Page 73 of The Best Kind of Forever
“Big brother!” A pair of small arms swing around my neck, and I’m too afraid to remove whoever is clinging to me like a koala.
I immediately do a double take, unlatch Faye from my body, and stare at her in sheer disbelief. “Faye? You’re here?”
“Didn’t expect us to fly ya sister out, did ya?” Kit says, patting me on the chest.
“You’re really here,” I echo back to my sister.
Since she lives in Pennsylvania, we rarely ever see each other. Our schedules are so busy that we only get together for the holidays.
“I’m here.” She hugs me again, and this time, I stay in her arms for what feels like forever. My dad working on himself, my sister being here…everything’s perfect. Well, almost perfect.
That’s when I spot Aeris, and a swirling mass of electricity breaks out into brilliant displays of color in my body. I’ve been falling harder and harder for her, which I didn’t think was possible. I’m whipped for her, and I’ll shout it from the rooftops, even despite my slight fear of heights.
I give her a quick peck on the lips. “You guys really didn’t need to do anything for me.”
“Come on, dude. This day is special becauseyou’respecial. Of course we had to do something,” Gage says.
I look around between my friends—myfamily. Maybe this will be the first birthday of mine that I don’t completely despise. Maybe I’ll make a new tradition this year.
“Oh, and if a woman named Crystal Methanie comes by the house, this is definitelynotthe correct address.”
34
CHOCOLATE GOES WITH EVERYTHING
AERIS
It’s been thirty minutes. Hayes has already crushed five beers and is now currently shotgunning his sixth. His alcohol tolerance is frightening. Lila, Josie, and I watch from the sidelines.
“This is bad,” Lila murmurs, one hand over her eyes, her fingers making the tiniest peephole for her to look out of. “But I can’t look away.”
Revulsion skips across Josie’s face. “I can’t either.”
Faye joins us to watch the fiasco taking place, a beer in her own hand.
“How did my oaf of a brother end up with someone like you?” she inquires, taking a sophisticated sip of her drink—a polar opposite to the man currently in the middle of a chugging contest.
“He, uh, kinda just stumbled into my life,” I tell her, thinking back to the first night we met. To the night I was crying my eyes out because of my brother. To the night I’d sworn off drinking hard liquor. To the night I believed that life wasn’t worth living.
“You’re good for him, Aeris. I mean that. I haven’t seen him this happy since…” Faye trails off.
“Since?”
“Since our mother was alive.”
Their mother, of course. I should’ve put those pieces together.
“I’m so sorry, Faye,” I say softly, reaching out to give her shoulder a little squeeze.
She runs her fingernails against the red grooves in her solo cup. “It’s okay. I loved my mom, but Hayes was closer to her. It broke him. I don’t think he’s ever really recovered from it. I wish he didn’t have to carry all of this weight on his shoulders. He feels responsible for me, even though I’ve told him that’s not true. I want him to start living his life again,” she murmurs.
Sympathy tarries in my chest, causing the airflow circulating through me to leave on a swift set of wings. “I know what you mean. My brother…he passed away. There were so many days I just wanted the pain to go away, but I was too afraid to make it stop because I’d grown so used to it.”
There was a time in my life where I couldn’t even talk about Roden without crying. With Faye, though, everything seems easy. That must run in the Hollings family.
“Aeris, I’m so sorry. What…what changed?” Her shaky words ride out on a slash of breath.
“I met your brother,” I confess, hope sprouting inside of me.
