Page 44 of Leah

“Yep.”

“Okay, well, you are awesome.”

“A little more than that.”

“You’re the epitome of awesome.”

“And my good looks?”

“Your good looks make you even more awesome.”

He scooted a little closer again. Dropping his voice even lower, he said, “You know, you’re pretty awesome with your good looks too. Imagine what our babies will look like with our gene pool.”

My eyes widened. “What the fuck?”

“Yeah, I know, right?”

“Are you seriously talking babies with me?”

“I’m a fast guy.”

“No kidding.”

He scanned my face for a moment, his humour already starting to fade away. “In all seriousness, you do look amazing. I tried to look you up on Facebook about a thousand times just to see what you look like, but I couldn’t find you.”

“I don’t go online.”Unless it’s to stalk you, which has only become a recent hobby.“My world is private.”

“And nobody’s pestered you at all about… us?”

I gave him a strange look. “What do you mean?”

“They’ve torn apart my life to a tee, if you haven’t noticed. There’s not a lot they got, but I was expecting someone to come knocking on your door to harass you about our relationship.”

I shook my head. Nobody had done that. “No, nothing like that happened. You friend-zoned me, remember? We didn’t do things in public that had people thinking we were anything more. Plus, I wasn’t a popular girl. I was practically invisible, and we didn’t hang out in school much. Not many would have known to point somebody in my direction, and Rome’s parents kept their mouths shut, so...”

“When did you move out?”

“When the cameras started showing up at their door. I used to have to slip out early just to avoid them, and then Marlena told me it was probably best to move in with Mel because there would be a lot of chaos, and I didn’t need that thrown in my face when I was trying to…” I paused abruptly.

He gazed at my mouth. “To what?”

“To move on from you.”

He nodded slowly, his tone quiet. “Right.”

Silence.

Those were dark times.

I didn’t even like to reflect on them.

The nights I cried myself to sleep.

Or tossed and turned, remembering us.

Missing us.

Wanting us.

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