Page 200 of Haunt Me

“I want!” Eden practically squeals. I can see her brain going‘don’t fangirl don’t fangirl don’t fangirl’. She is so cute right now it makes my chest hurt.

“Good, good,” Wes says. “There’s only one way she’ll do it, of course.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. You gotta have us kiss. A lot.”

“Wes, I swear to G—” I start saying, then my air is cut off as I choke on my own spit.

Spencer lifts his hands in surrender and leaves, still laughing his ass off. Eden is turning so red she’s practically glowing. I lose all control. With a hand behind her neck, I grab her throat softly and bring her lips to mine. She is smiling so hard, she can’t close her lips enough to kiss me. I close them for her, chewing on her bottom lip until she moans and almost falls apart in my hands.

“Is this real?” she asks. “Is this really happening?”

I open my lips to answer her, but I can’t, because my mind is creating a song already. It’s called‘Real’.

“What?” she asks. “Do you need your guitar?”

This girl, I swear.How does she know me so well?

“Yeah,” I gasp, the need to play out the melody almost overwhelming me.

I play it for her just as it comes to me. I play it again and again. By the third time, she’s humming along.

“What do you think?” I ask at the end, my breath coming short. My heart feels too big for my chest.

“I think,” she replies slowly, “that I’m even less convinced that this is real now.”

So I kiss her again.

…

Eden spends the rest of the evening writing the play, and I stay with her, in her room, writing my song. It’s started snowing again and the rest of the gang attempt to go out into the sludge of melted snow, hopeful that the darkness will hide them. The cold, of course, is too much for them, and they file back inside the house one after the other, panting and rubbing their thickly gloved hands together, while their snow boots trail chunks of ice on the carpet.

Walter, resigned to his fate, tells them to each pick a guest room or a sofa. Everyone who wants to is welcome to spend the night here.Oh, Walter, what have you done?Everyonedoeswant to, it turns out—and they are too exhausted to take too long settling down. Within minutes, the house is filled with the sound of soft snoring. What a bunch of grannies.

Only Eden and I are left awake, still typing away in her little room upstairs.

Eden stretches in her chair, looking at the snow falling steadily outside her childhood window that wasn’t her childhood window.

“Today was a good day, wasn’t it?” she muses.

She’s wearing one of her dad’s oversized sports sweaters again, as well as an elf hat. She’s the most gorgeous girl I have ever seen.

“It was,” I agree. “Too good, one might say.”

She laughs. “What was ‘too good’ about it?”

“Well, did you notice that out of all of us, you were the only one who wasn’t fighting tears at some point or other? You are so strong, Eden, how do you do it?

“I’m happy,” she replies simply. “I haven’t been for so long. It’s easier to be strong when you’re happy. Also, I don’t think Justin or Lou were crying.”

“Oh, they were on the inside, believe me. I caught them talking about catching a plane to Greece. Theo wanted in.”

“WHAT?” she shrieks.

“What.” I laugh.

“Teddy and Justin willnotavoid playing the aunts,” she says. “I am depending on them. And Lou is supposed to star.”

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