Page 12 of Pocketful of You

With my head on my knees, I forced my mind to check out, allowing my thoughts to sweep me away. To take me back to the sweet, misunderstood boy next door. The one my father said was danger. The one I loved with every ounce of my breaking heart.

Freshly cut grass, peppermint, and soap. His signature scent. It was all around me now, swallowing me up...

He had to live.

If nothing else, Sketch Capaldi had to make it out of this.

He deserved nothing less.

4

Sketch

Fuck knows where I was anymore and, surprisingly, I didn’t care.

I had no pain.

No fear of rejection.

No hole in my heart that couldn’t be healed.

No grief to poison my mind.

I had no worries at all.

All I had was all I had ever wanted.

The girl next door.

"Why me?" Romi asked, fingers curving around my jaw as we lay on the bed of my truck, with the tailgate down, and a blanket draped over our bodies.

"Hmm?" With my arms folded behind my head, I tilted my chin down to look at her. "You say something, Ro?"

"I asked why me," she whispered, rolling onto her back to look up at the stars. "Why do you love me, Sketch?"

I thought about her question for a long time, taking note of the melancholy in her voice, before speaking. "Because you're my best friend. How could I not love you?"

"Oh."

Shit.

'Oh' was not good.

"Best friend." Setting her hands on her belly, she churned the words around quietly. "Okay…"

"And because you're Romi and I'm Sketch and that's what we do," I added honestly. "We love each other. We've got each other's backs. Since forever and for always." It was a heavily loaded question for a sixteen-year-old to answer – one I was fairly sure I'd screwed up. "Why would you ask me that?"

"I heard some of the girls talking in the bathroom at lunch today. I know they're gunning to be your date for homecoming."

"So?" I countered. "If I had a dollar for every time I watched some asshole drool over you, I'd be a rich guy."

"So, they're determined to steal you away from me!" she snapped, sounding annoyed. "One of the seniors called mefrigid. And apparently, she's more than willing to give you what I don't."

"Which is…"

"Duh, sex, Sketch," Romi huffed, scrunching her nose up in disgust. "And apparently she has a far more exotic, not to mention tested and approved, menu for the new star fullback of the varsity team to taste from."

"Well, it sucks to be her, because I only eat from my girlfriend's menu," I shot back, rolling my eyes.

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