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A pang of longing sweeps through me. These boys are true friends. They have each other’s backs, they grew up together, and together they’ll be a force to be reckoned with once they’re older. I don’t have that. It should be there with my sister, but for the last few years, we’ve been more like master and slave than twins.
I’ve never really had friends, and until I spent the last few days here with this close-knit group, I never really considered I was missing out. Now that I’ve witnessed firsthand how effortlessly the four of them pull together, I wish I had someone in my corner who would be there for me, no questions asked.
“Stop arguing, Little Ghost,” Gulliver says, dropping his arm over my shoulder and pulling me into his side. “This is tradition.”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“What are you talking about? How are you intruding? You’re one of us now. We work, then we play, this is what we always do,” Thorn says, pulling off his wet jacket and haphazardly slinging it over his shoulder, ignoring the water that’s dripping all over the floor.
“Everyone go and get changed. I’ll find Beth and ask her to order the pizzas for us,” Kip says. “Anything you don’t eat, Izzy?” he calls over his shoulder.
I shake my head, and he flashes me a dazzling smile before he strides away. The rest of us climb the stairs as a group, then split off toward our own rooms. When I reach the door to my room, I turn around. “Gulliver.”
His hand stills on his door handle, and he turns to look at me. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours, Little Ghost?”
Sighing, I glance down at my beautiful dress that’s now ruined and wet. “Look, I appreciate you all trying to make me feel welcome, and I know that you feel guilty and responsible for everything that happened with my parents. But I don’t need pity invites to hang out with you, and I don’t want to force myself on you guys just because you feel bad.”
Gulliver’s eyes glitter as he prowls toward me, his lips twisted into a smirk. “Izzy.”
“Yeah.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“What?” I snap indignantly.
“For once, stop thinking everything is a lie and just fucking listen. We’re not inviting you to join us because we feel guilty or because we feel sorry for you. We’re inviting you because we like you. You’re one of us now, and we want to spend time with you.”
“But I’m not one of you,” I argue, abruptly stopping speaking when his finger presses to my lips, shushing me.
“Izabella, you’re my fiancée; you couldn’t be any more one of us if you tried,” he says, removing his finger from my lips and sliding it along my jaw.
“But it’s not real,” I whisper, my eyes widening a little as I look up at him and find him watching me, his gaze soft.
“Feels pretty real to me.” His lips find mine, and he kisses me with a searing intensity that has me pushing up onto my tiptoes, trying to get as close to him as possible.
“I don’t understand,” I whisper when he pulls back, stroking his fingers along the line of my jaw.
“I know you don’t,” he whispers back, looking at me with earnest, intense eyes. “But you will. Until then, pretend you’re actually mine. Pretend you’re wearing my ring because you want the world to know that I claimed you. Pretend that every person that looks at you is lucky I’ve allowed them to have the chance to lay eyes on you. Pretend that you feel this connection that binds us together the same way that I do. Pretend that the only thing about us that’s a lie is that I’d ever let you go. Can you do that for me, Izzy?”
Tears fill my eyes as I shake my head. “Don’t…”
“Don’t what, Little Ghost?”
“Don’t toy with me.”
“What if I don’t want to play make believe with you, Izzy. What if I want it to be true?”
My lips part, but before I can speak, he kisses me again, stealing my words. “Stop thinking so hard. Get changed, Little Ghost, then come and eat pizza and watch a movie with me and our friends.”
28
GULLIVER
Walking away from her gets harder every time I do it. I don’t want to leave her to get changed in her own room alone, I want to peel her wet clothes off her, soap her up in the shower, then carry her to bed and lick the drops of water off her skin.
I don’t know if this need for her I’m feeling is just a side effect of our circumstances or more than that. But if I’m being honest with myself, I’ve had to fight my urge to keep her close since the first moment I started this lie and kissed her on the steps outside of school.
In the days we’ve been holed up in the house waiting for her face to heal, she’s easily fit into our group dynamic, like she’s been friends with us for years. Tonight is the first time I had any clue that she thought we were just being nice to her out of guilt.
