“A boy from my high school. His name was Harlen.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen. We were freshmen.”
“I’m so sorry, Blake.” My hand instinctively starts running up and down her back.
Her eyes fill with tears, and I can tell she’s fighting them with everything she has.
“Was he your boyfriend?”
“Yeah.” I wait for her to continue. “I mean, we were dating like fifteen-year-olds date. You know what being fifteen is like.”
“It was a long time ago, but I do believe I was fifteen once.” She cracks a smile, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I can’t stand to see her so sad.
“Want to know the dumbest part?”
“Sure.”
She huffs a laugh. “If you’ve looked at my social media at all, you’d know that I've had crazy colored hair for a long time.”
“I may have creeped a little.”
“Well, I dyed it for the first time when I was fifteen and haven’t had it a natural hair color since.”
“What color was it?”
“Blue. And I absolutely destroyed my hair trying to bleach it myself. My mom had to come to the rescue. Funny thing is, she had no idea I was dying my hair.”
We both chuckle at the thought of fifteen-year-old Blake doing something rebellious.
“The embarrassing part is that I dyed it for him.” She breaks eye contact at the mention of him. She’s staring down at my chest, tapping her fingers on my collarbone. “He told me he thought I would look really good with colored hair, that it would match my personality. I was going to surprise him at school the next day, but he never showed up.”
My throat swells with unshed tears as my heart breaksfor little Blake and adult Blake, who clearly isn't over this. Her fingers continue tapping on my chest until I cover them with mine, but she still won’t look at me.
“That had to be incredibly hard.”
“Yeah…” Her voice is nothing more than a whisper.
“I appreciate you sharing that with me.”
“I’ve never talked with anyone about it before.”
“Not even your mom or your sister?”
“They obviously know. But no, I’ve never actually talked about it like this. I just shut myself in my room for months until people stopped asking if I was okay.”
I pull her into my chest and hold her. She doesn’t sob, she just lets me hold her. I think she's gotten so used to numbing herself to the pain she feels when she thinks about him. And I completely get it. I was the same way with Daisy.
Chapter Nineteen
KASS
I wake up to Blake in my bed for the second morning in a row. I look over at her sleeping peacefully. A loch of purple hair flutters away from her face every time she lets out a breath. I want to sweep it out of the way, but I don’t want to disturb her.
She must feel me staring at her because she starts to wake up. She rolls from her side to her stomach with a groan and smushes her face into the pillow.
"Good morning." I turn onto my side and brush the hair out of her face so I can see her profile.
