Page 88 of Here's to Now

That night, I stopped going home. There was no point. Sure, I grabbed clothes here and there, but I didn’t spend another night away from Haley’s bed. I’ve no idea whether her witnessing my breakdown had something to do with it, or if it was us admitting our love—although we didn’t really do so out loud—but we both settled on it.

Since then, for all intents and purposes, we’ve been living together. I’ve had my own key for a while now. It’s weird how a single piece of nickel silver can change your life, can open doors—literally. Now, we haven’t made this living arrangement official, but I have a fucking key and a drawer and I’m here every night—that’s about as official as you can get. Do I still spend as much time as possible with my siblings? You bet. Do I still hang out with Tuck and Hudson when I can? Yep.

But does Haley know about my siblings and my situation with them? Uh…no. Do Hudson and Tuck know I’m dating Haley? Another negative.

Sure, I opened up about my parents, but I’m not telling her I left my family twice, not after she’s expressed several times how distraught she gets when she hears of someone abandoning their baby.

Basically, I’m still a complete tool.

Now I just have a key to the toolbox.

See? I suck.

“Do you want a water?”

“Sure, hotcakes, but we have to make sure to drink them before we get to security. Actually, wait, no. I don’t want one. It’s just going to make me have to pee and I hate peeing on an airplane.”

I groan at her now all-too-frequently-used nickname for me. “You’re a handful, woman.”

“You love me!” she hollers back.

“I do,” I mutter to myself, not sure if she realizes what she said.

I stuff a bottle of water for myself into a pocket on my backpack—because I have the bladder of a camel—and meet her at the door. “Ready?”

“I cannot believe you’re making me go toVegas.” She says the last word with disgust, her lips curled up.

“You know, for someone who is all into the fairytale Disney shit, you sure are hard to woo.”

“Oh, Gaige. You woo me every day.”

“Because of my impressive abs?”

“Of course.” She smiles, patting my flat stomach on her way past me and through the door. I pat myself on the back for being able to keep up with my gym routine these last few months.

Grinning, I lock the door and pull the strap of my backpack higher up on my shoulder as I watch her skip—literally—down the hallway. I shake my head as I jog to catch up, giving her a hard thwack on the ass.

“Hey! Watch it! I could have ninja chopped your ass!”

“Yes, because I’m deathly afraid of your ninja chops.” I lean into her and whisper, “They feel like butterflies kissing my skin.”

She leans away and shoots me a look. “You’re going to regret that.”

“We’ll see.”

“Are wereallygoing to Vegas? I can’t believe my sister is getting married soon.”

“I can’t believe your sister is marrying my best friend.”

“But Vegas for a bachelor/bachelorette party? How cliché.”

“Oh, shush,” I tell her. “You’re going and you’re going to enjoy it, or else.”

“You can’t just ‘or else’ me all ominously like that.”

“How the hell else are you supposed to say it? The entire point behind it is to be ominous.”

“Whatever.” She shrugs as she pushes open the door, “forgetting” to hold it open for me too. “I just haven’t been to Vegas since…well, since before my cancer stuff. It wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

---