Page 130 of Releasing 10
“I didn’t say it back, Hugh.” Grabbing my hand, Liz pulled me to an abrupt stop on the middle of the footpath. “It was back in the summer when we all went bowling for his birthday. We were getting slushies at the counter, and he just blurted it out.”
“What did he say exactly?” I managed to ask, sounding surprisingly calm given the fact that my entire world was crashing down around me. “Did Feely say he had a crush on you?”
“Patrick just told me that he liked me before asking if I wanted to go out with him.” Her eyes were full of sincerity when she looked up at me. “I said no, Hugh. When he asked me to be his girlfriend, I said no.”
She said no.
She turned him down.
Breathe, Hugh, breathe.
My chest rose and fell rapidly, and I exhaled a ragged breath, desperately trying to manage the emotions battering through my heart. She continued to hold my hand with both of hers and theway my pulse skyrocketed from the contact made it hard to form a coherent sentence.
Dread.
Fury.
Panic.
Hope.
I was drowning inallof them.
“You, ah…” My voice cracked and I roughly cleared my throat before casting a glance at her. Liz looked so composed, while I was losing my shit on the inside. Because the prospect of her being with someone else had suddenly hit me like a fucking wrecking ball.
My breathing was hard and uneven when I finally asked, “You really turned him down?”
I needed her to tell me one more time.
I needed the reassurance, dammit.
I needed a lifeline.
When Liz nodded in confirmation, the panic and dread that was suffocating me was purged from my lungs in an audible whoosh.
Jesus Christ.
“What did you say?” I managed to get out relatively unjumbled. “When he, uh, when Feely asked you?”
“I told him that I really liked him, too.” Still gripping my hand with both of hers, she added, “But I couldn’t be his girlfriend.”
“Did he ask you why not?”
“Yeah, he did.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him the same thing I tell any boy who asks.”
So there were other lads.
What was I thinking;of coursethere were others.
Fuck.
“Which is?”
“That there’s only one boy I want as my boyfriend.” She kept her eyes on mine when she stepped closer, so close that I could feel her heart thundering in her chest. “And he’s the only boy I’ll ever say yes to.”
