Page 138 of Hate Me

“Fuck!” Caleb cried. “B, back me up!”

“Jump in, Cal!”

“What? Where?”

“The chopper behind you that Bastian just landed,” Caspian told him.

“Don’t help the opposing team!” Skylar cried.

“Go! Go! Go!” I told Cal.

“Yes!” he yelled as he managed it. “Rain down hell on them, B!”

“Not so fast,” Sky said, and in the next second, she was firing a RPG.

“Jesus,” Caspian exclaimed as she took both of us out in one well-aimed shot.

Caleb slammed his fist down on the couch. “Fuck! Seriously?” He stared out at her incredulously. “You’re a menace.”

She smirked. “I know, huh?”

“That’s it.” In the next second, he was dropping his controller on the couch beside me, then lunging at her.

She squealed as he hit, tackling her across the waist and driving her down onto the couch beneath him.

And then he was kissing her all over and making her giggle.

Cas and I smiled out at each other as the beautiful sound rolled through us.

Fucking perfect.

28

~Skylar~

I smiled to myself.

I hadn’t had many of those over the last two years—genuine smiles.

Moments of contentment. Happiness.

But as I laid sprawled out on the grass with my pencil flying across my sketchbook and that once beautifully familiar need to create and bring my fantastical characters and worlds to life rolled through me, that was what I felt. Content.

No, more than that.

It was exhilarating to be able to recapture that sensation.

It used to be my lifeblood, basically.

Being without it had been like missing a real part of myself.

Just like being without the boys had.

Now all that had changed.

I’d been delving back into my creative pursuits, sketching, working on my game sequel, even having Caleb helping me with some of the coding too.

And there’d honestly been no stopping it once I’d started when the boys had set me up with that laptop and my sketching materials.

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