"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend James Beaufort?" I questioned him, while lying on top of him half naked.
As James Beaufort and Everly Calloway navigate the delicate transition from friendship to romance, they face obstacles that test the st...
"We say we're friends, but I'm catching you across the room It makes no sense, 'cause we're fighting over what we do And there's no way that I'll end up being with you But friends don't look at friends that way
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Chapter Sixteen:
< James >
Falling for Everly Belle Calloway happened slowly, then all at once. We had been in each other's lives since birth, our relationship beginning with the innocent laughter and boundless imagination of childhood best friends. I teased her endlessly, and she chastised me for my many poor decisions. Yet, through every trial and triumph, we were each other's unwavering constant. Each passing year deepened our bond, transforming the familiar into something profoundly extraordinary.
Every choice, whether right or wrong, was made with the other in mind. We rarely heeded each other's advice, yet we always sought after the other's approval in some way or another. Our journey was marked by the conflicts that make every great love story unforgettable.
And just like every tale spun before our time, we journeyed the arduous path to become what we are today to one another. No girl who ever came before could hold a candle to Calloway. Bewildered, I wandered through love's labyrinth, wondering why no bonds ever held. I told myself that love wasn't for me, that I was merely searching for something that didn't exist. In a lot of ways you could say I hid behind the meaningless searching for a meaning.
Our families spoke of us as a legacy pair, bound by the weight of our surnames, but it was something neither of us thought much about. Yet, in the end, I discovered that what I sought had been before me all along—Everly, my steadfast companion, my confidante, the keeper of my heart before I realized I actually had one.
I remember the night it all crystallized for me—the night I stopped seeing Everly as just my best friend and began to see her as the love of my life. It was a moment of clarity, where every teasing word and every shared glance took on a new, deeper meaning. The realization was both terrifying and beautiful, marking the beginning of our love story that had been written in the stars long before we ever felt the pull of the invisible string.
FLASHBACK: 2 years ago
"Oh, sorry, I was searching for... wait... James?" Everly's voice, sharp and laced with panic, pierced the quietude as I stirred in bed beside one of the girls from the opposing private school at Alistair's party. Everly was never one for revelry, constrained by her father's rule of returning home by 9:30 p.m. Thus, it was a profound shock to see it was midnight.
