Page 25 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“What?” I asked.

Taylor walked past me, heat emanating off of him. “Follow me.”

I looked at Molly, nervous. “Am I in trouble?”

Molly nodded quickly. “Yeah. A lot of it.”

My heart started to beat a little faster, nervous that maybe one of the guests had broken or damaged something. I had just finished a complete loop of the house, and everything appeared to be in order. I’d been upstairs and no one else appeared to be up there. As far as I could see, everyone was behaving themselves and treating the house as if it was their own.

So why was Taylor so angry?

He led me through the side door that attached the house into the garage. He leaned against his car and crossed his arms and watched me with anger. I shifted from side to side before finally breaking the tense silence. “Um, did someone make a mess or something? I didn’t see anything that looked damaged, but I promise if someone spilled or something, I’ll spend time cleaning up.”

“No. Nothing is damaged,” Taylor growled at me. “You were looking for Aria, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, confused at the shift. “Have you seen her? I expected that you would have seen her hanging around.”

“I did see her.” He gave me an irritated eye roll. “I saw her standing in the doorway of the kitchen when you were talking to your friends earlier.”

I furrowed my brow. “She was…” Then my heart came to a stop. My mind raced back to the conversation; showing all of my friends the gift she’d gotten me and mocking it and her in the wake. “How… long was she standing there?”

Taylor’s leer was answer enough, but he still hissed, “A while.”

I dropped my head as disappointment fell over me. “She heard everything?”

“Most of it,” Taylor responded. “She certainly heard you ask if only losers give the gift she got you, and compare her one body to that of three people. Aria’s stunning. What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Sheisstunning,” I yelped. “I just said that because I didn’t want to make waves with them?”

“So you let them dog Aria out and you even join in?” Taylor said. “What have you gained? These people, who don’t even know you well enough to know that what Aria got you was actually really considerate, are still your friends, and you lost someone who actually knows and cares about you. Well done. I’ve never been more proud of you.”

“Taylor.”

“I just don’t get it,” Taylor continued. “What are these people giving you? What are you gaining from a relationship with such nasty individuals? Because all I see them giving you is bad habits and spreading their toxicity.”

“They care about me,” I said. “That’s what I’m gaining. They’re my friends. They like targeting people a little, but who doesn’t? Everyone has people they don’t like, and I don’t want to be one of their disliked people. I like having them as my friends.”

“What’d they get you for your birthday? Taking away the fact that none of them know that you love to draw and how good you are at it, or any of your other secret hobbies that shouldn’t be secret, did any of them get you anything they thought you might like? A football? New gloves? Polish for your helmet? New grips for your bats?” I didn’t say anything, because there was nothing to say. They hadn’t gotten me anything. I suspected Hannah probably did and was going to give it to me at a different time, but apart from her, nothing. “Exactly.”

“I don’t know what you want from me,” I said.

“Fuck what I want,” Taylor said. “You should want better for yourself. You should want better for Aria. She’s a good person and she didn’t deserve that.” He took a deep breath in and then out. “I love you, Tris, but I didn’t think it was possible to bethisdisappointed in you. You’re my brother, yes, but this behavior makes me ashamed to call you my friend. I don’t want to be associated with someone like that.”

Ouch. That cut deep. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize to me for. It’s yourself and the good people in your life that you’re hurting.” He stood up straight. “I’ll let you go back to your friends. Hopefully they aren’t talking shit aboutyoubehindyourback, but knowing them, they probably are.” He gave me a final, frustrated look, then walked around me and back into the house.

I spent the next twenty to thirty minutes just standing in the garage, trying to decide if I should call Aria or not. She probably hated me after hearing me say such horrible things about her and the gift she got me. Maybe it would be enough just to double down on my appreciation of her present and tell her again that I loved it, but would she even believe me?

Whatever I was going to do, I was going to have to wait until I could look her in the eyes at school on Monday. She deserved an in-person apology at least.

After a while, Sherelle came and found me to remind me I had an entire home of guests to entertain, so I begrudgingly left the garage and mingled my way around the party. I spent some additional time with my friends, but being around them just reminded me of what I’d said about Aria, and it bummed me out. I did what I had to do to not elicit too many questions, and otherwise stayed quiet and let the party pass by.

It’d officially been soured for me, and I had no one to blame but myself.

After what felt like weeks, people eventually started to leave. I took my place near the door to hand out hugs and appreciation for coming to my party. Some people lingered, wanting to talk or try and squeeze the last bit of fun out of the festivities, but finally even Ceradi and all my other friends said goodbye, assuring me that my party was a blast, and left.

I let out a sigh of relief as I sunk down onto one of the couches pushed against the wall in the living room. Hannah, the only of my friends remaining, and the only one I didn’t mind still being there, sat down next to me.

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