Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 133655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 535(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
He brings his hands up, framing my face, thumbs brushing my cheeks. His eyes scan over me—Sandy wig, red lips, tight black outfit that suddenly feels like it might combust under the heat of his stare.
“I guess the letterman sweater makes sense now,” he murmurs.
I huff a nervous laugh. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry for all the bullshit I’ve tossed your way.” He lowers his voice, steady and serious.
“I know you are,” I whisper. “And I’m sorry too. I didn’t handle things right either. I should’ve never dated Drew when, deep down, I knew I had feelings for you.”
“You’re not with Drew anymore?”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Ace. For everything.”
“Lia, I’ve been in love with you my whole life,” he says. “I didn’t know it, not really. Not when we were kids and you cried when Petey Dillon took the last chocolate milk at lunch and I got detention for kicking him in the dick. Not when we were twelve and you punched a boy in the throat for calling me a loser. Not even when we were sixteen and you danced with me at prom in that sparkly pink dress that made you look like a fucking angel.”
His smile is small. Reverent.
“But now, I see it. All of it. Every moment—every stupid, beautiful, ridiculous moment—I’ve ever loved you.”
Tears well up in my eyes.
“I love you,” he says again.
“I love you too.”
He leans in and kisses me.
It’s soft at first. Sure. Steady. But the second I melt into it, Ace deepens the kiss like he’s making up for every second he waited too long. I fist my hands in his sweater, he wraps his arms around my waist, and we…fall.
We fall all the way in. To each other. To our hearts. To the love we’ve always had for each other.
Behind us, someone lets out a whoop.
“Finally!” Blake shouts.
Finn claps. Scottie cheers. “Get it, Sandy!”
Kayla starts chanting something that might be our names mashed together, and Finn yells something that might be “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me, Trav! Right now?” but I don’t hear any of it enough to pass a test.
For me, it’s just Ace and this kiss. When Ace finally pulls back and rests his forehead on mine, I’m breathless.
“So…can we get the fuck out of here now?” he whispers, “I want to kiss you in more places than your mouth.”
My brain short-circuits. “Oh boy.”
He smirks. “That a yes?”
“Obviously.”
We’re already walking out before the word fully leaves my mouth. His dad, dressed like a gorilla, is pulling off the mask to wipe tears of joy from his eyes and waves from his spot in the bushes as we go.
It’s no Cinderella story, but it’s ours—and I wouldn’t change a single thing.
Ace
I don’t remember much after she said it. Not the music. Not the crowd. Not the ridiculous frat-party chaos happening around us. All I remember is Julia Brooks, in a blond Sandy wig and skintight black pants, looking me in the eyes and saying, “I love you.”
Everything tilted. My heart, my head, the fucking axis of Earth.
She loves me.
She. Loves. Me.
Thank fucking everything.
Still in our stupid costumes, still drunk on the high of that moment, and riding the elevator up to my apartment like we’re trying not to combust before we make it to the finish line.
She’s standing close, her Sandy curls brushing my shoulder, red lipstick a little smudged from where I kissed her senseless in front of all our friends.
And I can’t stop looking at her.
God, she’s beautiful. Beautiful in that devastating, once-in-a-lifetime kind of way that makes your chest ache and your future reorient.
When the elevator dings, I don’t wait. I scoop her into my arms like some love-sick Danny Zuko on steroids.
“Ace!” she shrieks, arms flailing before they wrap around my neck.
I grin down at her. “This is me carrying you over the threshold.”
“We’re not married,” she says, laughing.
“Well, duh,” I say. “We’re not twenty-five yet.”
She goes quiet for half a second—just long enough for our eyes to meet—and then she shakes her head, cheeks flushed, smile wide. “I can’t believe you remember that.”
“I remember everything when it comes to you.”
I stop outside my door and shift her slightly in my arms. She tightens her legs around my waist, threading her fingers through the hair at the back of my neck.
“You sure about this?” I ask, quieter now. “Because once I step through this door, I’m not letting you go.”
She doesn’t hesitate. “Don’t ever let me go.”
Fuck me sideways.
I push the door open with my back, step inside, and kick it shut behind us.
Then I kiss her. And it’s mayhem.
Months of wanting. Years of not knowing. A lifetime of feeling something I couldn’t name—all of it crashes into me at once.
I kiss her like she’s air and I haven’t been breathing right for years.
She clings to me like she feels the same. Her lips chase mine. Her hands are everywhere—my neck, my jaw, the buttons of my letterman sweater. I don’t even care when she pops one off and it bounces somewhere under the couch. She could set this whole place on fire, and I’d say thank you.