a sweat-shirt, his hand in his pockets, hunched over as usual. He didn't know about puffy coats yet, apparently.

He pulled one of his hands out of his pockets and rubbed his head like it hurt. "Look, MacKenzie, I'm so sorry...I wanted it to be better."

Oh no. He was talking about kissing me. He wanted it to be better? What did that mean? It was bad? I'm a bad kisser?

"It's no big deal. We can still be friends." I thought I said it with just right mix of who-cares and oh-look-there's-a-bird-over-there.

He stared at me and he had the same expression on his face when I'd told him it was my first kiss. Horrified, maybe. "You think kissing me was a mistake?"

"No! I mean, I don't know. You said it was a mistake." I was so confused. Maybe a rogue meteor would fall out of the sky and smash me into blissful oblivion.

"I'm trying to say I'm sorry for giving you the worst first kiss in the history of ...first kisses. I wanted it to be better for you. I wanted you to remember it as something special." He was pleading with me, his eyes searching mine.

Shocked, I blinked at him. "Oh. Well, it was. I mean, I liked it."

"I should have asked you first."

I realized he must have liked kissing me and he was going to give up on that particular activity if I didn't do something fast. I grabbed his sweat-shirt and he looked at me, a faint hope dawning in his eyes.

I said quickly, "I think we should do it again...you know, whenever. You did a good job at it. It was a great kiss. Definitely...good."

I knew I was babbling. His mouth was twitched in a smile.

"Really?"

I was blushing, unfortunately. I pushed my hair behind my ears and looked away. "Yes. It was...I liked it. Can we go now?"

"Absolutely not." He leaned down and closed his eyes and kissed me, his mouth moving over mine, sweet and long.

Naturally all my brain cells died. I think we started walking again afterwards and he was holding my hand. I'm not sure how he found it in my puffy sleeve.

"Is everyone this awkward?" I asked, stepping on a stray leaf that had escaped our neighbor's efforts to rake it up.

He laughed. "No way."

"Why are we so bad?"

There was that thoughtful expression on his face again, as if he were meditating on the secrets of the universe. "Because we matter."

I was so stunned that I couldn't say anything. He mattered to me more than I could ever tell him, but I never expected him to feel the same way. It seemed like too much to ask. "How do you know?" I blurted out.

His eyes held mine and I knew he was going to tell me something important. I held his hand tighter and waited.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

Ren I woke up late. My mom had warned me all morning but I was so tired, and feeling sorry for myself so ignored her until I finally looked over at the clock and realized I'd ignored her too long. I was late. Very late. I stumbled downstairs in the clothes I'd slept in. My mom was tight-lipped and irritated at me. She was probably thinking about grounding me. I was so late that I was sure MacKenzie had left without me, and that made me mad at myself.

Something was wrong between us and I had no idea what it was. She hadn't texted me or anything. How big of a mistake was that kiss? Between her and the Ghost of Kyle's Future I was miserable.

It was cold out. Unbelievably, freaking cold. It should be against the law to live anywhere this cold. I checked the thermometer on the porch. Thirty degrees? That didn't sound that cold. It sure felt like it. I remembered some old guy at the Wal-Mart when we first moved here, telling my mom that the East had a wet cold, which was colder than a dry cold. At first I'd thought it was funny, but now I understood. It went right to my bones, and stayed there, chilling my insides.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a familiar figure. MacKenzie? What was she doing going to school this late? I called out to her and she looked like she was seeing a ghost.

She was cold and distant, almost as if we'd just met. I hated the look in her eyes. She'd never looked at me before, like I was ordinary. Her admiration scared me most of the time, but now that it was gone I missed it.

I apologized for the way I kissed her and she said it was no big deal, but she was still distant, like she didn't want to talk about it. She was killing me. What had I done? Had I ruined any chance with her? Who would she end up with if it wasn't me? I didn't want to know.

There was no way I was giving up on her. When she blushed and admitted I did mean something to her I was so relieved I could have kissed her again. Well, okay, I did. And then she wanted to know why she was so important to me.

I've seen some terrifying futures before-lives that scared me stupid. I've carved waves that could kill me and I even dislocated my shoulder once when a wave pulled it out.

Telling her the truth was by far the hardest leap I've ever had to take. If she believed me, and she accepted me for what I was, I wouldn't be alone anymore. If she believed me, I could do anything, maybe even save Kyle. If she didn't then it didn't matter how much she liked me, she wouldn't respect me anymore. She would think I was crazy. Was it worth the risk?

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

MacKenzie "I'm going to tell you something that is hard to believe," he said, his dark gaze so intense I could only wallow in it, mesmerized.

"Okay."

"I know things about people..." he paused and I could tell he didn't want to say the next part.

"Ren, no matter what you say to me, I will believe you. I swear it. Stop being afraid to talk to me. Dr. Phil says communication is very important."

He burst out laughing and put his hand over his eyes. "I can't do this. You're not taking me seriously, and this is serious."

I pulled his hand away from his eyes and he stopped smiling. He was afraid. I stood up on tiptoes and put my forehead up to his. "It will be okay."

He took a deep breath and pulled away from me, though he held my hands.

"I know what is going to happen to people in the future." He stared at me and I looked back, my brain trying to absorb what he'd said.

