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It was about as irrational and as insensitive as they come, but I can’t take it back, same as I can’t retract how I left.
Despair hangs in the air, clinging to the breeze more than a kite strung to its sail ever could.
Tears threaten to fall, and it only makes me angry. I refuse to open my lids again until I’m positive they won’t betray me.
“You know, we could always get married here. You have a nice view, and I’m sure your mom wouldn’t mind.”
My eyes bulge before they narrow. She wouldn’t.
Her expression tells me differently. It threatens, “try me.”
A flicker of tenacity fuels her fire as she continues on, like my opinion no longer matters. “I know Cole wouldn’t mind.”
She snorts and my jaw goes slack. How quickly either of our emotions has shifted.
“He’s the one who wanted to elope anyway.” Rory watches as a handful of sand passes through her fingers. “This would be the perfect compromise.”
The sand. I watch as it falls, and it’s as if it’s my time, ticking away. It’s almost up.
My heartbeat accelerates past sanity.
She can’t do this to me! My mother would never agree to it. Unfortunately, we both know she would and that’s the most discouraging part. She’d be thrilled, she loves Rory and for some reason, she’s taken a liking to Cole too. Him somehow winning her over in the one or two times they’d met.
Only a small number of morsels remain.
Dammit.
I lick at my suddenly dry lips. My desperation is as barren as her once full hand of sand.
My stomach gurgles, small pops of anxious bubbles rising to the surface.
Her wrist rotates, the last pieces falling as they blend into the surrounding area. Time’s up.
One way or another, Rory is making sure I’m around. So, she’s either coming here or, I gulp, I’m coming back there.
Double dammit.
I study her. Her eyes swirl with a mixture of emotions. I watch as they flicker back and forth across their depths. I only focus on one. Her remorse is what sends me over the edge.
Air rushes past my lungs. Am I hyperventilating? Internally I am, but on the outside, I do my best to appear rational. Cool and collected.
“I’ve got one condition.”
“Name it,” she drops faster than I have time to fully finish my thought.
“You have to be the one to let me tell Finn.”
Again, she doesn’t hesitate. “Deal.”
And like that, my fate is sealed. We’re going back.
Welp! At least my dad will be happy to see me, I can’t say the same for other people.
five
Finn
I’mnotsurehowRory managed it, but she did, and Hailey’s coming here…for the whole summer.
