Aurora
A little over a week went by, and everything was going amazingly. I’d been staying with Joshua. I hadn’t slept at my own place since we got together. And I didn’t mind that; I liked sleeping next to him.
I was sitting with the girls on the grass near the fountain. Jennie was scrolling through her phone, Aly was sipping her iced coffee, and Layla was half-asleep with her head on Jennie’s shoulder.
I was on my phone, looking at photos Emily sent me of Brownie and Honey. They were so cute, and they were cuddling up with each other on the corner of the couch.
“Texting your boyfriend?” Aly teased, making me look up.
“No,” I blushed, lowering my phone onto my lap. “I’m texting Emily; she’s taking care of our kittens.”
Jennie and Layla looked up at me as if they couldn’t believe their ears, which was fair because even Alex didn’t believe thattheJoshua Lockhart would have a kitten, let alone two.
Aly blinked once, twice, and then whispered, “Kittens?Our?You and him have kids already?”
“Yeah,” I said, giggling a little. “They’re strays, and I couldn’t handle seeing them like that, so he… he took them in for me.”
Jennie sighed dramatically, falling back onto the grass. “When Joshua Lockhart decides to be sweet, it’s unfairly attractive.”
Aly covered her face with both hands. “Like—ugh. He was always brooding and an asshole, but now? He’s suddenly so perfect. Aurora. I actually get it.”
Layla smiled. “Two kittens, and gave you your voice back, so perfect. He’s pretty cool.”
I laughed, cheeks warming. “He’s… really not that bad, you know.”
Jennie shot up, pointing her straw at me. “Oh, don’t you start. You’ve already won the lottery. The rest of us are just trying to survive men who can’t even text back.”
I felt my heart stutter just a little. Yeah, they were right. When Joshua was sweet when he dropped the walls, when his eyes softened, when he looked at me like I was something fragile he wanted to protect, he wasn’t just attractive.
He was everything.
We were still laughing about Joshua and the kittens when a shadow fell over us. A pair of clean white trainers stopped right beside Jennie’s stretched-out legs. She tilted her head up, squinting against the sun, and there he was. Alex Grayson.
He nudged Jennie’s foot lightly with his own. “Gee, thanks for ditching me,” he said flatly, voice laced with irritation. “I waited at the art room for thirty fucking minutes, Blondie.”
Jennie froze for a second before her lips curled into that guilty, sheepish smile of hers. “Oh… yeah.” She stood up, brushing grass off her skirt. “I forgot.”
Alex sighed through his nose, jaw tightening. Aly, never one to resist poking the bear, smirked from behind her straw. “Joshua might be sweet these days, but his best friend clearly hasn’t changed one bit.”
That got Alex’s attention. He turned his head sharply, eyes narrowing into a glare so sharp it could’ve sliced glass.
Aly just grinned wider, unbothered.
But Alex didn’t waste his breath. He exhaled slowly, turned his gaze back to Jennie, and said coolly, “Your friends need to learn that speaking isn’t always required when seeing someone, especially someone who doesn’t want to hear it.”
And then he just walked off. No goodbyes, no look back. Just classic Alex. Aly let out a low whistle as Jennie jogged after Alex, calling something out that made him glance back over his shoulder with that same blank, unimpressed expression he always wore.
“How the hell is she even friends with him?” Aly muttered, eyes following them until they disappeared around the corner of the path. “He’s allergic to joy.”
Layla chuckled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “They’ve known each other since their first year,” she explained, turning to me. “Jennie is the oldest among all of us. It was her, Alex and Joshua in the first year, just them three, but she said she approached Alex because she thought he was hot.”
Aly rolled her eyes at that, making me giggle a bit as Layla continued. “But they ended up being just cute best friends who fight like siblings.”
I blinked, surprised. “They were a trio?”
Layla nodded. “Pretty much. But Jennie is closer to Alex than Joshua. She calls him Joshy sometimes, because Alex is her Lexi.”
Aly chuckled into her straw, “Lexi and Joshy, sickening.”
