Page 69 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

After about five minutes, the time I imagined it took Arden to convince Aria to come down at all, they came down the stairs. Arden led, keeping a defensive position in front of Aria, and I could see Aria’s red eyes and puffy cheeks behind her. It killed me. If I ever got my hands on that Lucky guy, he’d be sorry.

“Aria,” I said.

“Arden said you have proof this wasn’t you,” she said, cutting straight to the chase. “Show me.”

We walked into the dining room and sat down around the table. Hannah sat in the seat between Aria and I so that she could show her the different things she’d found on her phone, including the posts on Lucky’s social media about being a nice guy and friendzoned. She explained the suspicious timing with which Lucky reached out to her to begin with and then looked at me to finish things off.

“Taylor’s a lawyer, I don’t know if I ever told you that or not. Anyway, I asked him to look into the page, and he confirmed the handle of the person that sent the picture into the page was LuckyLuck121090,” I explained.

Hannah slid her phone over to Aria and pointed at the handle. “It’s the same.”

Arden had been scrolling through the page on her own. “Aria, do you have this social media page? He’s like… obsessed with you.”

“No. I didn’t even know he was on social media. He would tell me all the time that he didn’t like social media,” Aria said.

Hannah nodded. “Yeah. He told me the same thing.”

I saw the wind knocked out of Aria’s sails, and I felt bad. “How long were you two friends?”

“Since the sixth grade,” she said. Tears rose to her eyes, and while Arden put her hand on Aria’s back to rub, Hannah put hers on Aria’s hand. “I can’t believe it was all nothing.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“For what? This isn’t your fault,” Aria replied.

“I mean, maybe not, but you never would have believed it if I’d treated you better. We probably wouldn’t have even been in that situation at all if I wasn’t such an idiot. I’m sorry that anything I did has caused you pain.”

Aria looked up at me and forced a smile. “It’s okay. I’m glad this wasn’t you.” Then she turned and looked at Arden. “I have to go talk to Lucky.”

“I’m coming with you,” Arden, Hannah, and I all said at the exact same time.

Aria let out a little chuckle which made us all smile, but she shook her head. “I know you all have your own reasons for wanting to come, but I need to do this on my own.”

“I’m not letting you go there alone when he’s unhinged,” Arden said.

“I feel the same way,” I said. “He’s already hurt you enough.”

Aria looked between Arden and I. “If either of you come, there’s gonna be a fight, am I wrong?” I looked at Arden and she looked at me and we both knew that she was totally right. “And Hannah, I don’t know you very well, but your issues with Lucky and mine are totally different. I think you should kick his ass, but that’s not really what I’m going there for.”

Hannah nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I’ll meet him in a public place and be totally safe,” Aria said. “I’ll be okay. I’m no weakling.”

“That’s for sure,” I said.

“Thank you guys for coming and explaining everything. I feel better,” Aria said, then she smiled at me. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” I said. “I’d do anything for you.” Arden and Aria walked us over to the door so we could leave, but before I got too far, I grabbed Aria’s hands and looked her in the eyes. “Can we meet up later? Talk?”

“Um…” She was still just barely holding her emotions back. “I think I need to take things just one step at a time right now.”

It was frustrating, but I was understanding. I wanted to give her as much space as she needed to sort things out. I didn’t want to risk the little bit of trust I’d built back. “Yeah, of course. Take your time.” She pulled her hands from mine and it left me with a sense of foreboding, but I did the best I could to ignore it. “Just so you know, Taylor got that entire page pulled down. So our picture isn’t up anymore.”

Aria nodded. “Thank him for me.”

“I will. You be careful?” I said.

Aria took a deep breath. “Don’t worry. I will.”

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