Ever so slowly, I lowered my mouth to the lime. As I did so, I felt the brush of her lips on mine.
Just a touch. Just a breath, and it ignited fire in my veins.
And at that moment, I forgot a lot. My heart stopped, my breathing quit, my thoughts cea...
「 forty-five ✧ epilogue 」 tw: small mention of ed, depressive episodes, and alcoholism
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THREE MONTHS LATER
Having August back was a relief I couldn't explain.
We did everything together. We caught up on the past few months – though our lives were both rather boring without each other. It was mostly depressive episodes and lots of alcohol and skipping a lot of meals.
August had made sure to get right on that. We'd barely gotten back inside before he was ordering dinner.
A few months had passed since our meeting and confessions in the rain. August's parents had refused to speak to him, and they remained in Germany. He told me multiple times that he didn't mind the lack of contact, but I knew it was still affecting him.
Luckily, Princeton had accepted him back for the semester with open arms, and we both expressed how relieved we were that we finally had someone to compete with again. Our competitions got out of hand, sometimes.
Winter break had begun only a few days ago, and tomorrow we were flying out to California to rekindle our hexad. Of course, August and I had made our grades for our finals into a competition – as we did everything.
"When the grades for the semester finals come out, you'll be sobbing because I won," I told him as I packed clothes into my suitcase.
"Won what, exactly?"
I scoffed. "As if you don't know. Our competition, of course. 1 point for every point that someone did better than the other." I waved my hand dismissively. "You shouldn't have to worry too much, we both know I'll win."
"Don't lie to yourself," he replied as he lied on my bed, tossing an apple in the air. "I never cry. Plus, there won't be a need to. I'm positive mine will be higher than yours."
"Is that so?" I stood, facing him, placing a hand on my hip.
"It is." He made eye contact with me as he took a bite of his apple.
I took a step closer to the bed. "And what makes you so confident?"
"Do I really have to explain myself? Weren't you practically begging for help while you were studying for biology?"
I was inches from the bed now. "Take it back."
His smile was utterly wicked. "Never."
My last straw shattered. I pushed him down onto the bed and straddled him, leaning my face close to his. "You want it this way? Fine. Mark my words, Augustus Casen. I'll fuck you until you're screaming for forgiveness," I whispered, "until your apologies are like melodies in my ears and 'you won' are the only words your lips know how to form."
