𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧.✓ completed

Untitled Part 25

 Chapter Twenty-Five

Willow

The next few days move by slowly, but in the best way possible. Beck and I spend a lot of time messing around, laughing, and burning dinner because I apparently suck at cooking food that doesn't come processed and in a box. Beck finds my sucky cooking skills pretty funny, even when I set off all the smoke alarms in the house, and his laughter makes not panicking a bit easier.

To alleviate even more of my stress, I decided to accept a job at the library and a tutoring job at the college. Beck tries to talk me out of taking two, but I want to be able to afford everything on my own, even a discounted, reasonable rent price. I also decide to have Van mail me my final paycheck instead of picking it up, never wanting to go back to that place again.

Van doesn't seem very happy

about me quitting, but I am. And I really start feeling like myself again: the planner, the good choice maker, the girl who loves spending time with her best friend—well, I guess my boyfriend now, which is new to me and completely unplanned. That's okay. I'm starting to realize that unplanned things sometimes turn out to be wonderful.

Everything seems to be going great until I finally have to accept that I can no longer keep washing my outfit and re-wearing it. I have to return to the apartment to get my stuff and my car. So, on a very early Friday morning, Beck and I climb into his car and drive back to a place I hope to never see again.

Just being there puts me in a foul mood, and I wonder if that's how I've been for years: a walking foul mood. I decide to ask Beck this since he seems to know me pretty well.

"You're not a walking foul mood." He rolls his eyes as he grabs the blankets off my bed and stuffs them into a box. "You're not even in a foul mood right now. You're just sad because this place reminds you of too many bad times."

"Yeah, you're probably right." I open the top dresser drawer to clean out my clothes, finding the snow globe Beck gave me. I smile as I pick it up.

"What are you looking at?" Beck asks, stepping up beside me. He has on jeans that are covered with dust from moving furniture, a long-sleeved grey shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and strands of his hair are askew. He looks so sexy. I can't figure out how the hell I managed to keep my hands off him for so long.

Talk about too much self-control.

"The snow globe you gave me." I hold it up and give it a little shake.

He smiles at the fake snow flurrying in the water. "You know, I was really nervous when I picked that out."

"Really?" I ask, and he nods. "Why?"

He shrugs. "I think because it was just because it was the first present I ever gave you."

My fingers fold around the snow globe. "It wasn't the first present you gave me."

His forehead creases. "Really? What else did I give you?"

"What no one else ever did." I reach out and thread my fingers through his. "Safety."

His lips tug into a small, sad smile. "That's not really a present, though, princess. Well, it shouldn't be. It should be something that just is."

"It was to me. When I was younger, I thought about it a lot actually, having someone in my life who made me feel calm instead of so scared all the time." I stare at the snow globe, tipping it back and forth. "I just never thought it would happen. Then you came along and changed everything. Sometimes, I wonder if maybe I made it out of this place without becoming my mom because you were always there."

He fixes his finger underneath my chin and urges me to look at him. When our eyes meet, he wets his lips. "I don't really think I can take full credit for this one. I think you made it out of this place okay because you're fucking strong."

I smile then move in to kiss him. Right as our lips connect, voices rise from inside the house.

"Where are you guys!" Wynter shouts through a giggle. "And what are you doing? Because it's really, really quiet."

I hear Luna and Grey say something, and then Ari laughs.

I shake my head, my cheeks warming. While I haven't told her Beck and I hooked up, she's voiced her suspicions over the phone. Evidently, my voice has a glow to it that it didn't have a week ago, whatever the hell that means.

"As annoying as she is, I like that she made you blush," Beck says, grinning as he lightly caresses my cheek.

I smile but then my happiness quickly falters. "Wait. What are we going to tell them?"

"About what?" he feigns dumb, his brow teasing upward.

"You know what. You and me." I put my hand on his chest to playfully shove him, but he snags my wrist and jerks me to him, our chests colliding.

He rests his hands on my waist. "I'm pretty sure they already know."

"How?"

"Because it's been four years in the making, and they've had eyes for those four years."