{WATTYS 2021/2022 SHORTLIST}{Editor's Pick} {Featured Story}
One girl. Two boys. An impossible choice.
Stella LaFever, a theatre student from California, can't wait to spend a summer in Newport, Rhode Island, with her best friend. She is in despera...
What if Stella didn't run away? What would've happened if she'd found the courage to face her fears now instead of running away from the truth?
xx AJ
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Angry tears blurred my vision as I balled my hands into fists, thinking I should run. Leave. Get out of this fancy wedding reception I didn't belong at with these people who were so much more angry and confrontational than I wanted to be.
I was SoCal. Raised with beach vibes and an everything-is-chill mentality. I was not Newport, and all things considered, maybe I wasn't even New York City.
I was just a girl trying to pretend her life wasn't falling apart. I was the opposite of confrontational.
Run, Stella. No one will stop you if you leave.
This could all be over if I ignored the problem and forgot about Spencer and West.
But for whatever reason, I couldn't make my feet move. They were rooted to the floor despite my brain shouting at me to leave. It was like Gotham Hall had become Beast's Castle, and I was under its curse.
Deep down, I knew no amount of running could make me forget about Spencer. He was my fairy tale prince that my lies had turned into..., not a beast. But this colder version of himself.
I hated myself for being the reason for the hurt in his endlessly green eyes.
Despite it all, I knew that Spencer loved me. It was why he was still here and looking to me for an answer.
An answer, I realized, I wanted to give him. I just needed the courage to say the words I'd been avoiding all this time.
I loved Spencer, and he always made me feel like I was good enough to be in his world.
He didn't want me to run away. He just wanted me to be honest with him. To trust him. To love him the way he loved me. Even though telling the truth and facing the consequences that went along with it wasn't something I was good at, I was going to try.
And damn it, I'd been playing powerhouse women all my life. It was time I learned from years of pretending and faced my fears, just like my characters did. Sure, maybe things wouldn't work out the way I wanted them to, but at least I wouldn't be carrying any more of the secrets around with me.
I blinked, and hot tears hit my cheeks.
Before I told Spencer how I felt, I needed to get something off my chest.
