Page 42 of Christmas Confessions

“It’s all fake. I don’t have feelings for him, Eliza.” I step closer to her, her hands still in mine. “It’s impossible for me to have feelings for him, actually.”

Eliza can tell where I’m going with this. She gives me a knowing look. “Giselle…,” she warns.

“What, Eliza?” I ask. “All I know is that I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Behind the reception desk, the hotel staff begins counting down from ten.

Eliza’s mouth keeps opening and closing, a total loss for words.

“And you can try to deny it all you want, Eliza Leon,” I continue, “but I know you have feelings for me, too. You wouldn’t be here, otherwise.”

She gives me a sly smile and steps closer to me. “You’re right.”

The hotel staff counts down to one, then they all yell,“Happy New Year!”

At the same time, Eliza and I tilt our heads toward each other, and then finally, I get to kiss her again.

30

KENNETH

Iam going to blame Steve for getting me so belligerently wasted last night. It was so bad that I didn’t even remember coming home last night.

But when I wake up this morning, my head pounding and my stomach rolling. I manage to get out of bed and leave my bedroom to go see if Selena is awake yet. I am assuming she is because it is already past noon.

The second I step into the hallway, I notice that her bedroom door is closed. Feeling dizzy and slightly like I might still be drunk, I step carefully toward the kitchen.

Selena isn’t here.

Is she still asleep?

“Selena?”

I’m about to go peek my head into her room, but then a piece of paper on the counter stops me. It’s a note:

I’m going to go stay with my parents for a while. Thank you for everything you’ve done.

Selena

I read the note over a hundred times. I know Selena and I got in a bit of an argument last night—in fact, it’s one of the last things I remember about my New Year’s Eve. But before that ever happened, Selena had told me she didn’t want to see her parents. She said they were overbearing and too far away, and that Derek would find her there in an instant. Did I really piss her off so badly that she would rather risk being found by him than stay here for one more second with me?

31

BRENNAN

My Christmas had been so eventful that I decided a low-key New Year’s Eve was the only way I wanted to spend the holiday. Not only had Jennifer been drunk and hysterical on Christmas, but Derek had also confessed to Mom and Dad late at night after the governor and Jennifer had left, that Selena had left him. That she couldn’t handle the stress and the pressure of being with him when he was going through all these accusations.

Then my brother swore to my parents that he never laid a hand on her, and he even broke down into tears. My naïve, Derek-loving parents consoled him and told him how everything was going to be just fine.

I sat on the staircase during this, far enough up on the steps where they couldn’t see me from the living room. As I listen to Derek speak, I couldn’t help but tear up myself. Not because I felt bad for my brother—the opposite, actually. I felt bad for Selena. For how I had spent all these past years treating her.

Once, a long time ago, back when Selena and Derek first got engaged, Selena had confronted me about something. She had told me that she and Derek got into a fight over the guestlist for the wedding, and that he had gotten “violent” and “aggressive” with her.

You see, back then, I was blinded by Derek, just like everybody else is now. I thought there was no way Derek would ever be that kind of man. Selena had seemed to only start being interested in him when he started growing in popularity. I thought my older brother was this amazing person, and that Selena was an influencer wannabe who was lying to me for attention. I figured she was saying what she could to blackmail Derek into staying with her because she was worried that Derek was going to leave her for somebody more famous.

I have been wanting to find Selena and apologize to her for a while now. I just don’t even know if I can find the right words to say. I don’t know how I would do it. I owe her so much. She had tried to tell me that she was in trouble, and I didnothingto help. Every time I think about the night she made her confession to me, I want to punch something. That might’ve been heronecry for help, and the fact that I shut her down so fast could have been why she kept quiet about it ever since. I probably convinced her that nobody would ever be on her side about this.

I decide to keep my shop open and run it all by myself on New Year’s Day. Then when I get home in the evening, I find Mom and Dad in the kitchen, looking happier than they have been in a while.

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