Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 57139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
The tone in the room immediately shifted.
How did that girl even meet him?
She’s not even famous.
He can do better.
The knot in my stomach tightened until it felt like I was growing a boulder.
Across the room, Ezra’s phone started ringing. He didn’t look at it. He just looked at me.
“Told you,” he said quietly. “And for the record, I didn’t think people would care enough to recognize me that much, I mean, to be fair, you’re my best friend in the entire world, you see me every day and you never did.”
A stabbing pain sliced through me because he was right. I did see him every day, and yet, clearly. I hadn’t really looked, had I?
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
EZRA
Monsterrrrrrrr. Hehe, sorry, jump scare, okay it was one time, everyone paints their dick once in their lives.
–Damien
Harper cursed behind me and disappeared into her bedroom. I flinched when her door slammed. I flopped onto her couch, tugged a throw pillow under my head, and stared at the ceiling. Thankfully Harper’s parents had left without taking me with them, as a dead body. Her father’s glare had me worried for a minute. But shortly after they left, Harper uploaded the damn video and the world exploded. I watched as her shoulders began to tighten as she read the comments, I could see her eyes practically flying across the screen as she devoured each word. It hit me in the gut, the memories, knowing how much power those word could wield. I glanced back to her closed door, then sighed.
Two minutes of silence came and went followed by three, four, five, when we finally clocked in ten whole minutes without speaking, I went first. “You alive in there?”
Her muffled voice came back instantly. “We’re on a break!”
I grinned at her Friends reference. “Should I write you a fourteen-page letter? Front and back?”
“Bite me!”
“I’d need clarification on location.”
A dramatic groan was my only answer. I smiled to myself. I could envision her glaring at the door, nose all scrunched up, arms crossed, angry but still wanting to engage because she just couldn’t help it. Small things like that, it was tiny, insignificant things like that that had me falling for her without her even realizing it. The day we stopped fighting would be a day I knew I’d lost her—the day she stopped getting angry meant she stopped caring. I waited a few more minutes then padded to her door. “I’m coming in.”
Something thumped on the other side. “You’re not invited.”
I ignored her and opened the door anyway. She was curled on her side, fluffy blue blanket pulled up to her chin like she needed something to separate us.
“I’m afraid of the TV screen,” I said matter-of-factly, crossing the room to the safe zone of her body heat.
Her brow furrowed. “Care to repeat that?”
“It’s too quiet out there. I feel like it’s just waiting to go all Ring movie on me, and then I just play chicken with it until a girl crawls out, no thanks. Move.”
She sighed, shifting over without argument like I knew she would. I slid into bed beside her, the mattress dipping under my weight. It wasn’t the first time we’d been in bed together like that, except those circumstances had always been different, one of us had fallen asleep studying, or one of us had been sick, crying—for her it was the time of the month and she needed someone to both beat and cry on. But it was never post-date, never post seeing me half naked, never post feelings of anything other than friendship and mutual respect, so it felt different, it felt really freaking different. Even the air cracked with unresolved tension, and words that we knew would fall flat if we spoke them without caution.
She glanced over at me and sighed like she had something heavy to say. I braced myself for impact and prayed it wouldn’t hurt. “It’s big dick energy… with a big dick.”
Elated, I tried not to smile and failed, then propped myself up on one elbow, still grinning like a fool. “Do you want me to apologize or say you’re welcome? Take your time, I know words are hard after such life changing ordeal.”
Her smile curved slow and sexy in a way that made me want with a desperation that was terrifying—it reminded me that this was all so very dangerous, the fine line was fragile and the way I felt about her even more so. My heart could get annihilated and in order not to lose her friendship I’d pretend I was fine. I wasn’t the kind of guy who could walk away from even a fraction of her. I’d stay and I’d watch her walk down the aisle with someone else. I’d be the cool uncle. I was ride or die no matter what. How fucking depressing.