Page 22 of Faking Forever 1
“You have no faith in me, Pea. I think I know my girl.” he waves his hand, humming to himself and smiling as his head shakes.
“Hey, I never said that.” I point at him, “I have so much faith in you. I don’t think you listen sometimes, that’s all.”
“Okay, fair, but I won’t even begin to get at the hours I spent here. It was important to me, and I missed you sobadly. The energy had to go somewhere.” he says, putting his hands in his pockets and looking around.
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BRING ME FLOWERS
“You certainly put itsomewhere,” I say softly.
“Do you know what the Camellia flower represents?” he asks.
Nope. Not even a clue.
“Tell me.”
“It represents adoration and longing—missing someone and still having that long-distance connection. It means love.
You give it to someone you love.” he says as if he’d been holding it in for a while.
“Adoration, longing, and love,” I say, repeating him.
His face relaxes into a smile again.
“Exactly.”
“Maybe that camp wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.”
I take his hand, laying my head against his forearm as we both stare at the flowers around us. This is possibly the sweetest, most thoughtful things to have been done for me.
Even coming from Josh himself. At first I had a lot to say about that camp, but if it means he got to heal some inner demons, then I have to admit that makes me extremely proud.
Maybe that means we needed to do our own thing. Just for us to grow and learn. Maybe our friendship is more vital now.
However, this present feels more meaningful than friendship does. Regardless, whoever I meet now has a lot to live up to.
Especially Nick. I hate it, but Josh always ends up right. I guess I just needed to see the lengths another man could go for me.
Did I mention that nothing Nick has ever done could compare to this?
* * *
The music was loud enough to be heard on the water. Good 53
FAKING FOREVER
Life by Kanye vibrates through the speakers set up in different areas around us. Beau chose a side of the beach that wouldn’t get as much traffic since there would be an immense amount of underage drinking that none of us could control. Hell, majority of us aren’t legal. It wasn’t stopping any of the shenanigans, but surely it was making us a little better at being cautious of our surroundings. That meant securing a more private part of the beach. That also meant the water was deeper and more dangerous. All things to keep in mind when getting plastered out here.
Josh let me go home to change and get ready, and he did the same. Once we met up again, we scooped up Sierra and hurried there since we were already late because Sierra had to finish working. I think it was a good thing, though, because the party had officially begun by the time we got there. All that we needed to do now was catch up. Something I had no problem doing, and I knew neither did Sierra or Josh. I can at least confidently say that my friends can hold a drink.
The warm air felt muggy all around, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone much. Most people were dressed for the weather with swim suits and what not—the ones who weren’t were clearly there for show. Those were the girls with so much makeup onthat it was running down their necks, or the guys who had freshly ironed Polo shirts that were so starched you could cut someone. Each of these was comical to see in person and made for thousands of inside jokes later on when the crew and I digress from the party.
I followed both of my friends, walking to the area of coolers dug into the sand and sat out for folks to help themselves.
Seeing feet beside me before the actual person, I felt a hand grab my shoulder.
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