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“Stop trying to convince me that you go the gym and get over here.”
He leans in to kiss me and I grip onto his arms.
“Come on. I don’t want you to fall.”
He climbs over and we go into my bedroom, the lights of the parking lot mingling with moonlight, casting my room in an eerie glow, like time has stopped for a moment. He takes off his shoes and joins me on the bed, Bagel leaving us after giving Holden’s hand a cursory lick.
“I can only stay for a little. My mom gets home at eleven and if the minivan isn’t in the driveway, she’ll call search and rescue.” He rubs his hands together, warming them. “Sorry I didn’t let you know I wouldn’t make it.”
I don’t go into full Corrine meltdown mode when people don’t answer their phones, but I did have a highlight reel of teenage stupidity running full speed in my mind. I’d be impressed with my brain’s creativity if it didn’t mean I had to witness Holden getting into car accidents in various ways all night.
“I forgive you.” It’s literally the least I can do after the last few months.
He tucks himself under the blankets even though he can’t stay and pulls me closer, one arm under my neck and the other across my waist. He nods at the picture of my grandma’s murals hanging on the wall behind my bed. “I see Corrine stopped by.”
“Yes. I really love the pictures.” I scoot closer to him, even though it’s pretty much physically impossible at this point. Not even twelve-year-old lovestruck Saine could have imagined something as sweet as this with Holden. “Thank you for helping her with that.”
He nods, his nose brushing against mine. “That wasn’t our only collaboration.”
I pull back a few inches and raise an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
Grinning, he reaches under the blanket and fights against something for a moment.
“What’s happening here? Should I leave you alone to finish...?”
“Got it,” he says, revealing his hand above the blanket, a small velvet box in it. The same box I found in his pocket after the flat tire. Has he been carrying that around all this time, waiting for the opportune moment to give it to—me? “This won’t look too good on me, so I hope you like it.”
He opens the box and I can’t resist looking this time, now that I know it wasn’t meant for someone else, that it wasn’t a gift someone else rejected. It’s mygrandma’s necklace. I grab the box, my breath wrestling its way up my windpipe. “Wait. I literally just asked Corrine about this.”
I’m so confused, excited, happy, sad that I could throw up. I’m not even jealous that Corrine and Holden orchestrated these two things behind my back, together, because they mean so much to me, my friends and what they did.
“Holden.” I pull the necklace out of the box and examine it, making sure it’s really mine. “How did you get this?Whendid you get this?”
“I talked to Corrine yesterday. She said something super sappy that only she would say about how it was always supposed to be me and you.”
I sit up fully and he helps me put it on, which really means he holds my hair to the side, but it’s the thought that counts. Itouch the chain around my neck, feel the weight of the charm, the familiarity of it, even after being without it for so long. “I found the box in your pocket a few weeks ago. I thought you had bought that necklace for someone.”
“No, I was just carrying the box around. I had to work up the nerve to talk to Corrine about it because I didn’t want to upset her more than it already seemed she was with, you know, everything. And then things went to shit. I had thought about buying you that necklace, though.Beforeall of this. But I knew this was the one you really wanted.” He sighs, but it’s laced with contentment. “I don’t want to come between you two. I know she was there for you when you thought I couldn’t be.”
I kiss him and slowly move us down to the bed. “I think things will be okay.”
“I hope so.” He slides a sock-covered foot over my bare leg. “How’s it feel to be sleeping in a new place?”
“It was weird at first, but now that you’re here?” I grip the charm around my neck. “Feels like home.”
