Best Friends Forever

Chapter Seventeen

Author's Note: NSFW WARNING

***

We stared at each other, neither of us saying a word, only gently panting as the residual breathlessness from my stolen kiss wore off.

You have to tell her now. I reminded myself. You can't just say something like that and leave it at just that. It's not fair.

I nodded in response to my thoughts as I licked my lips, trying to find both the words and the courage needed to do the thing I'd been afraid to do my whole life.

"I've had...a lot of time to think lately. Especially since everything that happened at, you know, the reunion."

Dahlia nodded underneath me, her eyes unreadable as they continued to dance between my own with an overly analytical stare. I tried not to let her eyes, so sharp and intimidating when they looked like this, get to me as I cleared my throat and continued speaking.

"And in all this thinking, I've realized just how deeply I really feel about you. Honestly, I think that it's something I've felt for a long time. I've just tried to push it down and ignore it and forget about it but...I can't anymore."

I shook my head, already feeling the blush rising up in my cheeks as the first truth of what I assumed would be many spilled out.

"I didn't know how to tell you any of this in the first place, let alone when you've been so...Dalton lately. It just felt like something Dahlia needed to know, not anyone else. But now that youʼre here I can tell you."

My voice rose and sped up as I spoke. All while a red heat seeped past my cheeks into the back of my neck and down my spine as a flood of embarrassment took me over. I ignored it and plowed forward with the truth she deserved to hear.

"I can't take not being close to you anymore. Not being able to reach out and touch your hand or kiss you or just stare at you for hours. Because those are all the things that I really wanna do with you."

I searched Dahlia's eyes as my words tapered off, looking for any kind of reaction to the things I was saying. Her face was completely stoic and made of stone, however. As if she didn't feel anything at all.

Maybe I've been assuming this whole time. How do I know that adolescent crush didn't die out years ago? It's not like she's shown me any sign that the ship hasn't sailed beyond the whole fiasco of being my date for the reunion...

"I know you used to have feelings for me." I shrugged. "And I'd understand if you moved on, but...do you still feel anything like that about me? Anything...at all?"

Dahlia continued to stare at me as if she were looking right through me. Then, a small, humorless laugh bubbled past her lips and her eyes softened to me. I smiled a little in response to the way her expression changed, even if my heart was still pounding with anxiety that made it hard to breathe.

"I've loved you my whole life," Dahlia said before she reached up to tuck a stray hair behind my ear with a hum. "As long as I can remember."

I swallowed the dry lump in my throat and muttered, "And when you say you love me, you mean...?"

Dahlia laughed again, a throaty chuckle that seemed quite amused, before she cupped the back of my neck and pulled me down to her lips. Much in the same way I'd kissed her breathless earlier, Dahlia kissed me until I felt stupid. I was seeing stars and giggling under my breath when she finally let me up for air.

"I mean that I'm in love with you, Court," Dahlia husked.

"Oh," I said and giggled again, helpless to stop myself from the pure, electric joy running through my system after having Dahlia's mouth on mine.