Page 31 of Fame & Chaos

“It won’t.”

“You d-don’t k-know th-that!” Her voice cracked apart completely. “You’re going into music. You’ll be famous eventually. You’ll tour and travel and be surrounded by all the same shit our parents were surrounded by, and what if one day you don’t come home?”

I stared at her in disbelief. “Indi, I would never touch drugs.”

“You can’t promise me forever!” she shouted.

Silence slammed between us, and I moved closer carefully.

“Yes, I can.”

Her eyes met mine instantly. “No one can.”

I reached for her elbow gently. “Baby, listen to me. We are not our parents.”

She looked wrecked hearing me say that. “You believe that now,” she whispered. “But Mum probably thought the exact same thing once.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“Because what happened to them was tragic, Indi. Not normal.” My voice softened. “And if something ever happened to me, I’d want you to keep living. I’d want you to be happy.”

She started crying harder at those words and whispered, “I can’t do this.”

My heart stopped. “What?”

“We’re better as friends.”

The words punched the air out of my lungs. “No.” I shook my head instantly. “No, you don’t mean that.”

“I do—”

“You don’t.” I stepped closer desperately. “Last night—”

“Last night was beautiful,” she cut in quickly, tears pouring down her face now. “But that doesn’t mean we should be together.”

“How does that even make sense?”

“Because I can’t survive… no, I won’t survive loving someone that much.”

Christ.

The pain in her voice wrecked me, so I grabbed the edge of her dresser to steady myself. “Indi—”

She shook her head before I could finish. “I don’t have the strength for this, Caleb.” Then she walked out of the room.

And just like that, she took every bit of air in my lungs with her.

I stood there staring at the empty doorway, trying to process what had just happened. I bent forward, gripping the end of her bed while panic clawed up my throat. Because somehow, in the space of one night, I’d gone from being the happiest guy alive…

To feeling like my entire world had just collapsed around me.

A friend?

I’d just made love to the girl I loved more than anything in this world, and somehow I’d still ended up shoved into the friend zone.

And that hurt worse than the night her parents died.