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Best to get it over with.
600 @ gym.
Might as well get a workout in before class.
Since it doesn’t makesense to go back to sleep, I take a shower and head out around five. The school gym is always open for team members, which has been my safe haven when avoiding home for years. Now, I’d rather be home, but it’s not like I can be with Lilly anyway.
Wes walks in around five-thirty. I’m sitting on one of the bench presses, scrolling through my phone. "You’re early."
Wes gives me a chin nod. "If you text me at four in the morning, I figure it has to be important."
I press my lips in a tight smile.
He throws his bag on the floor and settles on the bench across from mine. "So? Talk."
Straight to the point, but I guess I can’t expect anything else since I’ve left him hanging for weeks—years, if I’m one hundred percent honest.
I take a long breath. Where to start? "This is about Lilly."
He raises his eyebrows as if to sayno shit,and I continue, "Okay, so..." I pause again. God, how did Lilly tell Denielle? This whole thing is fucking insane. I should’ve asked her for specifics before texting Wes.
Another breath. "Lilly is not my sister." There, that’s number one. I got that out. "And she is being stalked by a guy who kidnapped her as a child." Number two. "And we’re together. I think. Either way, I’m in love with her." Number three.
See, wasn’t so hard.
Wes just stares at me. And stares. And then bursts out laughing. "You’re shitting me, right?"
I guess I could’ve expected that reaction; this entire scenario is freaking ridiculous. "Nope."
He stops abruptly, mouth pressed in a flat line. "Anything else I should know while we’re at it?" His tone has turned to stone, and I guess when you’re dropping a bomb like this on your best friend who thought he knew you, he has every right to be pissed.
I should probably explain it more. "Lilly and I have known each other our entire lives. We grew up together in San Diego. Our parents were friends. Shortly after I moved here with my parents, she was kidnapped on a school field trip. She was missing for several weeks but eventually turned up again. The gist is, the freak wanted her back. He stalked Lilly and her parents, who then decided to have her memory manipulated and hide her with my parents. That’s when she moved in with us—as my sister."
Wes scans me up and down, deliberating whether I am not messing with him after all. Eventually, his expression changes, and all he says is, "That’s fucked up!"
"That’s not all of it."
He remains silent, and I continue, "I’ve loved her my entire life."
Wes interrupts me. "Uh, dude, you’ve been dating Kat for years."
I sigh and hold my hands up. "I’m getting to that. You’ve grown up with us. You know we’ve always been close. But over time, it became more to me, and my dad saw it. That’s when I started dating Kat. He said I was never to act on my feelings since Lilly had no clue she wasn’t my sister—and neither did anyone else, for that matter. Kat was an easy out for me. You know her; she never cared about me." I leave out the part where I was jealous as fuck of him and his friendship with Lilly.
He nods in understanding. "What’s next?"
"Lilly started remembering around Thanksgiving last year."
"That’s when she started acting all weird?"
I nod. "You noticed?"
"Sure, man. I’ve been around you guys most of my life. It was obvious, but it wasn’t my place to do or say anything. I figured if it was serious enough, you’d step in no matter what was going on between the two of you. I’ve seen you watch her over the years, though I never expectedthis."
I hadn’t anticipated him being this observant.
"Anyway, I, uh, watched her for a while and finally confronted her mid-December. She told me she thought she was going crazy because of memories that weren’t hers. That was when I saw my chance to finally come clean with her."
Wes whistles through his teeth, and I keep talking. I tell him everything about her memories, our trip, what we found out, and about the message she received yesterday. I finish with, "And I broke up with Kat last night."
