Page 32 of The Truth About Love

He falls silent, his chest rising and falling with slow heavy breaths and just when I think he’s fallen asleep, he whispers, “Sometimes I think I more than like you.”

My heart stops.

Is he really saying what I think he’s saying?

Am I even ready to hear it?

Not like this. Not when he’s drunk and will forget in the morning. Not when almost the entire senior class is around us and he’s barely coherent enough to keep his eyes open.

As endearing as he is right now, as giddy as he is making me feel, I don’t want this to be the moment he tells me those three words that no person other than my sister has ever said to me before.

“Shush,” I say gently. “Don’t say anything else. Not now. Not here. Okay?”

But I needn’t have worried, because soft snoring tickles the side of my neck. The birthday boy has fallen asleep.

“Dude, is he asleep?” Marlowe hisses from the chair beside me, turning her back on Tyler.

“Looks that way.”

“What are you gonna do with him?” she asks, trying and failing not to laugh at the enormous and undignified snort that escapes Auden as his head lulls forward.

“Who the fuck knows?”

Would I be a total bitch if I took him home early from his own birthday party? Especially as I’ve only just shown up and it’s not even nine o’clock yet. I’d look like a psycho rolling up and instantly stealing the man of the hour to take him home.

And yet, what else can I do?

It’s not like I can just leave him here to sleep it off while the party carries on around him.

“I think I need to take him home.”

“Oh, thank fuck for that.” Marlowe throws her hands up in the air. “I’ve already ordered myself an Uber, I’mthatready to get out of here.”

“And here I was thinking you were having fun with Tyler.”

“I got a drink with him, that was it.”

She tries to appear casual, but her burning cheeks and panicked glance to check he can’t overhear us say otherwise.I call her out on her bullshit with a cock of my eyebrow.

She sighs, knowing I’ll just keep staring at her until she gives me the truth. “…And he asked me for my number.”

There it is.

“And what did you do?”

“I gave it to him.”

“So, why do you want to leave? Stay and chat to him or something. Listen, I’m gonna give you the same advice you gave me, okay? Don’t be an idiot, Marlowe. Go on the date.”

She looks at me, confused. “He didn’t ask me on a date.”

I shrug the shoulder Auden isn’t sleeping on. “He’s got your number, so it’s only a matter of time.”

“I don’t talk to people, Summer, certainly not boys. Hell, until tonight, yours was the only contact from school that I had in my phone.” She releases a long sigh and scrunches her eyes shut. “It’s just a bit overwhelming and I wanna go home. Is that okay?”

I give her a gentle smile. If anyone understands how difficult it is to step outside the safety of social isolation it’s me. And I’m not the kind of person to pressure someone into something they’re clearly not ready for.

Truth be told, I’m ready to get the hell out of here too.

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