Always You (Love Hurts 1)

If these are my final few moments with her, then I want to remember them forever.

***

Rolling over, I wrapped my arm around Wrenn’s waist. Only she wasn’t there. I sat up in shock, the stark morning sunshine almost blinding me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

It was after eleven. How had I slept so late? And where was Wrenn?

I climbed out of bed, adjusting my jeans. Walking out into the hall, I glanced each way, looking for a sign of Wrenn. Making my way down to the kitchen, I called out her name. No answer.

Why the fuck did this place look so familiar? I was sure I’d been here before. I walked outside and down the steps into the backyard. A cobblestone path led through the manicured lawn, around the back of a large garage.

“Wrenn?” I called out.

I heard her voice faintly in the distance. Walking towards it, what looked like a cubby house came into view from behind a cluster of bushes. I breathed in the salty air, something you can only experience near the ocean. I loved it out here.

“Where are you?” I called out.

“In here.” Her muffled voice was coming from inside the cubby house. I leaned down and stepped through the doorway. My breath caught in my throat as memories began flooding back.

Wrenn and I.

We had met before. This hideous pink cubby house, that’s why this place felt so familiar. Eleven years ago, in this very place, she had made me realize that I needed to live my life. All these years later, we had found our way back to each other.

“What is it?” she asked, alarmed.

I shook my head, not sure what to say, or how to say it. “I’ve been here before, Wrenn. We’ve met before. That first day in school I knew you. You were so familiar to me, but I just couldn’t place you. I assumed it was just from class, but it wasn’t. You remember telling me that my mom probably knew your mom? Well, they did! We met at a party. You would’ve been about seven, and I was twelve.”

She shook her head, looking at me like I was crazy, and laughed. Yes, I sounded insane, and that was okay because this was fucking unbelievable. What were the odds? I mean, considering our connection with Layna, it wasn’t that farfetched, but for this woman I was in love with to be the same girl who’d changed my outlook all those years ago…I was stunned.

“You don’t remember me at all, do you?” I chuckled.

“No, sorry. You obviously left a lasting impression on me,” she joked.

I walked over to her and took her hand, kneeling down in front of her. She parted her legs, allowing me between them. I hugged her body, my lips nuzzling the nape of her neck.

“You did exactly that with me,” I said softly. “Not in a creepy way. You just spelled it out to me, so innocently, that I was wasting my life waiting to get sick.”

Wrenn looked puzzled. “How did I know you were going to get sick?”

“We came out here to get away from our parents. They were talking about me, and Dad’s illness. You looked up at me and said, ‘So what? We’re all going to get sick.’” I smiled, squeezing her hand. “You said something nobody had ever bothered to say. You made me realize that just because I might get sick one day, it didn’t make me special. Or different.”

“Wow,” she mumbled, furrowing her brows together. “That’s pretty incredible, huh?”

“No,” I replied, kissing her lips. “You’re pretty incredible.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Dalton

I collapsed into bed late Sunday night, too tired to bother showering, or even undressing. I was exhausted.

I’d barely gotten any sleep the night before. I’d spent most of it lying in bed with Wrenn curled up in my arms, watching her sleep. I loved the way her lip twitched, and how every few minutes she’d sigh. It was like I couldn’t let myself fall asleep because I wanted to remember every second with her.

Now we were back on campus, back to reality. It was ironic that being back in the real world meant going back to pretending to be I was something I wasn’t. We only had to get through one more week, and then things would be easier. I still didn’t know how we were going to break the news to Layna—or even if there was any news to break. Wrenn had a lot of thinking to do, and I didn’t want to assume she would decide to be with me just because of last night.

***

The following afternoon, I was sitting in the teacher’s lounge when Layna came in. “Dalton, can I see you for a moment. In my office?”