Page 61 of Roque

“Things… blew up. Twists happened in our story that I didn’t see coming. Things changed me. I weas never the same after. The truth is Chloe, she made me the man I am today. It might’ve started that fateful day in Palermo. But not seeing… by believing I could blend in a play a pretend role for a while in Princeton led me here. I’ll never make the same mistake again. I’ll never be a fool for love. Hell, my heart is locked down and vaulted. It’ll never breathe again.”

“It will for her.”

“Romina? Part of me…maybe wishes it would. But she changed after what happened. The girl I loved is gone. That can’t be undone. Besides, after what happened to Johnny… I can’t take the chance she wouldn’t get close to me again just get the revenge she always wanted.”

“Back to the story. Ralph Smith marries the troll princess and breaks his Blue’s heart. Did I get that right?”

“Not quite…”

“I can’t read anymore. Too tired. Go to sleep then. There’s no use rehashing what happened.”

“I can’t sleep. I need to know now. You can’t leave me on a cliffhanger.”

“Fine,” I rub the back of the neck and feel my eyes drift the loopy curves of Blue’s handwriting. For when she wrote this it was still Blue. And that’s the major sticking point for me. I loved Blue. A fake persona invented by Romina Palermo. That girl who defied me that day in the woods already got her revenge and she doesn’t even realize it. She broke me. Her curse was fulfilled by her own actions and she didn’t even realize it. I still love that fierce girl with the Blue hair and mud brown eyes. The girl whose hands shook as she stroked my back. The girl whose breathless kiss promised me she would be mine forever. The girl who gave me all of her in some twisted game of lies.

It crushed me when I found out she wasn’t real. I didn’t want Blue and Romina to be one in the same.

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