Page 10 of The Prospect

They say your first love will stay with you the longest and in turn, only makes your heart grow fonder. It becomes the baseline that shapes everything you do and pulls you back in any time you pull away.

Your first love has the power to make you feel unknowing things, think bewildered thoughts.

That’s all this is, right?

Unknowing feelings?

Bewildered thoughts?

I can’t possibly have feelings for Green when we’ve never been anything other than friends.

That’s ludicrous.

Preposterous.

Downright insanity?—

I’m here.

His simple text alone is enough to make me drop every thought, forcefully shove my feet into my shoes, and shuffle toward the door. By now, I'm racing down the staircase and toward his car before I even realize it.

“Hey!” There’s that familiar smile I see on his face as he leans over the center console and pushes to open my door.

“Hey.” I sink myself into the passenger side before reaching for my seatbelt and securing it in place.

“New top?” He tilts his head to the side, reaching for the fabric of my sleeve as he gently caresses it between his grasp.

Only a friend would notice a new top, right?

“Yep,” I lie, unwilling to tell him it’s Amira’s and not mine. “You uh—like it?”

“Love it.” He kisses my cheek before shifting the gear into drive. “Almost as much as I love…”

My eyes go wide—expectant.

“Having you to talk to.”

I bite down on the inside of my cheek. I don’t know what I was just expecting him to say, but under no circumstance should I feel sad that was his response.

Enough of this.

“That’s what friends are for,right?” I look up at him through my lashes, though there’s a pain that pangs in my chest as I say the word out loud.

Friends.

That’s all we’ll ever be.

FOUR

G R E E N

“Practice started off fine,but then all of a sudden Hart started acting like a bloody ball hog! I swear, sometimes the guy is such a twat, but somehow he manages to make it work on the field? I just don’t get it. I don’t…”

Hazel hardly had a second to peer down at the drink menu of the pub I’d just dragged her out to before I immediately broke into my rant.

I feel bad.

I know this place isn’t her vibe, but right now, I need my two comforts—a pint andher.

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