Wrapping his arm around my waist he tucks me in his chest, and looks down at me.
“You like to steal my thunder, don’t you, Rose?”
My lips pucker like a fish. No sound or words come out.
“And let’s not worry about love, complications, troubles, your parents, and other stuff. I want you and you want me, it’s just as simple as that.”
“But what about?—”
He shoves his fingers into my hair and kisses me hard. So hard that all my thoughts scatter and disappear into the oblivion.
By the time he unlocks our lips I don’t even know what I was going to say. All I can think about are the tingles that dance on my lips and the way they feel a little swollen.
“I see. That gets you to stop thinking.”
Before I can reply to him, the door to the rooftop opens and Marie stands there with Sebastian.
8
HOPE
Marie takesa step in my direction but Sebastian puts his arm around her waist and pulls her back. He says something to her in a low voice.
“She knows, doesn’t she?” I whisper to Heath without averting my gaze from Marie who has red-rimmed eyes and her lips are trembling. She looks like she wants to cry a river and I know it’ll be for me.
Leaning closer, he answers. “She does.”
I stiffen. Shame washes over me. I want to find a corner and hide, just so I don’t see the hurt on her face and the sadness in her eyes. She looks miserable and worried. Both things I don’t want her to be.
I dimmed her light. Her bright, warm light that is magic and suits her is now replaced by gloominess.
Now all I see is the girl who’s shed tears for me and looks distressed.
Heath rubs my back and draws my attention to him, as if he can read all my thoughts and knows it upsets me seeing Marie like this. “It’s not your fault.”
“It is.”
“It is fucking not,” he says harshly. “Don’t blame yourself for a second. It is not your fault.”
I stare at him and let his words sink in.
It isn’t my fault. I repeat those words a couple of times but I still feel guilty.
Heath’s gaze softens and he adds, “She’s your friend that’s why she’s worried. I’m sure if the roles were reversed you’d feel the same. Don’t you think so?”
I nod, remembering the time when Marie shared about her past with me, and I started crying, because I didn’t want any of those things to happen to her.
“You know, she’s been anxious about you ever since Sebastian told her. She beat me black and blue for not telling her. So just take it easy on her.”
Looking at her, I ask, “She must hate me.”
“She does not.”
“She looks like she cried a lot. It is because of me.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
How can I not? My best friend looks nothing like herself.
