Page 102 of The Facade

I wentto bed crying tears of my own that night. Crying for Mack and how hard this was for him. Crying for Mr. Aarden who was losing his soulmate. And crying for myself and all the other friends and family of Brianna Aarden who would miss her warm presence and megawatt smile.

I hadn’t spent a ton of time with her recently since I hadn’t wanted to intrude on the family’s last few weeks with her, but she’d always been my favorite out of all my mom’s friends. She’d been into gardening and nature—sometimes calling herself a green witch with a chuckle and a twinkle in her eye.

I didn’t think she believed she was a witch with actual magical powers or anything like that. She mostly made teas from the ingredients in her garden—sometimes using a small cauldron for added flair. But all her witchy books, candles, and pagan holiday celebrations were something that had made her unique and fun and interesting to me.

It took me a long time to fall asleep, and when I did eventually drift off, I dreamed I was riding Starlight through the woods under the light of the full moon and we were chasing after Mack as he raced his four-wheeler down a trail that led toward the Richardson’s mansion.

It didn’t make sense, of course, since the Richardson’s mansion was on the other end of town, but it not being real didn’t keep me from screaming out in my dream when I saw Mrs. Aarden’s ghost in the windows of the Richardson’s mansion, beckoning for Mack and me to join her for a cup of tea inside.

I startled awake, feeling damp with sweat, my blankets twisted around me. My heart was pounding so hard from the dream. I had to pee, so I switched on the string lights above me and hurried to my bathroom, telling myself as I emptied my bladder that while Mrs. Aarden did love her daily tea rituals, she was not going to be coming back as a ghost and inviting me to teatime after she was gone.

I flushed and washed my hands, and just as I was tiptoeing across the carpet to climb into my bed, I heard a sound outside my balcony and had to hold in a shriek.

There was a loud thud right after that, like someone had just climbed over the rail and dropped down on the balcony landing.

I looked at the door handle and deadbolt to make sure they were locked, and then I scooted closer to one of my windows to see who was out there.

When I peeked out the curtains, I saw a dark, hulking shape in the form of Mack.

What was he doing here? It was after two-thirty in the morning.

I opened the door and came face to face with Mack.

He looked terrible. His eyes were bloodshot, his white T-shirt was on backwards and inside out beneath his jacket, and he looked like he might collapse on the ground at any moment.

I thought he might be sleepwalking again, since that was something he did. But then he stumbled into the room like his climb up the tree outside had taken all of his energy and said, “You told me to let you know if I needed something, right?”

“Yes.” I pressed a hand to his chest to steady him. When he looked like he wasn’t going to collapse on me, I quickly shut the balcony door and locked it. Then I stood before him again and asked, “What do you need? How can I help you?”

“I need you to help me forget what’s going on.” He put his hands on my hips and pulled me closer to him. “Can you just help me forget for a few minutes that my life is falling apart and that I’m never going to have another conversation with my mom? And that I have to live in a future that she’s not a part of?”

“H-how?” I asked, not sure how I could do any of that when I was just a regular sixteen-year-old girl. “How can I do that?”

“Let me be with you,” he said, nudging my forehead with his nose. “Distract me.” He moved his lips to my temple and pressed a slow kiss there that made my lower belly swirl with heat. “Just kiss me until I can forget and escape.”

Even though I wasn’t sure that kissing me was the best way to deal with everything he was feeling right now, I couldn’t deny him this. Not right now when he was drowning and just looking for a life jacket.

He’d told me once before that snorkeling in Hawaii and kissing were two of his favorite ways to distract himself from unpleasant thoughts and feelings. And since he was too far from Hawaii to go snorkeling in this moment, I decided to be that distraction for him right now.

So when he tilted my chin up and whispered, “Please,” while looking at me with pleading eyes, I nodded my permission. And when his lips brushed against mine, I kissed him back.

The kiss was slow at first. Slow and sad, and I could almost feel his heart breaking as his lips moved in a steady rhythm with mine. It was like he was unraveling. All his defenses, all the walls he’d built around himself to make it through the tragedy that he’d known was coming for his family the past few months crumbled, leaving just this boy whose heart had been broken open to feel everything.

He kissed me deep and long, and I welcomed it. Because even though I was so sad for him and hated that he was a wreck right now, part of me was relieved. Relieved that he hadn’t forgotten about me and that it was me he was turning to right now in his darkest hour.

With his hands gripping my waist, he walked me backward until my back was pressed against one of the solid wood posts of my four-poster bed. And when he lifted me into the air with a light grunt, I wrapped my legs around his waist to keep him close.

“I missed you,” I sighed against his lips.

“I missed you, too,” he said, pressing himself closer and making me gasp for air.

His hands slid up my back, tangling in my hair and fisting in the loose fabric at the back of my pajama shirt.

I slipped my own hand behind his head and ran my fingertips in his curly hair. He must have liked it because he let out a low groan that made my heart skip a beat. He pressed his fingers into my back, hard enough that it almost hurt. Almost hurt, and yet felt so good at the same time.

“Mack—” I whispered when he lifted me again, wondering what he was doing.

“I just want to lie down with you,” he mumbled against my lips. “Is that okay?”

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