Page 30 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“Oh. Going to introduce your old friend to your new one, huh? How do you think that’s going to go?”

That was a strange and unexpected question, but if that was the path she wanted to take instead of talking more about Tristan and the party, then I’d take it. “Uh. I don’t expect it to go poorly, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

My mom shrugged. “I don’t know. I like Lucky, you know that, but I’ve often felt like he’s a little possessive. I just wonder how he’s going to take to meeting your new friend. He may get jealous.”

“If he does, I’ll tell him to get over himself,” I spat back. “Arden is awesome, and she goes to my current school and he doesn’t.” My mind drifted back to when I first told Lucky about how my first day had gone and how strangely he behaved about it. That felt more like loneliness than jealousy. “This iswhyI want them to meet. I want Lucky not to feel threatened like he’s being replaced. I want Arden to know who I’m talking about whenever I refer to Lucky, and, in general, I feel like I need them both to feel better.”

For a brief minute, my mom looked at me with concern, but then she wiped it away and offered her same, comforting smile. “Well, I’m sure it’ll go okay.”

“I don’t have the mental or emotional capacity for it not to go well, so hopefully it does.” I walked over to her and kissed her on top of her head. “I’m meeting them at twelve-thirty, so I gotta go. Love you.”

“Love you too, sweetheart.” There was an uncertain tone in her voice that echoed with me as I left. I didn’t like it, but I just had to pray that Arden and Lucky would get on just fine.

The restaurant we picked was one Arden suggested, since I still didn’t know my way around this part of town. It’d be more of a jaunt for Lucky, but he didn’t seem to complain when I sent him the address the night before. It was an Italian restaurant with a laid-back atmosphere, and as soon as I walked in, Arden was already there in a booth. I walked over to her and gave her a huge hug, and not long after that, Lucky arrived.

“Lucky!” I waved my arm to flag him down. “Over here!” He walked over and I gave him a huge hug before holding a hand out towards Arden. “This is my new friend Arden, the one I was telling you about from debate club. Arden, this is my best friend Lucky.”

Arden stood up from the booth and held out a hand. “Hey! Nice to meet ya!”

Lucky was briefly hesitant, but then smiled and extended his hand to take Arden’s. “Nice to meet you too. Thanks for taking care of this weirdo.”

“Oh, hey, no problem. She’s kickass, so it’s nice to hang out with her,” Arden said, and it actually brought a smile to my face. “Sorry I let you down last night though.”

Lucky frowned as we all settled down into the booth. “Uh. Did something happen?” He looked at me. “At the party?”

“Oh, you haven’t told him yet?” Arden said. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay.” I looked at Lucky. “Yeah. Shit sort of hit the fan last night.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked. “You texted me to invite me here.”

I frowned. “Because I was a mess and I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Yeah. She didn’t even really talk to me about it, only confirmed my fears that things would go poorly,” Arden said. “She wouldn’t talk to me about it either.”

This seemed to settle Lucky’s frustration that was clearly growing, and he smirked at Arden. “So I’m guessing you’re learning that this one doesn’t deal well with her emotions.”

Arden raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, so I see. But you know, I have a shaky relationship with my emotions at best, so we’re two peas there.”

A waiter came over and took our orders and brought us some drinks, then I settled into the story while we waited. “I mean, at first, everything went really well. I gave him the present and he was really grateful. We even…” My face got a little hotter. “We made out a little bit.”

Arden’s jaw dropped. “Wait. Seriously?”

Lucky was looking at me as though I’d just revealed serious medical news. I flicked a gaze between him and Arden. “What? Am Ithatmuch of a loser that you guys just can’t imagine he would even kiss me?”

Lucky didn’t respond, but Arden snapped to attention. “What, no! You’re obviously a babe. Right, Lucky? Back me up. You have eyes.”

“She’s right, Aria,” Lucky replied. “You’re stunning, and obviously someone would want to make out with you.”

Arden set one of her hands on top of mine. “It’s not shocking because of you. It’s shocking because of him. I would have assumed that his handlers would have such a tight leash on him that he would never risk it. You’re incredible. I guess he thought you were too good to pass up.”

“Yeah, well, it was all for nothing,” I said. “He walked away to greet his friends and when I found him later, they were all trashing me, him included. He called me fat and made fun of the gift I gave him.”

“What an asshole,” Lucky said, though he said it with something like a smile. “Hopefully you’re done with him.”

“Of course I’m done with him,” I growled. “Why are you smiling?”

“Yeah,” Arden said. “It shouldn’t make you happy that someone hurt her.”

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