The Stella I Remember

7| Smitten For Stella

Two Weeks Later

"Are you going to tell me where you're going or not?"

"Not," I answered.

I continued stuffing a few days worth of clothes into my duffle bag. Stella and I set up a place to meet, but we didn't plan much after that.

"Why not? I'm your best friend. We tell each other everything!"

I reached down and yanked my phone charger from the wall. "I'm not talking to you about this, Marcus. It's...private."

"Private my ass," he mumbled before stepping further into my room. "This is about that festival girl, isn't it? You're going to see her."

I lifted my bag to look for the—damn, not here. Where the hell did I put it? I continued searching around the room but didn't see it in any of the usual places.

"Earth to Elliot!"

"No, it's not about the festival girl," I lied.

"Oh really? Looking for this?"

I turned around to see my best friend holding up the exact item I was looking for.

"Give that to me."

"Not until you tell me the truth."

I reached for the journal and Marcus pulled it further away.

"Dammit, Marcus!" I ran my fingers through my hair. "Fine. Yes. I'm going to see the festival girl. Happy now?"

He handed it to me. "Extremely."

I took the light blue journal and put it in my duffle bag. After we made our plans to meet in Jacksonville, I gave Stella a ride back to the hotel she was staying at.

When we were saying goodbye, she pulled out the light blue journal she had been writing in all weekend and handed it to me. She asked me to hang onto it until we met up in Jacksonville. I told her it wasn't necessary, but she insisted. She said it was so I knew that she meant what she said.

"I'll be there, Elliot. I promise."

I took the journal to appease her, but I didn't need it. I believed what she said. The truth was in her eyes.

"It's always about a girl," Marcus said in a sing-song voice. "I knew it. You tried to make me feel guilty that day at the festival. Looks like I did you a favor, didn't I?"

"You cost me almost four hundred bucks!"

"Perhaps," he drawled. "But look what you gained! I bailed and now you're crushing on the girl you gave the ticket to. For free."

"Shut up, Marcus. I'm not crushing on anyone."

He laughed and leaned against the doorframe. "Really? So why are you driving over six hours to go and meet her in some random state at some random airport?"

Shit. That was a pretty damn good question. This was my best friend. If I was going to tell anyone that I was crushing on Stella Amherst, it was Marcus. Truth was...I wasn't just crushing on Stella. I had fallen head over heels in love with her during that weekend two weeks ago.