AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Grief had been hanging too heavy on Everly to fight back. She’d let her mother, let the doubt her mother had sown, win. That night, she tore herRomeo and Julietcover in two and pulled out of the Collective.
Everly shifted toward Jazzy. “I was too exhausted and scared to do the Collective without my grandmother. If she had been my mirror, now I was staring at an empty wall. I didn’t know where I fit anymore. The art that had made me so proud looked silly. Weird. I was too afraid people wouldn’t understand what I was doing. I knew it would break mygrandmother’s heart to see me quit, to see me give in to my fears, but it felt safer. Disappearing is safer.” She gestured to her quiet clothes, her quiet space above her brother’s garage, her quiet life. “Then there’s never the chance that I might be all the things I’m afraid I am: too weird, too loud, too awkward.” Everly had to take a breath before she spoke the last one. “Too much.”
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then, out of nowhere, Logan growled, “Fuck that.” His voice was so distinct, so clear, that Everly suddenly understood the phrase “shattering the silence.” It was like something palpable broke against the roughness of his voice. Her eyes cut to his face.
“Hey.” Jazzy waved at him. “Language and the fourth wall and all that.”
“Fuck it. Greg can edit me out. You arenottoo much.”
Everly stared at him. Her heart felt like it was doing push-ups against her chest. She hadn’t realized he’d thought about her enough to have an opinion, never mind be this put out. His cheeks were ruddy beneath his beard, and his brow had this furrow she wanted desperately to smooth with her fingers.
“What?” he said. Still growling. Still gruff.
“I didn’t know you could string so many words together in one sentence.” Tears still stained her face but Everly couldn’t help grinning. “Are you tired? Do you need water?”
Jazzy laughed, loud and raucous, the sound filling the room. Then she placed her hand gently over Everly’s to stop her still-fidgeting fingers. “You may be the first guest he’s ever spoken to in multiple syllables. And he’s right. You’re not too much. You’re exactly enough.”
Her words summoned a fresh wave of tears to Everly’s eyes.
Jazzy pointed to the picture of her younger self, still in her lap. “Did you like this girl?”
Nodding, Everly dragged her palms up her cheeks to dry her face.
“Do you miss her?”
Everly nodded again.
“Do you want to find her?”
One more nod.
Jazzy shook her head. She stood up, then grabbed Everly’s hands to pull her to her feet. “I need you to say it. Out loud.”
“I want to be that girl again,” Everly whispered.
“Louder.”
This time, no one yelled at her when she made eye contact with the camera. And Logan on the other side. In a voice she thought she’d silenced long ago, she said, loud enough for Ellis and Becca to hear her in the main house, “I want to be that girl again.”
READ-IT FORUM: ON THE PLUS SIDE
_______________________________
Annette984 months ago
I just read that article about eight secrets from behind the scenes ofOTPSon Whisper Network and I’m convinced its horse shit.
NO WAY was Stanton policing the guests’ food choices or referring them to trainers. That goes against everything the show stands for!!!!!!
987 456 811 321
_______________________________
CourtK4 months ago
Right?! Or the one about how Jazzy doesn’t actually do any shopping trips. That its all personal shoppers or whatever
