AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nineteen
Magnolia
Telling Bridget does something to me. It unlocks something.
A lot of things, actually. Ranging from relief to grief to freedom and sadness, maybe even a bit of capriciousness that probably shouldn’t be there.
She says she’ll drive me home that afternoon.
I recline the chair of my father’s Brabus G63 that I took without telling him back as far as it will go and curl up, facing my sister.
She glances down at me then back at the road.
“Why didn’t you ever tell anyone?”
I purse my lips.
“Keep a secret long enough and it keeps you.”
She nods, checks her rearview mirror.
“Probably at first we thought we’d be in trouble, you know? Like, they were so cross that night we got home.”
She sniffs a smile.
“Marsaili especially. And I didn’t want her to do anything dramatic or say we were bad for each other or something. Which she would have done. But we weren’t bad for each other—” I purse my lips. “We were just… for each other.”
“Are you upset he didn’t come?” She watches my face closely.
I shift my position, let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
“Yes.” I sigh. “I mean, he was there. He left the flowers. Mr Gibbs saw him. He just didn’t want to see me, I guess.”
She shakes her head. “Can’t be.”
“He has a girlfriend now, Bridge.” I shrug. “Maybe he’s moving on.”
“From you?” She blinks then shakes her head once. “In no world.”
I look out the window.
Wonder how to unlove him.
If I even could.
I’ll wear it like a badge of honour forever that he loved me first, that he loved me at all. Have you ever had a love like that? I always felt like the luckiest girl to have his eyes on me, his hands on me. And his mouth. I love that mouth.
I think I need a drink.
“What’s she like?” Bridget asks.
“Who?” I look over, grateful for the hand up from the quicksand of my brain.
“Lizzo,” she deadpans.
“Oh.” I frown then shrug. “Yeah, I mean she’s pretty fun. Bit overzealous with the flute the way woodwind musicians tend to be, but a great time nevertheless.”
“His girlfriend, you absolute twat.”
