Page 81 of Beautiful Storm

Her face drops before she whispers. “It was real for me too. Doesn't mean it was right.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“This is so messed up, Luke. God, saying it all out loud. You set me up, you made me hate you, and now we’re getting married.”

“That was a different time. And you weren’t exactly innocent. You hated me for years before that.”

“Did you ever stop to question why?”

“Why, what?”

“Why I stopped talking to you when we were kids?”

“Of course I did. Because you never told me. You went away for the summer and came back as a different person.”

“What?”

“You went to visit your cousin over the summer, and when you came back, you barely looked at me, except for that one conversation. And I'd barely started telling you about my summer when you walked away.”

I thought I’d long moved past all of this—we were eleven—but as I think about it, my muscles tense and I remember how much it affected me at the time.

“Wow.” Amelia looks at me like I’m crazy. “That’s not at all how I remember it. But you go first.”

My shoulders sag at her sudden attitude. This was supposed to be about healing. Why do I feel like things are about to get worse? “During that summer, I got mixed up in the wrong crowd. With my new teammate Trent and his brothers. We did some things I’m not proud of, and I got arrested trying to outrun the police.”

I finally tell her the story I tried to tell her back then, and Amelia gasps, though her stiff stance tells me she’s still waiting for something else.

“I was excited to see you when school started back. Hell, I was excited for you to scold me for being such an idiot over the break. But that’s not what happened. At first I was confused, but then when Ireallypaid attention, I noticed subtle differences from when I’d last seen you. Your hair was down and you always wore it up. Your shirt was untucked when you were usually a stickler for the dress code. And the kicker, you had a new attitude and a new friend—Melody—so I figured maybe you didn’t need me anymore. Maybe you’d moved on without bothering to tell me or that I’d missed the memo.”

Amelia stares at me in disbelief before she scoffs. “I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m sorry you got mixed up with Trent and his brother, and I’m happy you made it out the other side unscathed. But after sayingallthat, after admittingyouwere adifferent person, you thinkIchanged? ThatIwas too good for you?”

“Honestly, Amelia. It was a long time ago, but you never told me otherwise, so what was I supposed to think?”

She shakes her head before huffing out an incredulous laugh. “All this time.God. Of course it was me. Couldn’t possibly have been somethingyoudid.”

“What did I do?”

“You broke myheart. I trusted you and you broke me.”

I rear back from the genuine shock as my mind reels. “I don’t understand. I don’t know what you think I did but—”

“Do you remember the conversation we hadbeforeI walked away?”

“I tried to tell you about my summer and—”

“No. First I asked if you had anything to tell me. If there was anything I should know. Aboutme. Any secrets you wanted to share.”

“Yeah, and I did. I was going to tell you about my arrest.”

“Secrets aboutme, Luke. You were keeping a bigger secret than that.”

“What?”

“Do you remember the last time we saw each other the night of graduation?”

My chest tightens as I think about that moment, recalling Trent teasing Amelia and me doing nothing to defend her. I know I was a dick, but that can’t have been our issue because… “I apologized for not having your back that day. In the parking lot, remember? You said you understood. That you were okay. That you forgave me.”

“That’s right and I did. I forgave you for that. But I’m not talking about what that asshole said and your reaction. Or lack of reaction. Yes, that hurt, but it was nothing compared to what came next.”

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