“A small part did.”
“Why?”
“I will not repeat it. I sound like an idiot when I do?”
He laughed.
“You didn’t answer my question. Where were you yesterday?”
“I needed a day off.”
“And your dad just gave it to you?”
“Yeah. He’d been my age once, he knows the pressure we have, especially with our hearts.” He lifted his bum and took out his packet of cigarettes again, lighting one.
My fingers brushed through my hair. “I told you the truth. I tried to make it easier not just on you, but me too, because my father will move on. He will not stay here.”
“You said that already.” He took a drag from his cigarette, and the sleeve of his jacket lifted over his wrist, showcasing one of his bracelets.
I froze as I saw my leather bracelet among them. I jumped off the boulder and crouched down next to him. He stiffened slightly as I grabbed his hand, took the cigarette, and threw it in the woods to inspect his wrists.
I waved away the smoke that escaped his lips.
“You okay?” he asked.
I pushed the other bracelets away, and it was the same bracelet, identical to the one I kept in my tin box. “Where did you get this?”
He looked at his bracelet. “I had it forever.”
“You are not answering my question, where?”
He looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. “Why?”
I chuckled. “You are going to think I’m crazy, but I have the same bracelet, like forever, at home.”
“Bullshit,” he replied.
“I swear, I’m not lying, I’ll show you tomorrow.”
“Where did you get it?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It was something I always had. Where did you get yours?”
“My dad bought it for me when I was little,” Blake rambled.
“Yes, but where?” I grinned. I couldn’t believe we had matching bracelets.
“I don’t know. I’d have to ask him.”
“Yeah, you do that.”
His hand curled around my neck and before I could discover what he was doing, warm, soft lips crushed on mine.
11
BLAKE
The kiss was definitely her first. I could tell, cause she froze, and didn’t know what to do. But my quintessential kissing skills made up for the lack of hers.
