“Because I lost so much that night… I didn’t want to lose my brother too. And I definitely didn’t want him to lose everything he’s worked so hard for.”
I place my hand over her leg and give it a reassuring squeeze.
“I’ll tell him after you win the championship game, okay?” She changes the subject. “I’d tell him sooner, but I don’t want to be the reason you don’t win the playoffs.”
“Okay,” I say, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “After we win the championship game.”
“Deal.”
“I like that you think we’ll win.”
“I don’t think,” she says. “I know.”
She brushes her lips against mine, leaving me with a soft and gentle kiss. When she pulls away, we just stare at each other. Her eyes sparkle, and it’s one of my favorite things. I don’t notice it often, but I always notice it during these small moments between us. The important moments. Like she’s trying to lock them into her brain and remember them forever.
Faint voices outside our room pull us out of our deep thought.
10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4…
“Three,” she whispers.
“Two.”
“One.”
I run my thumb along her lower lip before leaning forward and kissing her. She grabs a fist full of my shirt, pulling my lips harder against hers, savoring this moment.
“Happy New Year.” She breathes, and then we kiss again. She pulls me on top of her, my forearms attempt to hold up my weight so I don’t crush her underneath me, but Ember doesn’t seem to care. Her fingers crawl under my shirt as if they’re searching for warmth and find their solitude traveling circles around my back.
I like this feeling. The feeling that I have someone who makes me feel free. Someone who I get lost in during the smallest moments. A person who can make me forget the rest of the world exists when I’m with her. Because she is my world.
This year’s a new beginning. For her. For me. For us. And it’s going to beouryear.
I can feel it.
thirty-two
Ember
January
Inever thought I’d miss being at school, but it turns out that I enjoy school when I’m not worried about what everyone thinks about me. Not to mention, Declan and I are crushing our project. I mean, if you had told me back in August that going to Declan’s to work on our project would become the highlight of my day. I would’ve laughed.
I would’ve laughed even harder if you would’ve told me that we spent more time kissing than working on the project when I was at his place.
“Hey, Zeke,” I say, walking up the driveway. Zeke’s standing in front of his car’s open hood. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Em.” He studies the contents of his car as if staring at them long enough will fix his problem.
“Everything okay?”
“My car’s fucked up.”
“Do you know what’s wrong with it?”
“I don’t know. I was getting ready to go see my mom, and...” He pinches his nose. “It could be the alternator, but I have no clue.”
“Can you fix it?” I wonder. I don’t know anything about cars, so I have no idea what goes into fixing an alternator. My dad always tried to teach me about cars when he was teaching Cam, but my mom said it wasn’t very ladylike.
