AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There aremonumental moments in everyone's lives. The ones you can't avoid. The ones that have the ability to change literally everything, and there is nothing you can do about it. They're not meant to break you. They're meant to shape you. To transition you into the next chapter of your life. But that doesn't mean they're easy.
I walk down the street, clutching my purse to my body like it's holding all the money I have to my name. The store is only a short distance away from campus. A quick jog if I really felt like running. And yet, my dorm couldn't feel further away.
Every step feels like a lifetime.
Like swimming against a current or walking through quicksand.
It's heavy and uncomfortable, and deep down, I know why.
“Kennedy,” a voice calls just as I reach my dorm.
I stop in my tracks and close my eyes, because I know that voice. Sure enough, Alec jumps out of his car and jogs over to me. He runs his fingers through his blond hair and looks at me with nothing but concern.
“Are you all right?” he asks. “I haven't heard from you lately.”
“Uh, yeah,” I grumble. “Sorry. I've been busy.”
He cocks a brow at me. “Busy?”
“Yep.”
It's obvious he doesn't believe me as he crosses his arms over his chest. “Come on. Why are you avoiding me?”
My shoulders sag as he hits the nail on the head. I thought I was being discreet, acting like I was studying or writing essays. Anything a lot more productive than what I've really been doing. But there's no way I can tell him the truth.
The morning I came home and found Easton at my door, my heart broke. He looked so peaceful, sound asleep against my door, and yet still, something was burdening him. Something that made it so he couldn't sleep without me.
I was needed.
If Alec hadn't interrupted, I would've invited him in. Stopped playing the denial game and confided in him about everything.
My missed periods.
The nausea.
A feeling in my gut that tells me this isn't just going to go away.
But that's what happened.
Instead, it got worse.
I should've known that Easton would immediately think I was sleeping with Alec. After all, I thought that about Tessa because he was sneaking around to meet her. I wish he knew that isn't at all the case with Alec and me.
Alec knew I was having a hard time. Accepting that a relationship you were fully invested in is over isn't an easy feat. When trying everything else he could think of didn't cheer me up, he stuck me in the car and drove an hour to the town we grew up in.
Seeing some of my old friends was exactly what I needed. Granted, only a few of them still lived at home. The rest were away at college. But it was still nostalgic. We went to my favorite ice cream shop, drove by my childhood home that's now owned by a family with two little girls, and sat on the bleachers of my former high school.
It was a trip down memory lane, back to when everything was so easy. I didn't want to leave, but we had class the next day. So, Alec suggested we sleep at his parents' house and head back bright and early in the morning.
And that's what we did.
We slept.
In separate beds.
In separate rooms.
And I dreamed of Easton.
