AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I didn’t answer. I just wrapped around him while he buried his face in my neck, his hidden tears wetting my flesh.
“I just lost my best friend again,” he said while we laid together on my twin bed in our shorts and T-shirts, sharing a pillow while Beau stared into my eyes. “He, uh. He kissed me, and I kissed him back. We did some stuff like we did in high school. But we can’t be together. And afterward, when I reminded him, he got mad again. We got in a fight. Said some mean shit. I swear we punched each other at the same time. So I had to walk away. So did he.”
I traced over his swollen lip. “Do you love him?”
The relief that flooded Beau’s eyes that I wasn’t judging him, that I cared, that I supported him? “Yes,” he answered. “I love him. I have to secretly love him.” He paused. “Like I secretly love you, Blair.”
Beau’s deep blue eyes vulnerably searched mine and found that place hidden in my heart for two years.
“I love you, too,” I murmured, letting my tears and secret escape. “But we can’t, Beau. We can’t hurt Reese. She’s too delicate. She’s too close to graduating.”
“She’s been acting strange,” he said. “Like she’s been avoiding me for weeks, like something’s wrong.”
“Sadly, something’s always wrong with her, and you can’t fix her. Only she can.”
He caressed a lock of my hair. “So what are we supposed to do?”
“Not get what we want.” I couldn’t stop touching his lips. Lips I couldn’t kiss but was dying to. “It hurts, but it won’t kill us.”
He nuzzled his forehead to mine. “You know I give you hell because you’d be my heaven.”
I nuzzled my nose against his. “You know I hate you because you kinda make me love you.”
We slept like that, holding each other, but when I awoke, Beau was gone. Still, I felt so special because he left his secret safe with me. It’ll always be, and that’s what makes this bittersweet.
I’m here to help Beau deny his love for Colton and me.
But I won’t have to do it long. We’re about to die. A hard jolt shakes the plane. My stomach drops, and, “Jesus, take the wheel,” I yelp.
The seatbelt light chimes, and we’ve flown into the eighth circle of hell. Then it becomes the ninth circle because Amber starts yapping at her phone, wrestling with the existential debate of matte versus glossy lipstick while our tiny jet is a yo-yo at thirty thousand feet.
“Hey.” Beau leans forward, reaching for my clammy hand. “It’s okay. It’s just turbulence. We’ll bounce right through it.”
Another jolt smacks the plane.
Colton takes his headphones off, glancing toward the cockpit.
“We’re fine,” he assures. “If the crew is calm, we’re calm. Besides, once you fly through a nor’easter after a loss to Boston, this little tropical breeze ain’t shit.”
“Now,” Amber advises no one on her screen while we face certain doom, “if you’re old, like over thirty, don’t wear matte. It’s a felony.”
No, a felony is what I’ll commit once I barf into the paper bag I grab from the side leather pocket of my recliner. I’ll fill it with my bile and breakfast before I shove it down Amber’s Botoxed neck. I swear the woman has no pores or creases like she’s AI and evil.
Beau sees how I must be as green as the Wicked Witch of the West.
“Hey, babe.” He unfastens his belt and kneels before me, holding my hand. “It’s okay. Hang in there. We’ll be fine.”
He’s taking this fake girlfriend thing to real levels. He’s risking his safety for me.
“Get back in your seat,” I tell him as the plane shakes violently, making my mouth water, but I worry. “You’ll get hurt.”
“I’m fine.” He ignores the laws of physics.
“Dude, she’s right,” Colton barks at him. “Get back in your seat. The last thing we need is for you to have a head injury, too.”
“Fuck you, Hawke.” Beau meets his glare. “My shoulder tear wasn’t my fault.”
“I didn’t say it was,” Colton snarls back. “But a head injury due to turbulence because you weren’t buckled in would be.”
