Finding Franco

08 | thoughts

I wake up to a hangover.

Franco took care of me, as always. I appreciated it but I still feel like an invalid. He comes back with a smile on his face with coffee.

"Hey, baby." He lays down beside me and puts his hand on my forehead. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit," I mumble. I pull my blanket over me to cover my whole body. I snuggle into my pillow with my back facing him.

He chuckles and kisses my bare shoulder with his hand on my hip and slowly removes the blanket from me.

I shiver. "Franco West!" I growl. "I'm cold!"

He pouts. "Sorry for making you cold," he says. "How about I make you warm again?"

I blush and hide my face by covering myself with my blanket. His phone rings and he looks at it.

I sigh and fumble with my fingers. "Another phone call?"

He puts his hand over mine and lays his head beside mine. "I'm ignoring it. I have you to keep me company, right?"

I snort. "More like babysitting me."

"Baby..." he trails off warningly.

I shrug. "I'm a handful and a mess."

"You're my mess. I can handle you all day." He licks his lower lip. "But I don't mind." He winks. "So who's Logan?"

Talk about zero to a hundred quickly.

"Uh, he's a coworker." I keep it short and simple so he wouldn't suspect anything.

Franco hums in response and taps his finger against my hand. "Any more I should know about you two?"

"Nope," I say, popping the 'p'.

"Are you sure?" he urges.

"Nah uh."

"Well, you two seem close enough to go to a college party together and get drunk." He looks at me, his eyes daring me to deny it.

I bite my lip. "Yeah, I guess."

"Cut the crap, Aurora." He gets straight to the point. "I don't like these short responses."

"I don't like your questions," I retort.

He scowls, making me sigh in defeat. "We met at our spot in the forest," I inform him. "It was late and cold so he took me home. Happy now?"

"Not even close," he mutters. He looks at me solemnly. "If you had the chance to get your memory back...would you?"

I frown. "Where did that come from?"

He shrugs. "I don't know, it's just...things changed so drastically. You almost died, Aurora. Did you know how much that almost killed me? I overdosed on pills the night I left you but Brandon found me."

I inhale sharply. My eyebrows furrow as I try to form words. "What the hell..." I breathe out instead.

He nods shamefully. "I made a lot of mistakes in the past year and I regret every single one of them."

My mind drifts back to Carlos. He wouldn't be happy to see me with Franco. It's been days since we've last spoken and I didn't know how to tell him.