Tell Me Pretty Lies

Finding a love like ours is like catching lightning in a bottle. And I'm never letting go.

But as soon as both of you were in the same place, you were like two magnets. That kind of love-the kind that doesn't fade with time or distance- it's rare. Like catching lightning in a bottle.

"He's stubborn and mooay and self loathing, but I don't think he loved a single thing until he met you."

His arm is underneath me, holding me close, my head on his chest, my thigh hitched up over his legs, and I slip back into sleep, feeling far too safe for a girl whose heart is in danger of being broken again.

"I came back for you." "No, you didn't." I laugh. "You hated me." Sometimes, I still think he might on some level. My biggest fear is that he'll never be able to see me the way he did before the accident. "I never hated you. I hated that I couldn't have you."

But tonight, they're grieving. Tonight, they don't have anyone looking out for them-evidently, not even each other. Christian's being secretly abused by his father, Holden's self-medicating with booze and threesomes, and Thayer's most likely self-destructing, God knows where.

"How did you know my window would be open?" she murmurs, her voice telling me she's on the brink of falling asleep. "It's raining. You always leave your window open when it rains."

"I hate you." Even as I say the words, I'm arching into him, needing more. "Tell me another lie." "Tell me more pretty lies from these pretty lips." His finger part me and I gasp, squeezing his wrist, and he groans appreciatively. "This doesn't feel like hate."

I catch his hungry catch his hungry expression in the rearview mirror and something like jealousy swirls in my gut. He doesn't know Shayne was mine once. No one does. She was my dirty little secret. And I'm going to keep it that way.

He's just a boy you used to know. You wil not fall apart at the sight of him.

First, there's Holden. The playboy. The comedian. Has a heart of gold somewhere undeneath all that debauchery. Then there's Chistian.The athlete. On a fast track to success. Entirely too serious for someone our age. Has his entire future planned out. Lastly, there's Thayer. The black sheep. The bad boy. He rejects his popularity, as if it's a stain on his reputation. but despite that, he's arguably the most coy- eted of the Ames boys. Or maybe because of it.

The truth is, I do love Thayer, and not in the same way I love Holden and Danny. But admitting it out loud was a mistake, because right now, I don't think it's possible for things to get any worse.