Page 53 of Stick Break
“Yeah. I’ll scream at Colby if you scream at Lyra. Might do us some good.”
Colby. As in Colby Saunders—a fellow contestant from The Spotlight. Jesus. I never liked that guy, even before I knew what a garbage human he turned out to be. Plastic smile. Zero depth. All ego.
“Okay,” I say, shifting upright. “On the count of three.”
She sits up with me, knees brushing, determination written across her face. We count together, “One. Two. Three?—”
Then we unleash hell on the quiet cove.
“LIAR!”
“CHEATER!”
“MANIPULATIVE ASS!”
“EGOMANIAC!”
“USER!”
“CLOWN!”
“PATHETIC!”
“GASLIGHTING NARCISSIST!”
And a few other... colorful choices.
We keep going until our lungs give out and our voices crack from the effort. Then we collapse back, breathless, gasping for air like we’ve just sprinted a mile.
Our eyes meet—and then we lose it. Full-on belly laughing, uncontrollable and cleansing. It's not pretty. It’s real. When we finally catch our breath, I release a long, contented sigh.
“Holy shit. I had no idea how cathartic that would be.”
“Right?” she says, wiping at her eyes. “I feel ten pounds lighter.”
I roll my head toward her. “Okay, now that we’ve shouted our trauma into the void... where are we getting married?”
She hums, thoughtful. “Somewhere far from here.”
“Vegas?” I ask with a smirk.
She grins. “You and Vegas. Is that, like, your default suggestion?”
I shrug. “Like I said, my grandfather owns a resort there. My brother got married there, and I guess it’s sort of expected that I do too.”
“But it not what you want?”
“Not really,” I admit. “It’s a beautiful place, don’t get me wrong. But at the end of the day, I want to get married wherever my fiancée wants to get married.”
She tilts her head, a teasing smile curving her lips. “Well, since that’s me... I was thinking somewhere outside the U.S. Somewhere private. Somewhere no one knows me.”
I nod. “Yeah, I get that. I’ve got a buddy who got married in Santorini—white buildings, blue sea, wine for days.”
“Sounds like a dream.”
I pull out my phone and scoot closer, our shoulders touching. I search Best places in the world to get married and tilt the screen so we can both see.
“Amalfi Coast is number one,” I point out.
