He shrugged. “Wouldn’t have stopped you either way.”
Long after he left the room, I stared at the collateral damage from our fight. Standing by myself in the only place I’d never truly been alone, his words echoed in my head. Even if I didn’t understand why, I forced myself to admit the truth.
He wasn’t entirely wrong.
PROM NIGHT, 2017, AGE 18
A month later, on prom night, I left my date in the suite housing the after-party and wandered down to the hotel lobby. I ended up outside, staring at the vacant pool.
Midnight had come and gone.
By now, Adam would be sound asleep at home, where he’d been most of the night. Ever since his obligatory hour at the dance had ended.
Addie andToddwould have sealed the deal, too.
I couldn’t stop thinking about that.
Hoping to clear my head, I ignored the sign listing the pool hours. Moonlight shimmered over the water as I approached the deep end. I took off my shoes and sat down to dunk my feet.
Discontent gnawed at my chest.
I didn’t particularly enjoy it, sure I had no right to the feeling at all. It only worsened as I kicked my legs, and waves crashed around my shins.
Then a shadow fell over me.
When I lifted my head, Addie stared down at me, her far-too-womanly but painfully perfect figure displayed in a way she rarely allowed. If we hadn’t grown up together, and I hadn’t seen her change, it would’ve surprised me.
But I’d witnessed every minute.
Every summer, I’d been simultaneously thrilled to be on vacation with the Barrows while increasingly anxious one of them might notice my body responding to her.
Hormones were a bitch. And even the most modest one piece couldn’t hide Addie transforming from Adam’s lanky, spitting image to who she was now.
Whatshe was.
Todd-fucking-Weebly wasn’t the only one with eyes and half a brain. Everyone saw it. As the moonlight shone behind her, it illuminated every inch of the woman she’d become.
It taunted me.
Just like her words had last month.
“I’m not a naive little girl anymore, Blake.”
My response, and her reaction, plagued me, and her cerulean dress hugged her curves as if crafted to make me eat my words.
I swallowed the ones I wanted to say now.
She tilted her head, returning my stare with a question in her eyes. When I said nothing, still lost in my own thoughts, she broke the silence between us.
“What are you doing out here, Blake?”
My eyes flicked down to the pool where I kicked my feet, but they quickly returned to her. I shrugged, predicting her reaction before I told her the truth. “Worrying about you.”
That earned me an all-too-familiar scoff.
Shimmying her dress up at her hips, Addie pulled the skirt to just below her knees.
I stared, transfixed by her movements and the slow reveal of smooth, tanned skin as she took a seat beside me.
