Page 110 of Give Me Perfect Love

She joins me, and we both bend over. Her stomach continues to jump, and I don’t know why this is so damn funny.

I sink to the floor, unable to keep myself standing as my abs burn, my stomach tightening to the point of pain.

She joins me on the floor as tears run down her cheeks and her face turns red.

I try to take in a breath, telling myself to stop this nonsense so I can breathe already.

Claire holds her stomach, her hand slapping the floor. “Stop it,” she says between giggles. “I can’t breathe. I’ll suffocate the baby.”

I snort and wipe under my eyes. “Okay, okay. I’m done,” I say as one more roll of laughter passes through me. I cough and clear my throat.

“Jesus,” I say, leaning against a chair by the kitchen table. I blink my eyes, trying to remove the tears and catch my breath. She exhales and looks over at me.

“Can you tell me what the hell that was about?”

I feel my heart rate start to come down. Damn, it felt good to laugh like that. Moving my hair from my face, I rest my head back against the chairs cushion.

I sigh. “I’m moving out.” My eyes jump to hers.

She blinks a few times and looks to the floor. “Well, I guess I knew this day was coming.”

“I’ll be right down the street,” I tell her.

“Yeah, and your room will always be open here.”

I look down at her stomach, knowing that isn’t true. Her eyes follow mine, and she puts her hand over it.

“It won’t be the same without you,” she says, rubbing her hand over her small bump.

I don’t say anything as we sit on the floor of the place we worked so hard to get.

Claire and I had no idea what we were doing when we first moved into that small two-bedroom apartment ten years ago. I was an eighteen-year-old kid who’d moved into a big city. She was just a country girl who’d gotten out of a really scary relationship.

We were barely getting by. Her parents were paying her half of the rent. We lived off pizza and cheap takeout. We drank discounted wine from plastic cups.

We laughed all the time, fought here and there. We fell in love with Damon Salvatore, and we both found it exciting when Stefan turned into a bad guy.

The Vampire Diarieswas our shit.

We went through ups and downs and learned hard lessons. We suffered hangovers and disappointment. Our weekends were spent one of three ways: binge watching TV shows or barhopping downtown. We didn’t really get into the club scene until Austin insisted we go to Red.

Or, we’d head out to Claire’s parents’ land. Hang out with her brothers and Austin while getting drunk by a fire after a day of riding four-wheelers.

We’ve been through it all.

Ten years of friendship, and now we’re growing up. She’s pregnant, I own my own business with the man I love, and I’m moving out.

With tears of sadness and laughter on our cheeks, we sit in silence, realizing that this is the end of an era.

We will never be here again.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Bryce

“That’s the last of it,” I say, walking down from K’s old bedroom with a box in my hand.

“Okay,” she replies, pulling her ponytail holder out of her hair and redoing it.

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