Page 87 of People Like Us

August froze completely.

“I want you everywhere,” I whispered. “All the time.”

Something raw split open across his face then. His mouth twitched like he was trying not to break apart in front of me.

“I told you,” he said softly, voice shaking now, “you have me.” He swallowed hard. “Your God made you with too much gravity, Lola, because everything inside me bends toward you.” His thumb brushed shakily against my waist. “Anywhere. Always. I’m yours.”

The words hit me so hard I thought they might bruise. “Say you want me back,” I whispered.

August looked almost wounded by it. “Of course I want you.”

“Tell me to break up with him.”

Immediately, August shook his head.

“Lola, I can’t give you what he can.” His voice sounded strained now, uneven around the edges. “I’d never ask you to choose.”

Frustration surged hot through me. “I want you to,” I said desperately. “I want you to tell me you want me bad enough that you can’t stand the thought of someone else having me.”

August shut his eyes. When he opened them again, they glistened beneath the candlelight.

“I can’t stand it,” he admitted quietly. “But it would be selfish of me to ask you to give up something I can’t replace.”

I shook my head violently.

“I don’t want it, August.” My voice cracked apart. “Even if you never touched me again—as long as I got you every other way—it would still be better than faking it with anyone else.” Tears blurred my vision. “I can’t take another fucking day pretending I’m not in love with you.”

August looked up toward the ceiling sharply like he was trying to keep himself together by force. His chest rose unevenly beneath my hands. Then he looked back down at me. His voice broke completely.

“I’m so in love with you that even the demons in my head feel softer when they say your name.” A shaky breath left him. “And it’s still the only goddamned thing I want to hear for the rest of my life.”

August slipped the thin antique gold band from his pinky finger. He turned it slowly between his fingers before taking my right hand carefully in both of his.

“I made this for you.” He slid the ring gently onto my finger. At first glance it looked like a ruby set into the oval bezel. But when I looked closer beneath the resin coating, I realized the red stone wasn’t a gem at all.

August rubbed his thumb nervously against my knuckles. “I know the honey ones are your favorite,” he murmured, almost embarrassed now. “But I figured if I used a cherry one, you could tell people it was your birthstone.”

Something inside me shattered quietly. Before I could speak, August reached into his pocket and pulled out a second ring, sliding it over his own ring finger.

But instead of a cough drop set beneath the resin, there was a folded yellow wrapper pressed flat inside the oval frame. The tiny blue letters stared up at me: ‘Keep Going!’

August laughed softly through his nerves. “Wyatt thought I was an absolute lunatic when I stayed after class that day digging through the trash to find this stupid thing.” He shook his head once. “But I had this voice in my head telling me I should keep it.” His eyes met mine carefully. “For once, the voice was right.”

I stared down at the rings, my chest hurting so badly it felt like penance. Like standing in church with my eyes open while everyone around me prayed, and waiting desperately for God to speak back.

Only this time, something finally had.

My thumb brushed over the smooth resin coating the cherry cough drop, and emotion climbed so high in my chest it became unbearable. I looked up at him carefully.

“Can I stay tonight?” The question came out smaller than I intended.

“Will your parents notice if you don’t come home?” he asked carefully.

I shook my head. “I already told them I was staying with Lindsey.”

That earned a startled laugh out of him. “And they bought that?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “They know Pastor Spires would never allow me to stay overnight with Andy, so what else could I possibly be doing?”