Page 5 of Inked Beasts

It feels, rather alarmingly, as though Scott was right about one thing: like the person I’ve tried to be for the last fifteen years was never real, and her facade is breaking, cracking apart, falling off of me in big chunks.

If I open my eyes, I imagine I’ll see the pieces littering the floor around us.

“It’s been a long time,” Gage says.

I do open my eyes then, but I look up, into his face. “The longest.”

“I understand why you left; you didn’t have a choice. But it never felt right, you being gone.”

Now it’s my heart growing fault lines. Gage’s words have always held power, because he chooses them carefully and makes them count. “I never wanted to be gone. But once I was, it felt like I couldn’t come back.”

The hand that’s resting against my lower back tightens, as if in reflexive protest. “Why?”

There’s no accusation in his voice, but there is demand of a sort. He needs to know. “It hurt too much. I had to cauterize the wound to survive.”

The look on his face wrecks me. He shakes his head. “I hate that you went through that. We were too young to do anything about it. If we’d been a few years older, we could have gotten our own place, and you could have stayed with us.”

“That would have been amazing.” I huff out a laugh. “And probably a train wreck at least some of the time.”

He smiles. “Yes. But it would have been worth it.”

“Yeah. And in some alternate universe, we did that.” I let out a soft sigh. “In this one, not so much.”

His expression changes. “How long are you here?”

LEXY

I know what the answer should be: I’m just here for the wedding. My flight back home is booked for tomorrow. I didn’t leave any time for this reunion to happen, because I was too afraid of what I’d find.

I was afraid the boys would have grown up and moved on without me, built lives that held no memories of the girl who once lived down the street, and had no room for her return. That they would have gotten over me the way I never could get over them, no matter how I tried.

Now I’m kicking myself. I should have given myself at least a few days. I should have trusted my old friends that much.

Gage is still waiting. “That’s a tricky one to answer,” I hedge.

“You mean Scott won’t want you spending time with us.”

“No, he won’t.” And even though I’m done taking my cues from my boyfriend, I do try to avoid conflict. I sigh. “I hate fighting.”

“You never minded it with us.”

I laugh. “With Kai, you mean.”

“He did have a genius for setting you off.” Gage’s eyes twinkle.

I grin. “And vice versa, to be fair.”

The song ends, but I’m not ready for this moment to end. Neither is Gage, it seems. We stand on the dance floor, watching each other. “So what have you two been up to, anyway?” I ask.

His eyebrows go up. “You don’t know?”

I frown. “No. Should I know?”

From the corner of my eye, I see the DJ signaling me. It’s time for the cake. This wedding keeps interrupting my reunion.

I squeeze Gage’s arm. “I’m sorry; I need to go deal with a few things.”

He nods. “I’ll be here.”

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