Page 55 of The Road to Finding Us

She lets out a long breath, her gaze locking me in place. “Yes, isn’t that the story for every good cheesy plot? Girl falls for brother’s best friend and they live happily ever after? But that was just a silly hope and dream for us. Reality hadn’t hit me yet that we weren’t meant to work. We were fire. Wild and passionate, but only for a short amount of time. We couldn’t burn forever. Fires eventually have to burn out.”

She gestures between the two of us. “And we…we were lit one moment and doused in water the next. I guess that’s why after everything happened, it hurt so bad.”

“Do you remember when we snuck into the park?” I question, standing up to grab another bottle of wine from the desk.

Lily’s eyes widen, and she backs away from me before plopping down on her bed, where she pulls her bare legs into a crisscross position. “Of course,” she mutters, her eyes darting away from mine. “Do you?” she accuses, as if that night and the nights we shared after were something I could ever forget.

I wish I could be completely honest with her, tell her the few intimate moments we shared are forever ingrained in my mind. But it’s too soon, and I doubt she’d ever believe me anyway.

I have to think about the aftershock of my words.

So instead, I give her a partial truth, one she can take as she will. “Yeah, I do, Lil. I remember it all.”

27

Aspen

Past - Age Twenty-Two

This is a fucking disaster. A hot mess express of epic proportions.

If looks could kill, there would be multiple hot-blooded males from this circle dead—including some of my own friends.

When I first suggested an innocent game of spin the bottle, I didn’t expect Lily to want to play. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking when I threw out the terrible idea. I was really just trying to push Maverick and Veronica together, the two of them too busy wallowing in their own shit to admit they want each other. But my dumbass hadn’t thought through the fact that Lily was at this party. And Lily doesn’t back down from anything.

The girl talking to me outside of the circle is rambling on about something I haven’t paid attention to for a solid minute. I’m too busy staring at the slowly forming circle, my eyes trained on Lily. She smiles sweetly at some cockbag next to her (my former friend).

I try to make eye contact with Maverick, who’s sitting on Lily’s other side, but he’s too busy staring at Veronica. While I appreciate that he might finally be coming to terms with his feelings for Veronica—all it took was a small pep talk from yours truly—I need his brotherly instincts to kick in and scare the shit out of the guy flirting with Lily.

To get the girl beside me to shut up, I give her my usual grin and brush my lips softly on her cheek, whispering in her ear to join the circle. Not like I have any desire to kiss her. I just need her to shut up so I can think through my stupid ass plan and figure out a way to not watch Lily kiss another guy. A guy that isn’t me.

I can feel her glare before I see it. When I make eye contact with Lily, she’s no longer smiling at the guy next to her. She’s staring daggers at me.

There she is.

Her anger—or jealousy?—is fucking hot. I smirk, bringing the bottle to the circle and taking a seat across from her. A perfect vantage point to watch her.

I set the bottle in the middle and look over at Tristan. “Tristan, you go first since it’s your birthday.”

My eyes flick over to Veronica, who’s made her way across the circle and appears to be having a very serious conversation with Maverick. The two of them carry on before Lily whispers something, causing them to break apart.

The game gets started, and thank fuck the bottle has yet to land on Lily.

She and I have been too busy giving each other dirty looks across the circle. It’s a strange form of foreplay I’m secretly enjoying. I don’t know why she’s pissed at me, or why I’m pissed at her, but I know there’s heated tension brewing between the two of us.

A few rounds in, I’ve found myself in an argument with a feisty red-head.

“It’s clearly pointing to you!” Her arms dangle in front of her as she points to the bottle in the middle of the circle.

“Nope,” I enunciate. Leaning forward, I put my finger on the bottle, slightly rotating it to the left. “See,” I say proudly, “it’s pointing to this wonderful lady right next to me.”

“You clearly moved it,” the red-head huffs.

“Rules are rules, sunshine.” I shrug, sitting back on my heels. “The bottle isn’t pointing to me. Thanks for your enthusiasm, though.”

“Ope,” Lily says. Her eyes go wide when the feisty red-head stares daggers at her, but Lily slowly recovers and gives her a sweet smile. “Are you going to take your turn or should we just move on?”

I take a deep breath, glad no one else calls me out for cheating. The girl was right, it was absolutely pointing at me, but I couldn’t follow through with playing the damn game I started in the first place. It turns out, I have no desire to kiss anyone here.

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