Page 49 of Exrated
Shrugging, he clasps his hands together and leans over his knees. “Ever since I saw you that first day…” a short lived laugh slips through his lips. “Even as a kid, I just wanted to be close to you, you know, there was always that what if that drove me to pick at you, to chase you, to love you harder, and then when we broke up, well, there was no more what if. At least not the kind of what if I wanted.” He glances up from his hands, his eyes soft. “I was stupid and hurt and angry at myself for moving.”
“You had a scholarship.” I swallow because this is getting to me and I don’t want it to.
“Yeah, but I had you.” He reaches out, trailing his hand down the side of my face, and out of instinct, I turn to his touch, my eyes closing. “Had I stayed, I would have kept you,” he says, and I pull in a hard breath. “I was jealous. I hated fighting with you all the time.”
When I open my eyes, his face is so close to mine. “We were both jealous.”
“It was stupid.”
“It was.”
His gaze drops to my lips, his thumb grazing over my jaw. There’s a moment where our eyes lock, where it feels like we should kiss each other. My heart drums in my chest, my body heating. If I kiss him there is no way it will stop there. I swallow, forcing my brain and vagina to have a very long conversation about why this is a bad idea.
Jemma's staring at me and my heart's fucking banging around in my chest. The thing is, I'm not going to take no from her. What do I expect from her? Honestly, I don't know, but what I do know is that I hate I have no idea what she's been doing the past four years. I hate that whatever it was, we didn't do it together. There's something between us and there always has been, and it's not something I can explain. It's just this sense of belonging.
My entire life was spent chasing that girl right there, why stop now? She's stubborn as shit, but the thing is, she's always been mine. Always has. Always will. Now, I just have to convince her of that.
Shaking her head, she sighs and shoves me away from her. "You're annoying, you know that right?"
"And you're short," I smile. "Which is why I call you titch."
Her brown eyes narrow. "I always hated that."
"At first, but you started to like it." I grab the remote. "You got Netflix?"
"No." She snatches the remote from my hand. "And you just thought I liked it."
"Your memory has gone to shit." I stand up and make my way to the entertainment center on the far wall. "I vividly recall the first time I called you 'babe.' You snarled and said you didn't like it."
"I didn't."
"You said it was weird."
"It was."
I turn around and smile at her. "You said you liked being my titch."
A slight smile shapes her lips, and I can see a tiny piece of her wall break down. "I said a lot of things to you, Tyler."
Spinning back around, I scan over the DVDs. "What the..." I grabNever Say Neverand laugh as I turn to hold it up to her. "What the fuck is this, Jemma. Justin Bieber? What happened to the girl who liked Slipknot and Lincoln Park?"
"That's Heather's. She has a thing for him. I don't know."
"Sure." I put the movie down. "Hmm, none of my movies I see."
"Really?"
"Too soon?" I laugh, stopping when my eyes land on one specific title. "You..." I snag the DVD ofHoward the Duck, pop it open, and walk to the TV. I press open and slip the disc into the DVD player before making my way back to the couch.
"If you just put Bieber in, I'll choke you."
"No, just wait. It's way worse than the Biebs."
"You did not just call him the Biebs."
"Yeah," I nod. "I did."
The old-school Universal emblem comes across the screen, and I smile.
