Page 26 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“You’ve been down in the dumps for the last three hours. What’s going on?” she asked.

“Apparently, Aria overheard us talking about her and her gift. Taylor too. He’s really upset,” I explained, letting my head fall against the back of the couch. “I feel like shit.”

“Oof. That’s rough. We werenotbeing very nice.”

“No. We weren’t.” I let out an irritated growl. “I can’t believe I let them suck me in to all the trash talking.”

“What choice did you have?” Hannah asked. “If you hadn’t, Ceradi would have turned on you quick. She may have even thrown the pad and pencils in the punch. You made the best decision.”

“Right?!” I yelped. “I keep trying to explain it to Taylor, but he doesn’t get it. He thinks it’s easy to just not give into it.”

“I mean, no offense to him, but he wasn’t popular in school, right? He just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t know the pressure we’re under to maintain the status quo. People like you and me, we’re either at the top or we’re at the bottom. There’s no middle. We’ve been given a rare chance to buddy up to Ceradi and the others instead of being her victims. We’d be stupid not to do what it takes to cash in on that opportunity.”

Everything that Taylor struggled to understand when I said it, sounded so succinct and reasonable coming out of Hannah's mouth. Maybe I neededherto explain it to him, and then he’d get it. I just wasn’t as eloquent as her. I felt terrible after talking to Taylor, and I was still sad knowing that I’d hurt Aria's feelings, but Hannah was right. I just got dealt a shitty hand, that was all. A stroke of bad luck.

“Anyway,” Hannah continued. “Can I give youmygift now?”

I looked over at her. “You got me one?”

She smirked. “Of course I did. Be right back.”

She got up and walked out of the living room, and I heard the front door open and close. I watched through the big bay window in the front as she walked down to her car, opened the door, and pulled out a wrapped box. She shut the door and walked back towards the house, until I heard the front door open and close again. She returned to the seat at my side and set the box in my lap. It was thin, but wide, and was wrapped in a shimmering orange wrapping paper.

“Happy Day Before Your Birthday.”

I smiled. “Thanks.” I clawed into the wrapping paper, tearing it free from the box, to reveal a set of charcoals I’d eyed when Hannah and I went walking around the mall the last weekend before school started. “So this is why you kept swatting my hand when I tried to get them?”

“You’re so annoying. Don’t you know the rule that you can't buy anything for yourself within a month of your birthday? I’d already bought and wrapped them when you saw them,” Hannah explained.

I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her snug to me. “Thanks Hannah.”

She patted my stomach. “Of course. You deserve it.”

“Although I do wish you’d given it to me a little sooner. It probably would have cheered me up some.”

She scoffed. “Why? So those guys could do to me what they did to Aria? Pass.”

It knocked the wind from my sails. “Yeah I guess that makes sense.”

“Their mocking aside, that stuff Aria got you was really nice and super expensive. Especially if she bought it on her own. She probably spent close to an entire paycheck.” I started to glare at her and she recoiled. “What?”

“Are you trying to make me feel worse?” I asked.

“No, of course not. Just making an observation.” She poked my cheek. “You shouldn’t feel bad anyway. This is a good thing.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Uh. You know, I’m failing to see how that could possibly be the case.”

“This whole thing was a bad idea from the start. We shouldn’t co-mingle. She’ll go on with her life now and you can go on with yours. Continuing on with Aria was a fast track to the bottom of the food chain. I was there, and trust me, you’d much rather be up here.”

Hannah stood up after that, likely sensing that it was time to put a period on that conversation. I walked her to her car, gave her a huge hug, and waited while she pulled out of sight. I retreated to my room after that, even if it was a fruitless effort. I knew I wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night.

10

Tristan

My night was a continuous stream of lying awake for an hour, flipping over and falling asleep for twenty minutes, then waking up again to start the cycle all over again. I didn’t dream, but the constant mental reminder of the way I’d hurt Aria may as well have been a nightmare. I kind of wanted to call or text her in the middle of the night, but then Hannah’s words came back into my mind.

We shouldn’t co-mingle.

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