It was commonly known that Aaron Burr did not eat pizza.

It was greasy and full of calories and it was a food that demanded to be eaten with other people. Burr did not have other people to eat pizza with, nor did he want any such friends.

There was a single person that he enjoyed eating pizza—anything, really—with. But Aaron did not discuss that person.

Most of the pizza places in Yonkers weren't that good, anyway.

Aaron made the walk home, appreciating the quiet sound of his feet on the cement. The evening was chilly, but the sunset that was still visible over the trees was hard to ignore. There was barely a cloud in the sky. Thanksgiving was approaching, and the businesses in town were decorated for the occasion. A little girl ran past him, wearing a princess dress already. Aaron couldn't help but smile. He didn't like children. But...well...he didn't dislike them either.

Aaron's thoughts went to the child that he had been ordered to help around. Sure, Hamilton was a teenager. But he acted like a child. And he definitely talked as much as a five-year-old. Hamilton was annoying, just like a child, as well.

Hamilton…

That boy had taken the school by storm. His posters had been up in all the hallways, and as much as they were torn down or vandalized, they kept coming up on every Monday. People seemed to be getting used to them. And now he was the youngest ever member of the Continental High Student Council. Aaron didn't like him, but at least as long as Hamilton was there, Prevost wasn't.

Prevost. Jacques Prevost was—

Damn.

Without realizing it, Aaron hadn't gone home. He was standing in front of the small green-roofed house that Theodosia Bartow lived in. Aaron wondered if he should—could—knock on the door and go in. If he and Theodosia could talk with each other, maybe give each other more, as they always did. Aaron closed his eyes, letting the crisp wind blow through his body. He was being an idiot again.

Theodosia sent him emails every day, often four or five, filled with scans of drawings she had done on paper or links to things she had drawn on her computer, filled with compliments and thoughts that she had come up with in the middle of class. As a senior, most of her teachers allowed her to take notes on her computer, but she spent too much of her class time emailing him. Sometimes, Aaron would get an email in the library that made him blush and file it separately, for when he was alone.

Theodosia loved her computer. Jacques Prevost didn't know that about her, and Aaron Burr did, but it didn't feel like a victory to Aaron.

He opened his eyes and took a look at the aqua curtains that hung in the windows. Slowly, he turned away from the house, and made his way back home.

Theodosia never texted him. She sent him hundreds of emails every month. And every day, a paper letter would arrive in his mailbox. Aaron had never caught her putting them in his mailbox herself, but he had a feeling that she was.

The letters even arrived when Jacques was in town, and Aaron had a feeling that she did it as her own form of self-harm. As her form of shoplifting. Just to get an adrenaline rush. And Aaron knew it was selfish, but he didn't care, as long as the letters kept arriving.

He liked it when Prevost wasn't in town. Prevost had been going to a school in Georgia for the last few weeks, which left time for him to spend with Theodosia without feeling like he was invading someone else's territory.

Well, that was what he was doing anyway, wasn't it? But it felt less wrong.

It was still wrong. But Jacques could have the moral high ground. Everyone else in the world could have the moral high ground and the non-secrets and whatever the hell else they wanted. Just as long as Aaron had Theodosia.

Aaron didn't talk a lot, and when he did, it was always because he had something that couldn't sound bad to anyone listening. But his silence gave him more time to observe. And he observed how love, or lust, or whatever it was called, dragged down whoever was experiencing it. Cornelia and Esther, both excluded by everyone at Continental High School because they were together. Hamilton, who was obviously unsure of what he wanted in life—love would hold him back and confuse him. Even Theodosia.

Burr didn't know why she stayed with Jacques. It hurt him. It hurt her. But then, that was just love, wasn't it? Maybe it was just created by some other emotional deficiency. Burr's parents had died when he was young, leaving him with no mother, no father, no one to look up to, just a legacy to protect and to continue. He had lived with his father, a preacher who bordered on insane, until his grandfather had died as well. Maybe the only reason that Aaron allowed himself to stay with Theodosia, who would never give all of herself to anyone, was that he didn't know how to feel love himself.

Damn, he hated getting introspective.

Aaron Burr was an intelligent man. He had plans for life. Maybe he wouldn't be as famous as his parents, but he knew that he could succeed in life. Which was why Mrs. Warren and all of the teachers wondered why he wasn't doing more to move faster, get more internships, get a job.

Aaron knew that those things would all come to him. Call it selfish, call him privileged—but he knew that he would make it in life, and he knew that he would be better served by leaving more options open for himself and saving his steam for when he really needed it.

Hamilton was just the opposite of that, wasn't he? He moved fast and never looked back. He had no fears and didn't seem to care when something went wrong for him.

What the hell was it like being him?

And then there was Theodosia. She was like a combination of Aaron and Hamilton. She kept to herself, but she wasn't afraid of anything. She cheated on Jacques every day, and yet stayed with him in name for some reason.

Aaron hated feeling selfish.

Aaron hated wishing.

But he selfishly wished that Theodosia would just leave Jacques and be with him.

Aaron didn't believe in happiness.

But with Theodosia...it almost seemed possible.