Page 46 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

Tristan looked down at me with the most serious gaze I’d ever seen. His arms were still situated on either of me, and though I was trying not to look down, I could still see that his boner was tenting his sweatpants.

“Aria, I like you,” he said in a moment of total honesty. “Is that a crime?”

The pain in his voice as he said it made me equal parts sad and angry. I felt the same way. The issue wasn’t me, it was him.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “If that’s the way you feel and that’s the way that I feel, then what the… fuck?” I barked, trying to keep my emotions at bay. “We made out at your party, it wasn’t like there was any big secret that I had feelings for you. We were going to meet up and pick up from where we left off. If you liked me and I liked you then why wouldn’t you saythatinstead of all that horrible shit you said about me?”

“Because I’m a terrible person. I was trying to impress people who, in the long run, don’t really matter to me and it cost me someone I care a lot about. I’m sorry, Aria. I shouldn’t have said that stuff to them and I swear to you, I will never say it again,” Tristan said.

Whether I could trust him or not, I wasn’t sure, and it left me painfully conflicted. I wanted more than anything to believe that Tristan could move on from whatever weird attachment he had to his awful friends so that we could be in a relationship for good. When I thought about being with him, it made me feel like it could be the last relationship I was ever in. After all the years we’d been apart, we found our way back to one another and that had to count for something.

But was I being stupid and just walking face first into my own heartbreak? I’d already been hurt by Tristan once. Could I really believe him when he said he wasn’t going to do it again?

“I want to trust you so much, I really do. I… I like you too. After that first day when I saw you again, I thought we were on the road to somewhere and you proved me wrong.”

Tristan’s hands drifted down from the wall and wrapped around me. My skin prickled where his hands were resting on me, and I looked up into his eyes, wondering if I could safely choose hope.

“This is what matters to me.Youare what matters to me. If you can just give me one more chance, I promise, I won’t waste it.” He whispered.

It took active effort to force out all the voices in my mind telling me it was a bad idea. Arden, Lucky, Zameera, my mom. Everyone who had listened to me lament and believe that Tristan was a bad guy. I knew better. I knew he wasn’t that man, it was just whether or not he was strong enough not to pretend to be that man.

“This is the last chance I can give you,” I said. “If you hurt me again—”

“I swear, I won’t.”

Tristan leaned in and I found myself craning up to meet him. Our lips found one another in the dull light of that closet and my mind started to go foggy. There was something about kissing Tristan that just feltright, like it was something I always should have been doing. I bent against him, letting my arms slide up around his neck and hold him close. He pressed himself even more firmly against me and eventually left my lips behind to move to a spot on my neck. He kissed me there for a moment, but when I leaned my head back, giving him better access, he stopped and snickered.

“What?” I said.

“This is definitely not helping my boner, but I donotwant to stop,” he said.

“So don’t,” I said. “There’s more than one way to get rid of one.”

He looked down at me with a surprised expression. “Well then…” He squeezed, his hands moving down on my body. “Tell me more.”

His lips found a spot on my neck again, and I unlaced my hands from his neck and started to move them further and further down his torso. “We probably can’t doeverything, but I can help at least.”

My fingers tucked under the waistband of his sweatpants and my heart was racing at top speed as I got closer to grabbing him.

Then we heard the screech of desks outside the closet.

Tristan snapped back from me and jumped to the side, landing on a pile of boxes, which caused the bottom of the stack to crumple and for him to still smack his head. His leg flew up and if I hadn’t swung my body backwards, he would have kicked me right in the face.

“Tris!”

He groaned, rubbing his head, and the door behind me opened, revealing Mrs. Hammerskill with a panicked look on her face, which quickly turned to relief when she saw us standing inside. “Jesus, I’m so sorry you two. I saw them block the door, but I didn’t realize you were inside. My god. Get out here.”

I stepped out of the closet and Tristan grunted as he got to his feet and squeezed out of the closet. He seemed freaked out and was keeping a distance from me, but I figured that was just because he was still half-hard. I respected the space he needed to try and calm himself down as Mrs. Hammerskill shooed us out of the classroom.

“You two get started heading down. I need to call the principal and let him know I found you.”

I nodded and led the way out of the classroom with Tristan not far behind me. My heart was still pounding, but more than anything I was annoyed we’d been interrupted. I looked back over my shoulder to see how Tristan was managing, but not only was he really far behind me, he was on the other side of the hallway from me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Tristan shook his head. “N-nothing.”

No.

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