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I finally know the meaning of the damned if you do, damned if you don’t cliché because I’m freaking living it out.
CHAPTER 11
Elodie
Oomph. So we did that. We kind of made out—topless making out.
I thought it went well. This is why you should always try new things and keep an open mind. At least, I figured it was until Toren and Luna walked in. It was okay that we were interrupted. It was actually kind of funny that Tor was going to use Taylen’s place as a, well, a farge pad and not tell his brother. That’s totally something Taylen would do, but I never figured Toren, who is always so serious and stoic, had the balls for it. No pun intended.
Anyway, I thought the making out thing was perfect. It felt so, so good. And so right. It was wondrous with a side of wonderful and some extra wonder zest thrown in.
But then Taylen was all like: you can’t move in here. Never. Over my dead body. If I had a dead body, you wouldn’t officially own my soul, and I wouldn’t be cursed.
Asswipe. What a butthead thing to say.
Right on cue, said asswipe knocks on the door. I’m in Taylen’s spare room. It’s enormous, easily the size of most people’s entire apartments. I was planning on staying in here, at least for the rest of the week, but now I’m not so sure. It might be time to rethink that. Actually, it might be time to rethink everything. How can I stay here if he’s obviously so desperate to have me gone?
I hate that Tay snuck up on me. He’s my best friend, and then all of a sudden, it’s like he transformed into this…this person I find attractive. I’ve always loved him, but now he steals my breath too, and it’s a one-two punch that I have no way of fighting.
“What?” I call out, annoyed that my voice sounds super petulant. I’m not the one who was being childish down there, so I shouldn’t feel like it now.
“Ell, come on,” Taylen says in his pleading voice. It’s the tone he uses to get what he wants. He’s done it since we were kids, and heck no, it’s not working on me. I know all his tricks, and I refuse to be fooled.
“Nope. I’m staying in here for at least an hour while I cool off, then I’m calling a cab and going to some hotel.”
“Which one?”
“Does it matter?” My hands curl into fists. “Any hotel. All hotels. Anywhere would be better than here, where I’m not wanted.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Taylen protests. He sighs loudly as if he’s trying to huff the door down, though it has never worked. He should recall from our fairy tale days that it’s a shit plan.
“I’m pretty sure you did.”
“It was just the heat of the moment. I was annoyed with Toren. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just…we’ve never talked about you moving in. I didn’t think you wanted to.”
“You made it abundantly clear that I’m not wanted, so even if I did want to, which I don’t, I wouldn’t. I’ll find an apartment. You seem to think I need space from my parents so badly. I didn’t realize I was supposed to have space from you too.”
“Can we please not have this conversation through a closed door?” I can hear the exasperation in his voice. Freaking good. I’m glad he’s at a loss here.
I walk over to the other side of the door. I reach out and grab the knob, but I don’t twist or undo the lock. “What?” I say through clenched teeth. “I can hear you just fine. You know me so well that you can probably imagine how my face looks at any given moment.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just frazzled by this curse, and…”
“You can’t blame everything on the curse!” I pull my hand away from the knob. I’d like to beat the door, not open it. “I doubt it has anything to do with anything at all. It’s probably not even real. You said it was basically a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I agree. Your grandma put Toren and Luna in each other’s paths. They had a child together that he didn’t know about. Of course they were going to end up together. They loved each other from before. As for Kirian and Lindy, your granny put them in each other’s way too. And she did the same thing with us. We were already very much in each other’s paths, so she just gave us a shove in the direction she wanted us to go. She opened our eyes to things neither of us could see before because we were so used to walking around blind.”
“It’s real,” Taylen groans. There’s such certainty in his voice that my stomach plummets. “Ash and Ellis? The ring got stuck on her finger, remember? It wouldn’t come off. They tried everything.”
