Page 148 of We Can't Be Friends

“You’ll be lucky to ever get me to stop kissing you now, Chloe. Now that I’ve got another kiss, I need them all.”

I can feel her smile.

We keep kissing for a few seconds or minutes, or it could be days at this point. I don’t know, and for the record, I don’t care. I could kiss her forever.

“Fuck, Dais. Your lips are so soft.”

“You better take care of them then.”

And I will. Another kiss. But all I want to do is take care of her. I’d do anything for her if she let me.

“I’ll always take care of you,” I whisper the words into the world, hoping they envelop her. I pull back, looking at her.

Have her eyes always been this beautiful? Rivers of pale blue breaking up the gray.

Does she know that the cluster of freckles under her left eye looks like a constellation?

I slip a hand from under her thigh, pressing my hips into her to hold her against the wall. Her cheeks hollow out for a moment. I whimper, loving the sensation just as much.

Rubbing my thumb over the constellation, I say, “Fifteen.”

“Fifteen?”

“You have fifteen freckles right here.” My thump sweeps over her collarbone. “And another patch of five here.”

“You counted?”

“Memorized,” I correct. “I love them.” I kiss the two spots.

“I love them too. My mom has them.” Her hands run down my back. “Surprised you didn’t nickname me freckles. Everyone else does.”

“I’m not everyone else.”

“I’m beginning to realize that.”

“Will you kiss me again?”

I kiss her, and it’s like the first time all over again. I hope it feels like this every time.

44

CHLOE

“And that’s it?” I ask Mom. “I could have sworn there were at least fifteen more steps to making those.”

Mom laughs, and it warms my entire body. I’d take her laughs any day over a puffer jacket that morphs me into a version of the Michelin Man.

I don’t hear it much anymore. Not because I don’t see her or we go months between calls, but she rarely laughs.

We all lost something that day.

Mom, Elena Henry, lost her laugh.

Dad, Theodore (Teddy) Henry, lost his carefree mindset.

Miller lost his happiness and parts of his identity. We might be twins, buttheywere an unstoppable dynamic duo.

I lost myself.

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