"Like a psychic?"

He was watching me, his body tight and still. "Yes."

A shiver ran up my spine and the hairs on my neck stood up. I didn't know how, but I knew he was telling me the truth. It was as true and real as my dumb puffy coat, as the cold that bit at my skin. As real as the fact that I loved him, even though I couldn't prove either one. No wonder he was afraid to tell me.

"I believe you."

He relaxed, his eyes almost disbelieving. "You do." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes, I do." A car passed us, a minivan with a woman on a cell phone. The phone lines above our heads swayed. The sun was trying to come out through the clouds, but the wind blew the clouds over the one little beam that managed to find its way. My boyfriend could see the future.

He twisted our fingers together. "Can I tell you more?"

"Yes."

So he told me about Yurei and how he knew what was going to happen to people, mostly years and years ahead. He didn't know what tomorrow or a few months or even a few years ahead would bring, usually. I could hardly imagine what was going on in his head. No wonder he was so hard to read. How could I have guessed he was thinking about all that? He was full of information he couldn't share. A veritable bowl of "ask me" candy.

"What am I going to be like? Have you seen my...Yurei?"

He became guarded. "Yes."

Afraid he didn't want to give me bad news I asked, "Is it bad?"

He shook his head. "No. I don't want to ruin it. It's good, though, you can trust me on that."

"Okay, that's ridiculous. If you can know, so can I. I can handle my own future."

"I really don't want to tell you."

I kissed him. It was a little clumsy and he laughed in the middle of it. "Now will you tell me?" I asked.

He laughed again. "So if I refuse to tell, you'll keep kissing me? What kind of negotiator are you?"

"Desperate?"

He put his arms around me in a bear hug, squishing my puffy coat. "I like my girls desperate."

"Girls?!" I asked, outraged, but not really.

"Yeah. No. No, I'm kidding," he said, looking down at me. He kissed my nose. "If it makes you feel any better, I know less about my future than anyone else's. And I don't mind it."

"What do you know?"

He sighed, still squishing me against him. "Uh...I go to college, I travel. And...that's about it. It's very fuzzy."

He was leaving out some events, I could tell. "Do you get married?"

He stared down at me. "Yes."

"To?"

He didn't answer, his mouth soft and his eyes deep and dark. I knew what he wasn't going to tell me. We were only sixteen. I didn't dare say it out loud, but I knew. It was so big neither of us could tell each other, at least not now. Every daydream about romance and wedding dresses and playing house flashed through my mind and suddenly I knew they weren't far away dreams. They were going to be real.

At that moment I realized why knowing the future made him so different from everyone else. In theory most of us all know we're going to change but did we really believe it? Did we really know high school would be just a memory someday? We treated each other like we would all freeze in place and stay the way we were. The strong ones who thought they were immortal and the weak ones who didn't know who they were yet. We would all change and get older. Ren didn't need the theory we all ignored. He had fact-way before he was supposed to.

"What...what about Katie?" I asked weakly, my head spinning with it all.

He let go of me a little. "She becomes an art teacher and marries and they have some kids. Her kids are very cool. She eventually discovers she's got a talent for stained glass-which sounds really random right now."

"What about Steve and Crystal and the rest?

"Steve...his future is...ballin. He plays a big part in a huge technology breakthrough, but I don't know what it is. He changes the world, kind of, but he's always still Steve."

"That's not too big of a stretch. I can tell he's really smart."

"And Crystal..." he sighed. "I don't know what her past is because I can't see that. I do know that she's messed up and she's going to make some mistakes because of it. She's going to marry the wrong guy, have a baby and then she has to take care of her son by herself." He paused, a mix of emotions running across his face. "She eventually owns her own company and does really well. I can't help being completely inspired, I guess, by her. She figures it all out, without much help, either. Out of all the futures I've seen, hers impresses me the most."

"Wow." I felt like I'd read her diary. A little guilty, and very intrigued. "Maybe if you warn her she won't make those mistakes."

"I don't know. Maybe. You're the first person who's believed me. I didn't think I would be able to tell anyone what I know."

"You can help people. You could stop them from getting hurt," I said, getting excited about the idea. What if Katie knew sooner she was going to be an artist? A doubt hovered in the back of my mind. Would she believe such a thing? She had no interest in stained glass that I knew of. I knew she was kind of artistic, but I would have never guessed she was going to pursue it. What would make her decide to do that anyway? Would I mess it up by trying to push her towards it? I looked up at Ren. "Or maybe they have to figure it out by themselves."

He smiled, in a sad way. "If I knew more, or could prove what I knew. I only know the outlines of the future, not exactly how it happens or why. It's kind of blurry."

"It's so amazing. And Noah?"

"Ah." He let go of me completely. "Now that's an interesting story."

"Ooh. Juicy."

"He's going to lose his mother and one of his sisters in an accident."

I was shocked. "What do you mean? That's terrible."

"But...he makes it through. He becomes a high school teacher. Biology."

I tried to imagine Noah, the arrogant and cocky guy who used to torment me, becoming someone else. "How does he get through that kind of tragedy?"

He shrugged, but I could see that he was as amazed by it as I was. "I don't know. I don't know how any of us do what we are going to do. But you know what I've realized?"