Hello, Sweetheart

C H A P T E R 30

I run into the bathroom, blinking my eyes to hold in my tears. My stomach fills with a sick feeling as I feel my hands go clammy with sweat from squeezing them together. 

I unfold my hands and eye my hands. Cresent moon shapes from digging my nails into the palm of my hands are imprinted on my hand. I swallow back the guilt of ever following them outside. wishing I could take back every single sight and moment I had with him, or maybe if I wasn't an idiot, this wouldn't hurt if I didn't catch feelings.

I run my finger underneath my bottom lashes to clean up and smeared makeup that makes me look off putting. I run a finger through the strands of my hair, untangling any pieces that knotted together from the breeze. 

I fix my dress for the hundredth time of today and walk out of the bathroom, looking at the floor. I only look up when a pair of polished black dress shoes enter my vision in front of me. The reflection of the shoes shining on the marbled floors from the bright moonlight that danced on our faces when I looked up to face the tall figure. 

Obviously, it was Keaton. 

"You should really get back to Avery." I nod and shift my weight to the opposite foot. 

"Lacey...you know I want nothing to do with her." He doesn't take his eyes off me, the tension through the eye contact fills me with nervousness. I look away, leaning my back against the stone wall, crossing my arms. 

"Are you sure Keaton? Because it sure sounded like you did. Keaton, why am I still here? You could of went to this wedding with her. You could have saved the trouble for both of us. Could have saved me the trouble of falling for you and you lying to your parents about this." I gesture my hands between the both of us.

"You're still here because I want you here, Lacey dear. I can't imagine you being anywhere except right next to me, in my space, being my girl." 

"No, No Keaton, you don't get to do that. Calling me your girl and that "Lacey Dear" bullshit. You don't get to make me fall for you even more while you do this." I run a hand through my hair, tears building up. 

"You're falling for me?" He inches towards me, his eyes searching my own. 

"Yes, Keaton, I am, I really am, and I don't want to because I don't deserve whatever this is. I love everything you do and everything you are. Your eyes just send this electrical shock through me, and it fills me with such rage knowing that what we're doing is fake because I so, so badly need this to be real." I catch my breath after confessing everything I felt. I hate that I did it, but it needed to happen. 

"You don't understand the feelings you give me Lace; I get this fluttering sick feeling in my stomach every time you say my name and I need this to be real." This time he gestures between the both of us. 

I grab him by his tie and pull him into a deep kiss. A kiss I been longing for since the first time I've seen him. The first time he sat in my booth in the diner. The first time he put me in his car. The first time he took me to his parents' house. The first time I laid in his bed and traced each pattern of the painting on his ceiling with my eyes. 

I've always wanted to kiss him but God this feeling was something different, it was different from those other times, this time I didn't hide it. This time I didn't bother faking anything. I just pulled him in and kissed him. I didn't care if anyone had their eyes on us. I wished they had their eyes on us so they could see how in love we actually were. 

I pulled away from the kiss and he put a strand of hair behind my eye, his cold hands touching my cheekbone, sending a chill down my spine. 

"I've done everything to tell myself I didn't want this to be real. That it wasn't my intention but God, you changed me, Lacey. So please, let this be real." He looks into my eyes, touching my hair, his thumb on my bottom lip. 

"This is real. we are real Keaton Hayes." 

He pulls me into another kiss and its official. 

Me and Mr. Hayes are real.