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“Are you okay?” I ask.
He nods against my shoulder. “Yeah, I just have a sore back.”
Before I can speak, he turns and runs, jumping into the deep end of the pool. I’d been asking about his mom, but now I’m worried he’s hurt his back. Did I tackle him too hard earlier when we were pretending to be MMA fighters? The guys know I like to use my full strength when we fight, but maybe I was too rough.
Warm arms wrap around my waist from behind and hug me to a warm, bare chest. Roman. I smile to myself. I love when he hugs me like this. It isn’t a friend hug. It’s what I’ve seen couples do, and it gives me butterflies every time.
“I have an idea,” he whispers in my ear.
I spin to look at him over my shoulder, and the gleam in his eyes has me nodding. This is gonna be something good. He holds my hand and calls out to Jace and Hunter to follow us. But not before he grabs his backpack.
We go down to the secret part on Hunter’s property that’s surrounded by trees. There are two chairs and a broken pool lounge that we sit on, but out here is where we do our secret things. Like when Jace lit firecrackers he stole from his dad. Or Hunter stole the big sugar bowl from his kitchen, and we ate it with our hands until our tummies hurt.
We wanted a treehouse here, but Hunter’s dad said no. That we aren’t babies anymore. You don’t have to be a baby to have a treehouse. It’s for everyone to have fun. We didn’t like Hunter’s dad after that. Maybe that’s why Hunter’s mom always drinks and sleeps. So she doesn’t have to listen to him being mean.
Roman dumps his bag into the dirt and turns to look at the three of us who stand around him, waiting to see why he brought us out here. I’m hoping he has fireworks, but I’ll keep that thought to myself.
“I want us to make a blood pact.” Roman smiles wildly.
I…what? I look at Jace and Hunter, then back to Roman who is nodding at me.
“What?” Hunter asks, and Roman’s brows furrow like he doesn’t understand the question.
“What’s a blood pact?” I ask as Roman pulls out a pocketknife from his bag.
Jace takes a step back and shakes his head. “No, you’re not gonna cut me with that.” He holds his hands up, and he looks scared.
Why would Roman cut him? Oh…that’s how he gets the blood.
Roman flicks it out, and the silver of the blade shines in the filtered sunlight coming through the tree canopy above. “It’s sharp, I made sure,” he says as he turns it over in his hand.
Where the hell did Roman get that? Did he steal it from his dad, or is it his?
Roman looks over to me and smiles as he shows me the blade. I lean in and touch it.
“A blood pact is when you cut your hand and the other person does too. And you press the cuts together. You make a pact in blood. It’s for life. I want us to be best friends for life,” Roman explains to me and Hunter. Jace must already know what it is.
I glance at Jace, and he keeps shaking his head.
I look down at my hand. Roman wants to cut me? That will hurt, wont it? It won’t hurt more than me leaving, though. And I don’t want to lose my best friends. I want them for life. If this pact makes it for life, then I want that.
I step forward and hold out my hand to Roman.
“Mila, no. Don’t. It’s gonna hurt.”
I turn back to a very scared Jace and frown. “Not as much as losing you forever. I want us to be best friends for life.”
Roman grunts and I see blood dripping from the palm of his right hand. He’s left-handed. I don’t think about that until now. The rest of us are right-handed. I look down at my own hands as he takes my right one in his. His blood is warm and slippery on mine, but I don’t care. He is my best friend; I will love him forever.
“Are you sure?” he whispers, and I realize I’m clenching my teeth as my whole body stands tense. I peer into his blue eyes. I can see the love he has for me there. He wants this…needs this as much as me.
I nod. “Just do it fast?”
I close my eyes as I feel the metal slice into my skin, and the pain is like a flash of heat, over within a second. Red starts to pour out from around where he sliced. It’s shallow, not deep. But it will leave a scar. I feel Hunter brush my shoulder as he stands beside me.
“Best friends for life.” He looks at me as he holds his right palm out to Roman.
I watch this time, looking down at his hand. Roman’s knife is sharp. It slices through Hunter’s skin with ease. It’s a strange sight, seeing someone cut another. Roman is so good at this, it worries me he has done it before. Not a blood pact…but cut something.
