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I handed her the laptop. “I’m not bringing it back.”
She shoved it toward me. “Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
Nobody else would’ve questioned how much I’d paid for it or fight me to bring it back. Anyone else—Mom, Dad, Skylar, my family andfriends, who I couldn’t really call friends—would’ve gladly taken that laptop just because.
But Vera didn’t want that, and she still stuck around with me.With me!The guy who nobody really gave a fuck about enough to ask to hang out, to show up at the skatepark for no reason other than to see me, to let me take them on a date and not expect something in return.
“If you force me to keep it, I’m going to be freaking furious at you.”
“But you need it,” I said. “How much easier would your life be with school and writing?”
“That—”
“Answer the question.”
She crossed her arms and glared up, her hard brown eyes softening. “It would help.”
“Then, you’re keeping it.”
“But that doesn’t mean I wanted you to buy me a laptop with your father’s dirty money.”
I pressed my lips together and debated on whether I actually should tell her or not. If I told her the truth—that I hadn’t bought this with my father’s money, but the money I’d made off ads on my YouTube channel—then she really wouldn’t let me convince her to keep this.
But I didn’t want to lie to her.
Deep down, I was desperate to show her that not everything I had was because of my father’s money. The majority of the stuff I used day-to-day—like those headphones Mom had broken in two pieces—I had bought myself.
“Your parents—”
“I bought it myself, Vera. I didn’t use my parents’ money.”
After suddenly dropping her annoyed expression, she lowered her widening gaze to the laptop between us. She stretched her fingers across mine on the box and curled them around the digits. “You … bought this with the money you made from … YouTube?”
“I want you to keep it,” I whispered. “Please.”
This was the first purchase I had made for someone else with my earnings. This was proof that I … I wasn’t the guy she thought I was, no matter how much I tried to lead on that I was. I just didn’t want anyone to hurt me more than this world already had.
“Blaise …”
“Just shut up and take it, okay?” I said, desperate for her to keep it.
Even if we didn’t end up together, even if Skylar decided to fuck things up again, even if Vera decided that I wasn’t worth her time anymore, she had made me feel things that I’d never thought I’d feel for someone.
Shit, she made me feel like I wasn’t some fuckup or just another fuck to someone.
Steadily, I pulled my hands from under hers on the box, so she held it herself. When I released it completely, she didn’t shove it back at me or demand that I return the laptop I’d picked out for her.
Instead, she glanced up at me through glossy eyes and said, “You really bought this for me?” Her voice was softer than the first time she’d asked, and sounded like she really couldn’t believe that it was possible.
“Yes, I bought it for you,” I whispered, tucking some dark hair behind her ear.
Chin quivering, she swallowed hard and placed the laptop down on the hood of my car. Then, she curled her arms around my torso, pulled me into a hug, and rested her head on my chest. I tensed in surprise, not knowing how to respond.
Sure, I had hugged a girl before, but not like this.
This was more than acatch you later, thanks for the fuckkind of hug.
