✔︎ | Part of Me (Trilogy)

26 | between him and I

26 | between him and I

I will do whatever I want with him

Tanner and I stand outside the front of my house, my body wrapped in his arms. I feel so guilty about what happened, and it eats away at my stomach the longer I spend time with this amazing boy who has no idea what kind of person I am. He hugs me close, pecking the top of my head, and I almost open my mouth to tell him what I did, so that I can finally breathe again.

"I wanted to ask you something," I say instead.

He nods. "Shoot."

I glance up at him, his beautiful blue eyes, dark in the moonlight. "It's about the video."

He bites his lip. He knows what I'm talking about. "Have you seen it?"

I shake my head. "No, and I don't want to or anything. No one should. It was a private moment that you shared with someone else and what happened with it wasn't right at all. I wasn't going to bring it up," I explain, "but I wanted you to know that I know and that it's not something that bothers me, because, like, it wasn't your fault."

"Some people think it was," Tanner sighs, and he can't look be in the eyes. He's embarrassed. "It was of Nicole and I," he tells me, and I know. He leans on the porch railing, gazing out at the empty street. "She claimed that I had the intention to publicize that video after I took it, which obviously wasn't true, because for one," his voice rises, "I didn't fucking take it."

"I'm sorry," I rub his shoulder.

He sighs, settling a little. "I liked her a lot," he says, "and then Axel got involved and defended what she was saying, which she just loved. I don't know why she would want to destroy my reputation. And then other people started spreading horrible rumours about me and I almost got kicked off of the football team. It was all a big lie, that's it. Nicole doesn't even give a shit about it anymore because she thinks she won. I lost her."

I wrap my arms around his abdomen and rest my head against his back. "People are fucking assholes," I mumble. "If you ever need to talk about anything, just come to me."

Tanner turns around and places a soft kiss on my lips. He nods then, and whispers, "please, if anyone says anything bad about me to you, come tell me. It's likely not true at all."

I nod. "You're amazing, babe. I know."

He hugs me for a while, and then I open the door to my house and wander inside, bringing him with me to get out of the cold, February night.

I look down the hallway, but see no one, only the slight murmur of voices. "I'd invite you inside and stuff," I smile, kissing his neck, "but my family's home and probably going to bed soon. Maybe on the weekend?"

He nods. "I just wanna be alone with you, you know, other than in my car."

He kisses my jaw and I giggle. "Mhm. That would be nice."