Page 77 of Forever Yours

I stopped next to Kai and put my duffel down. “No clue since I don’t know what a fight circle is,” I replied.

Kai surreptitiously looked around, checking to make sure the coast was clear.

“Kind of like that movieFight Club.”

“Seriously?” That was still a thing? Guys getting together to beat the shit out of each other for kicks? “No, just a regular fight,” I replied.

“Hope you kicked his ass.”

Leaving that to hang unanswered, I grabbed the handles of my bag and walked toward the open elevator that hadn’t closed yet.

“Catch you later,” I told him.

“Yep.” He went back to reading.

Once on my floor, I hesitated outside David’s room. I hadn’t spoken to him since he last texted. Giving three sharp knocks, I waited a minute, and when no one answered, I backtracked to my dorm room and slipped my key into the lock.

“Ash, I’m back!” I called out, opening the door… and stopped when my eyes collided with Julien’s.

Every worry I’d held about our future wentpoofinto the ether.

Julien was there. Waiting for me.

Effervescent. Effulgent. All those weird words we were forced to learn in AP English. That was how I felt at that moment. Just so goddamn happy to be in his space and breathe his air. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I’d missed him so fucking much. I wanted more of those sunrises with him. Every single one.

I set the stuff I was carrying to the side and closed the door. “Hey.”

Hair a mess. Clothes a mess. Fatigue smudges under his eyes. He looked gorgeous and devastated and perfect.

The tension shrouding his face lifted. “I love you.”

He loved me.

That was all it took. We met in the middle of the room, arms wrapping around each other until not a millimeter of space was left between us, the dam of our tears falling away until we were both snotty, hiccuping messes. It was a good cry. A cleansing cry.

“I love you, too,” I whispered into his neck, tasting the salt of his skin.

Our lips gravitated to each other’s, our kiss a reclaiming. An affirmation. A promise.

He gripped the sides of my neck and touched our foreheads together. It was kind of our thing.

“How long have you been here?” I asked.

I hadn’t told him when I’d be returning. We hadn’t spoken much at all. He’d send me messages but the only time I replied back was the one I sent with the photo of the picnic table.

“Every day.”

Every day?

It was then I noticed my side of the room. Pictures of the two of us were tacked onto the wall along with paper printouts saying, “Thinking of you. Missing you. Loving you always. Forever Yours.” The bed I knew I had made the morning before I was attacked was unkempt. Had he been sleeping there? More flowers of various varieties sat in vases on my desk. Red roses. White lilies. Purple tulips. Strings of fairy lights hung down from the ceiling above my bed. All of it overwhelmed me in the best possible way.

“Dance with me,” he said.

Sunrises. Flowers. Love notes. Julien waiting for me in my room. And now dancing. Every time I thought I had him figured out, he revealed another facet of himself.

“We don’t have any music.”

He lifted my hand to his chest and placed it right over his heart. I could feel the solidthumpof it beating.

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