Page 43 of Of Flesh & Bone

CHAPTER 14

Eve

Vaughn: I'm still (laughing with tears emoji)

Vaughn: It's cute and all that you two are here together recruiting for your harem but, I'm going to have to pass.ROFLMAO.I can literally HEAR your smart ass saying it!!!(Laughing with tongue out emoji) (laughing covering mouth emoji) (sideways laughing with tears emoji)

Adam took me home toget my phone and I filled Vaughn in on the events of the day.She laughed so hard that tears poured from her eyes and no sound escaped her mouth for a solid two minutes.She totally gets me.

Vaughn: Fucking savage (devil emoji)

Eve: We're pulling back up to Eden House.Ada's outside.

Vaughn: Make that bitch work for it.

Vaughn: You don't owe any of them a damn thing.

It just now occurs to me that if I had just mentioned Ada's last name to Vaughn, she could've cleared this whole thing up for me the day she saw Adam in my room.

There she is.Ada Davenport.

I wanted so badly to be friends with this girl.She's the biggest reason why I came here in the first place.I looked up to her at those camps and then I got here, and she hated me on sight.I was crushed.I never allow myself to hope like I did with Ada.It was a brutal reminder that hope is a killer.Hope can tear you down quicker than anything else.

I suppose I also have to acknowledge my own blame here.I do shut people out.She's not the first person to think poorly of me.I lean my head back on the headrest and let out a deep sigh.Adam grabs my hand.

"You don't have to talk to her if you don't want to."

"I know.I just...I don't know.I've spent the past couple of months fortifying myself against her and forgetting about a friendship.Now it feels like I could be setting myself up for..."

"Hurt?"

I shrug a shoulder.

"She knows she fucked up.She doesn't expect you to forgive her right away.She's going to do what she should've done in the first place."

"And what's that?"

"Make an effort."

Wow.Is that what I want?Eye roll.You know good and damn well it is.I inhale deeply as though this is the last bit of oxygen that I'll be getting for a while.Adam grabs my arm, holding me in place when I start to get out of the car. He gives me a look that says, DON'T so I sit back, watching him get out and come around to my door.I give him my hand and he pulls me into his body, wrapping his arms all the way around me and burying his face in my neck.We stand like this while he takes several deep breaths and Ada watches on, seemingly amazed.She's waiting for me, and I can see the apology in her eyes.

"Hey."

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