Page 34 of The Edge of Falling

"Five years ago, I spent the night in your bedroom, and we kissed, and then the next day you disappeared, and I never saw you again. And I just can't help but think that the kiss disappointed you so much, that..." His voice trailed off, and he shrugged.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"The reason you stopped talking to me was because you didn't like my kiss, right?"

"No. Oliver. That night was amazing to me. I thought it was the best night of my life."

"So then what?"

I took a deep breath. "Alice heard you the next day."

"She heard me what?"

"She heard you in the bedroom."

"You're going to have to clarify this for me, Rosalie. I don't know what you're talking about."

"She heard you with Foster, when Foster said, 'Would you ever want to date my sister?' You said, 'Do fat pigs fly?'" My lips trembled. "Yeah, so I was a little chubby and overweight, but do you know how much that hurt me to hear? Do you?"

"Oh my gosh, Rosalie." He looked at me shaking his head. "Please tell me you did not stop talking to me because of a conversation Alice overheard me having with your brother."

"Did you, or did you not say that?" I stared at him, the pain still inside me.

"Yeah, but not for the reason that you think."

"Okay. So you're trying to say that you didn't think that I was a fat pig."

"Of course not. Why would I have spent the night in your room, kissing you, and telling you that I wanted you to have the best experience in college and that I wanted us to date afterward?"

"I don't know. Just so you could get into my bed." I rolled my eyes.

"No, Rosalie. I liked you, but Foster was getting suspicious, and he said to me, he'd always said to me, 'Hands off my sister.' We were best friends, and, well, I didn't want to come clean and tell him that I was falling for you, that I had feelings for you. There was an age gap, and you were on your way to college and..." He shrugged. "So I said what I thought he wanted to hear. It was just a joke. I never meant that."

"Words hurt, Oliver."

"I never intended for you to know or hear that. I never felt that way about you."

"Well, that's why I stopped talking to you. That's why I felt betrayed. That's why I hated you. I spent the night with you, the best night of my life, and then to hear that you were calling me a fat pig the next day devastated me. I felt used, I..." He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into him.

"Rosalie, you are the most gorgeous woman I've ever met in my life. You were then. And you are now. How could you ever think that I would...?"

"You always used to tease me. You always used to say that I was a cow or a fox or an elephant."

"That was for fun. I never meant any of those things. You used to tease me too, you used to call me Mr. T, and you used to call me the not-so-smart Brady son. Remember?"

"I did, but I was just joking, I..." I chewed on my lower lip. "So you didn't think I was a fat pig?"

"No, of course not."

"So then, you enjoyed kissing me?"

"Yes."

"And you thought the reason I stopped talking to you is because I didn't enjoy the kiss."

"Yes. Why do you think I never brought it up? Why do you think I never told Foster? I was embarrassed. I thought I had come off too eager, I thought I turned you off, or... I don't know what it was. That's why last night, I wanted to kiss you again when you seemed to be into me. I wanted to see if you would feel differently. I wanted to see if there was a spark, if..." He sighed. "I don't know. I just don't know, Rosalie. I'm devastated that you thought I would say something like that and mean it. That what I felt for you wasn't real."

"Yeah. I mean, I'm not surprised that you thought your kiss was the reason I got turned off." My lips twitched, and he just gave me a look.

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