Page 53 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

Like a lightning bolt striking from the top of my head down to my feet, something hit me. “I don’t like that.”

“No one does, baby bro. Heartbreak is a bitch,” Taylor said.

“No,” I said. “The thought of never seeing Aria again.”

Taylor tilted his head. “Well, you’ll go your separate ways after you graduate, I imagine.”

He was right. Right now, I could still see her and talk to her, even if it was laced with all the nastiness between us, but we were seniors and would graduate at the end of the year. I wouldn’t have the summer to learn and grow and see if we could make it work next school year.

I wasn’t just risking losing Aria right now, I was risking losing her forever.

21

Tristan

There were audible groans coming out of me as I walked down the hallways now drenched in decorations for the Sadie Hawkins dance. Thanksgiving break was in two weeks, which meant the dance would be next Friday. Along with the posters advertising the dance and reminding students to purchase tickets through their school app, the fronts of several lockers were decorated, a tradition around the school when anyone wanted to ask someone else to the dance.

All of the couples in school were being super lovey dovey. I’d even seen some of the teachers who were dating outside of school getting flirtatious with one another.

“Ugh, fuck happiness,” I groaned.

“Well, that’s not very nice.” I jumped so far to my side that I crashed into a set of lockers and fell under a hail of points and laughs. Hannah grabbed my arm and pulled me back over, before brushing me off. “What the hell? It’s just me.”

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a big hug. “You’re not mad at me?”

She squeezed me back, circling her arms around my back and holding me tight. “I needed a break from you, but I could never stay mad at you. Especially not when you’re going through all this shit.”

I stepped back from her and frowned like a little boy that had just fallen down. “I’m sad.”

It broke Hannah in an instant, who gave me a pitying expression. “Oh, honey, I know.” She reached a hand up and scratched the side of my face. “Have you spoken to Aria?”

“No. Even if I wanted to be that much of a sadist and keep in contact with her, she’s blocked me on damn near everything. Not that I don’t deserve it.”

“Well, you do,” Hannah said.

“I know,” I said.

Hannah looped her arm through mine and we started for the stairs that would take us up to where our lockers were. “Look, at least you can put all of this behind you now.”

“That’s the thing though, Hannah,” I said. “I don’t want to put it behind me. I don’t want Aria behind me. I’m… I’m in love with her.”

Hannah looked at me with sympathy. “I know. Unfortunately, I think that ship has sailed.”

Knowing she was right severed me in two pieces. All I could think about after talking to Taylor on Sunday was the thought that Aria and I would graduate and I would never see her again. I’d already been through that pain once, when we were pulled away from each other in elementary school. I was too young then to know just how painful it was, but I never got over it. It was the main reason why I was so over the moon when I saw her again the first day of school. It was what allowed me to fall so hard for her so fast. After finding our way back to one another after all this time, I didn’t want to just walk away and never see her again. I didn’t want her to be a what-if in my past that I constantly thought about until reuniting at a high school reunion ten years from now.

I wanted to be with Aria, and I knew now that I’d give up anything for that chance, I’d just figured it out too fucking late.

I carried myself forward through sheer force of will. When we got to my locker it was as bare as it was any other day, and I threw Hannah a frustrated gaze. “Couldn’t even decorate my locker? It would have made me feel better.”

Hannah raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, I know we’re not going together romantically, but you did it last year when we just went as friends and it made my day,” I said.

“I didn’t decorate your locker because I’m not asking you to Sadie Hawkins,” Hannah said.

I and several girls nearby looked at her with shock. “Wait… what?” I asked.

“I already told you, I’m asking a guy I grew up with. I’ve already asked him and he said yes,” Hannah explained.

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