“I see lights, a stage, a cheering crowd.” I smile, able to picture it so vividly because it’s where I’ve spent basically my entire life. Though I have bigger aspirations than performing in the high school musical every year and definitely bigger than dancing on that tiny stage where most of our dance recitals are held.
I’m ready for more. Bigger. Better. The top. That’s where I want to be, at the very top. The best in the business. The dancer every other dancer strives to be like. I want it so badly I can taste it.
“I knew you were going to say that.” He chuckles. “But what about outside of dance? What do you see for your life?”
I turn my head to find Penn’s gaze already locked on me.
“You,” I answer without hesitation.
“Marriage. Kids. The whole white picket fence?” He rolls to his side, and I mirror his actions so that we’re now facing each other.
“I don’t know about kids or a white picket fence...”
“Does that mean you’d marry me?” He smirks, arm extending seconds before his fingers graze my temple, sliding a chunk of hair away from my face.
“Today. Tomorrow. Right now.” The smile on my face feels permanently etched, like nothing could wipe it away.
“You’d marry me right now?” His eyes seem to twinkle under the light of the full moon.
“Well, I don’t think our parents would allow it, but yes, if I could marry you right now, I would.”
“I love you.” He leans closer, lips finding mine as if the only map he knows leads directly to them.
“I love you,” I murmur against his mouth.
“Forever?” He pulls back just enough to meet my gaze.
“Forever,” I confirm.
“You swear it?”
“On my life.”
“Don’t swear on your life, LV. It means too damn much.” His tongue darts out, sliding over the lip piercing that I’ve grown quite fond of as of late.
When he first got it, I wasn’t sure. It felt very bad boy, if you know what I mean. And while Penn is not what I would classify as straight edge in the least, he’s not exactly a bad boy either. In fact, he’s the opposite of a bad boy. At least, when it comes to me. Wild child seems more fitting.
He doesn’t like to fit into the norm. Doesn’t like when others set their expectations on him. He is unapologetically himself and it’s one of the things I love the most about him.
“Well, it’s yours anyways. My life. My heart. Everything that I am... It belongs to you,” I say, running my fingers through his silky locks.
“My life. My heart. Everything that I am... It belongs to you.” He repeats my words back to me.
I’ve spent my life reading books, watching movies and television shows, but not even in the most outlandish tales of love did anything ever hold a candle to what Penn and I share. A love crafted in the stars. No matter what time or distance may stand in our way, he is my home. And I will always find my way home...
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE’Spregnant?” My mom looks at me like I’ve just sprouted horns.
“Eight weeks, apparently.” I blow out a hard breath.
It’s been two days since Cat showed up at Penn’s and dropped an atomic bomb on the ruins of the life I was attempting to piece back together.
I don’t remember much about that day. Josie picked me up. I cried for the first time in a long time—and by cried I mean sobbed my eyes out for two solid hours. Not even her telling me that she told Alec to pound sand when he tried yet again to convince her to go on a date could snap me out of it. And usually hearing about other people’s drama is the trick to helping me forget my own.
But there’s no forgetting this.
There’s no pretending like this doesn’t exist.
Just when I thought things were starting to look up... I should have known better. The universe has been punishing me since the day I left Wren Cove, since the day I left Penn... Nothing has been right since that day.
