AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But—”
“No, Mom. No.” God, it felt good to say that word.
No.
“I am done with your unhealthy obsession to fix me.”
I didn’t need to be fixed like a doll with broken parts. I was a person with feelings and thoughts and imperfections, just like the rest of the world.
“Aurora Vivienne Hart, you will not speak to me with such—”
“Goodbye, Mom.” I cut her off. “Please don’t call me again unless you want to apologize.”
I hung up, something akin to relief unfurling in my stomach as the tethers between us frayed and snapped.
And drifted away like ashes in the wind.
Something inside me changed after the call with Mom. I realized that I could spend my entire life living in the shadows, scared of what might happen, or I could step into the light and live.
What other people thought about me didn’t define me, but how I felt about myself did. And since arriving in Lakeshore and meeting Connor and Noah and Ella and Dayna and Harper, I’d slowly begun to learn to love myself again.
But no one made me feel more beautiful than Noah. And I didn’t want to hide that away. I wanted to celebrate it, which was why I decided to come clean to Austin.
I figured I had to be the one to do it—he was my brother, after all. So, I’d baked up a storm, rustling up batches of the cookies they all loved so much while I waited for them to get home.
I was fully prepared for him to be pissed and probably a little confused. But the bottom line was I cared about Noah, and I wanted everyone to know because he deserved someone to choose him too. Not Noah the hockey star or Noah the charmer or Noah the playboy, but Noah Holden, the boy from Buffalo, New York. The boy who had never come first to his parents.
By the time the front door opened, their heavy footsteps filling the house, I was a trembling mess. But I could do this.
I needed to do it.
“Hey,” I called. “I’m in the kitchen.”
“Rory? What are you still doing up?” Austin asked, eyeing the clock on the wall.
Crap.
I hadn’t even realized how late it was. Probably because I’d spent a couple of hours cleaning the kitchen within an inch of its life.
“Did you… clean?” He frowned, scanning the spotless kitchen.
“And baked.” I pointed to the plates of cookies.
“Shit, little Hart,” Connor said. “You didn’t need to do this.”
“I wanted to. There’s something I want to talk to you about. Where’s Noah?” I craned my neck over their big, imposing frames, expecting to see him in the hall.
Connor paused mid-bite, glancing at my brother and back again.
“What’s wrong?” My stomach tumbled at the panicked expression in his eyes.
“Uh, he and a bunch of the guys headed to a bar—”
“Holden was on fucking fire tonight,” my brother chuckled, completely oblivious to the fact he was driving the knife deeper and deeper into my heart. “I haven’t seen him like that since he was a freshman. Twenty-bucks says he has a bunny hop tonight. The guy needs a good session after his recent dry spell.”
Oh, God.
I turned away from them, clapping a hand over my mouth and forcing myself to take a deep breath, trying to keep the contents of my stomach on the inside.
