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“What’s wrong?” I wipe my chin again to clear the lingering drool there. I probably still didn’t get it all.
“Everything,” Taylen exclaims, and I gape at him. He seriously does look like everything is wrong. His face is so urgent and worried, yet still so freaking beautiful. Has he always been this gorgeous? How did I not see it? Or how did it never affect me? Whatever anti-Taylen I had has worn off big time. “Everything is wrong because you left. You walked out of my life, and that’s not going to do.”
“Garp!” My mom gurgles like a fish behind Taylen, but he doesn’t stop.
“The very second you walked out, I realized my granny was right. I need to grow up. It might take some time to happen, and it’s true that I probably do have more muscles than brains, as she suggested, but I want to get there. I realized as soon as you left…wait, no, it was actually before that, but I just couldn’t say anything because I’m a dumbass who just stood there. I was put on the spot, and you know how I am when I’m put on the spot…”
I nod because I do know. He’s not good at it, and when it happens, he clams up. He also dams up and jams up.
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life without you, or even spend the rest of my life with you as just my best friend. I love you, Elodie.”
“Garp!” Mom yelps again, louder.
Jeffers barks. The noise my mom makes is throwing him off.
“I want to be worthy of you, and I want to be the one who gets to do life with you. If that means burning out one day, although I hope it doesn’t, at least I’ll be a big pile of ashes who gave it all he had. Because continuing the rest of my life without you would be torture. It would be worse than the torture of not knowing if it would work out or not. It would be even worse than the torture of not taking the chance while I had it because I was too scared I’d lose you.”
“Gahhhhh! Roger! Roger, where are you?”
My mom is on the verge of having a meltdown, but for the first time in my life, I’m not going to rush to her. I’m not going to give in and tell her that I’ll do what she wants because I won’t. I won’t marry a man I don’t love. And I don’t want to live here anymore. It’s not healthy for my parents and me. We need to find a way to live without constantly being afraid. We need to give each other space and respect. They can’t be so afraid that something will happen to me, and I can’t be so worried that something will happen to me, thus destroying them.
I smile encouragingly at Taylen. I don’t want to interrupt him. I want to hear him out even though I need to see him smile because his smile is life. I also have a strong desire to throw myself against him, wrap my arms around him, and just hold him. I need to hold not just my best friend but the love of my freaking life.
“I love you, Ell,” he says as he pulls out the ruined soul contract. The paper is soggy and rumpled, but when he hands it to me, his smile is radiant. It’s so big and wide that I could get drunk at the sight of it. “I love you so much, and I was hoping you might consider reselling your soul to me.”
“Holy mother of…Roger? Roger, where are you?!” My mom is wringing her hands now and hovering like an angry wasp in the background as she calls out to my father.
I seriously hope my dad appears so he can hear my response, and my mom won’t have to repeat it.
“I’d sell my soul to you any day.” I reach into my jeans and pull out the brooch, which I pin to the front of my fuzzy sweater. “And I’ll spend a lifetime wearing this proudly. I’m happy we got cursed. There isn’t anyone else in the world I’d rather do this with.”
By this point, I can’t hold back. I rush at Taylen and throw my arms around his neck. His arms come up around my waist, and he kisses me solidly and passionately, right there in front of my mom. And also my dad, because I can hear his heavy steps shuffling into the room behind us.
“Holy mother of…Ginger, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, Roger. I don’t know…”
But I know they do. Because I don’t stop kissing Taylen, and it’s clear we’re so much more than friends. The thing is? I’m never going back, even without the curse and soul contract.
