“Some people might say I’m being romantic, not sappy.”
“Whatever it is,” she bites her lip, “I missed it.”
“I’m happy that I get to kiss you at midnight,” I whisper, glancing at the clock. We’ll hit the new year in a few minutes. “Especially since it won’t be over a screen.”
“Oh, I still plan on video chatting. I don’t care that we’re in the same room. A plan is a plan.”
“Ha, you’re funny.”
“It’s a talent.” She flips her hair.
“So, we’re ringing in the year as a couple.”
“We are,” she replies.
“And New Year's are for fresh starts and resolutions.”
“Okay,” she hesitates. “What are you getting at?”
“Can one of our resolutions be telling your brother?” I ask. “I know I told you I’d wait until you’re ready, and I whole-heartedly plan on keeping that promise but—”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I’ll tell him,” she continues. “I don’t want to celebrate our one year, and my brother not even know we’re dating.”
I haven’t been in a serious relationship since high school, and I don’t even know if you can call that one serious. Someone else was always on my mind in that relationship, and now…
“If we make it a year,” she teases.
“Right.”
“But I’ll tell him. I don’t want you to think I’m hiding you from him.”
“I don’t.”
I kind of do. If she was dating Jeremy, her brother probably would’ve approved immediately. But because I’m me, there’s that hesitation. If I was anyone else, he’d probably already know. Or maybe it’s the Tanner situation… she didn’t trust me at first because of it; maybe she knows he won’t trust me.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Always.” She sits up a little taller.
“Do you not want to tell him because of what happened freshman year?”
“We’ve talked about this, Declan. I know you weren’t involved—”
“I just mean, are you worried he’ll think I’m like Tanner because I knew Tanner?”
We’ve only talked about it twice: the day she told me why she didn’t like me and when she told me Tanner knew she was a virgin. I never pushed her to talk about the party. About the aftermath of her sleeping with Tanner, and I’m not trying to, I just don’t want Cam to think I’d do the same thing to her.
“He doesn’t know,” she whispers, and now it’s my turn to sit up.What?!
“He doesn’t know which part?”
“All of it, I guess.” She plays with the hem of her sweater. “Cam doesn’t have social media, so hiding everything from him wasn’t hard. Um, he just knows that Tanner was using me. He doesn’t know about the sex, and the video, or the pictures.”
“Why?”
