Page 82 of Starstruck

I forced a tight, brittle smile, wrapping my arms around myself to ward off the chill. To protect myself. “Well, then… good. You’re happy on your own, and I’ll stick with Henry.” The words felt hollow, but I pushed them out, raising my chin. “We’ll just call it quits, yeah?”

I didn’t wait for him to answer, turning my back on him and storming into the rain, hoping the downpour would hide the sting in my eyes, the ache that clung to me.

“Gold’s.” He called after me, his voice strained. I didn’t want to face him, Ididn’t want him to see the look on my face, knowing that this was it for us—

“Marigold?”

I froze.

It had been so long since I heard anyone call me that. My parents barelycalled me that anymore, after I told them I preferred Goldie. Even my professors stuck to the nicknames. So hearing that name leave Tristan's mouth sent a feeling through that I wasn’t sure what to call.

But it made me turn around, just as my hand gripped the door handle. “What?”

I watched him sigh, before he rolled his shoulders and took a step closer. “I’msorry I’ve been distant this week; I really am, okay? And if I’ve hurt you, then I promise you I didn’t intend to.” His eyes held mine as he shook his head. “And I don't care if this is breaking the rules, but I cannot just let you walk back in there with him.”

I threw my arm up, the raindrops that had caught on my hair splattering around me. “And why not?”

“Because I care about you, Gold’s. I care about you enough that I’d stay herejust to make sure he doesn’t touch an ounce of the good that I know for a fact your heart lives on.”

My knees buckled at his words, but I couldn’t let him camp in my heart anylonger, I couldn’t let him make that camp a home, knowing he wouldn’t be there long. Knowing that I'd already let this go too far in my mind. “But you don’t want to be here, Tristan, that was why we did this in the first place—”

“Plans change,” He said, barely loud enough that I was sure I misheard him,the rain that heavy that I almost asked him to repeat himself. But if I heard him correctly, if I heard what he wasn’t saying when he said that, I didn’t want to.

I shook my head, the ever changing current of emotions that were swimming around my mind enough for me to collapse. But I breathed in, savouring the cold air as I kept my eyes trained on his, before pulling open the door to the rink. “I’ll see you around.”

I didn’t look back as I stepped inside, but I could feel his gaze on me, lingeringlike the last words of a song that hadn’t quite finished playing.

chapter twenty six

i can't help but let him rule my heart

Icouldn’t tell you who won tonight. Or who won the fight that broke outduring the third period. I couldn’t even tell you what the drink I’d been nervously sipping all night was. I was too preoccupied, letting what happened with Tristan play over in my head again and again until the final claxon sounded and the crowds stood from their seats to leave.

I blinked away the dryness in my eyes, almost like someone had press play onme and I was rediscovering my consciousness. I barely had any time at all to look around for him, wonder whether he was still here, brooding in the corners of the rink, before Henry reminded me that he was still with me.

“What does it say that the Lions have never been able to beat the Spartans untilyour boys joined the team?” He laughed, grabbing his brown Carhartt jacket from the back of his seat and slipping it back over him. “Whenever there was a game duringmy junior and senior years of high school, I’d come down with my dad; because he had to be here, they’d never play this good.”

I turned to face him, my eyes as vacant as they had been all game. “Yeah…yeah, they’re great.”

Henry was too busy gathering his things and the empty popcorn bucket by ourfeet to notice how vacant my voice felt too.

But look at him, Goldie, he’s taking his trash with him. Oh, andhejustapologised to the lady next to him who stumbled into him with her little boy. He’s perfectly fine. At least he doesn’t pull you out into the rain after ghosting you for weeks.

For the first time since talking to Finn at the start of the game, I felt the beginnings of a smile start topull on the corners of my mouth, just in time for Henry to turn around and catch it.

His baby blues traced my mouth, before his popped open. “Shall we head out?”

I nodded, not thinking when I slipped my hand into his. “Yes.” I breathed, mysmile only solidifying as I watched his eyes widen at our touch. “Let’s go.”

Letting Henry lead us through the crowds, our hands never left each others, andsomething about it made me feel protected. Having his fingers laced with mine reunited all those giddy feelings that I’d felt when I first met him, the ones I thought I’d lost in the time Tristan had been unraveling the threads around my heart.

We made it out of the rink soon enough, not before stopping by the merch standand treating myself to a jersey. I didn’t pick a number to go on the back, purely because deciding between Finn and Jesse’s numbers was something I couldn’t bring myself to do.And once we step foot out into the rainfall that had simmered since I was outhere earlier, the crowds disappearing, Henry put his hand right back in mine.

“I’ll walk you back to your dorm.” He told me, flashing me a smile thatrivalved the crescent moon that was dangling above the city, before sending a squeeze through my hand and walking us back the way I’d came.

The native sounds of the city after dark filled the silence that floated betweenus, honks and hollars from angry drivers and the rushes of wind were our reprise as we crossed from Broadway onto Bleeker St. I was counting the steps of the fire escapes across the way when I felt like I was being watched.

Low and behold, I turned my head to Henry, finding his eyes on me.

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