book 1 ✔︎
book 2 ✔︎
book 3 ✔︎
PART OF ME - you become so emotionally close to someone that you feel like they are literally a part of you, like a half of your heart. You don't want to live without them - you can't.
Aviana Ember wouldn't know this fe...
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"Hi," Axel says, but the word comes out as a whisper.
It's taking every bit of courage in me not to freak out. I want to hit him. I want to hit him, and kick him, and choke him. Repeatedly. And at the same time I want to fling my body into his arms and feel his familiar, warm embrace. Kiss his lips. Let him tell me how sorry he is for abandoning me and how it was a huge mistake, and how he loves me so much that he'll never let me go again.
Instead, I laugh. If I'm not okay, or unsure about what to do, at least I can pretend I am.
"Wow," I approach him and Will and the girls, "you are the last person I expected to see here."
Axel opens his mouth and closes it. I don't mean to insult him, but he takes it that way. And I don't care.
"He's visiting over the break," Will defends him, "it's a surprise. Why don't you two get Jem from school?"
God, now I want to slap Will. The last thing I want is to be alone with Axel.
"Sure," Axel says.
I shrug. "If he wants to go get her," I offer, "I'm supposed to be meeting Dylan anyway. Jem'll love that."
"Dylan can wait," Will says quickly before Axel can ask about him. He doesn't remember a Dylan, but knowing Axel, he won't let my mention of him slip by. "Go take Axel to see Jem." He picks up his girls and says, "and I'll see you two back at home tonight. Mom and Dad will be shooketh." He turns to Axel and adds, "but excited, obviously. See you!"
He leaves through the office door with that, and leaves me alone with the last person I want to be alone with.
"The school's this way," I say, walking back out of the garage to turn down the sidewalk.
"I've lived here longer than you have," Axel says, catching up to me to walk too closely beside me, so close I'm scared our hands are going to brush and I'll remember what it's like to be touched by him, and then do something stupid. "So like," he says playfully, "I know where Jem's school is."
"Good for you," I laugh, but it's cold, and I know he can tell.
"It's nice to see you," he says softly. I say nothing in return, so he laughs a bit and adds, "you haven't changed a bit."
I glance up at him before taking a jab and muttering, "I've learned that people don't change."
"I don't believe that," he tells me.
"You're too optimistic," I say. Why am I even talking to him? I just want to get him to Jem and then disappear and never see him again. God, and why are my hands shaking? Why does my stomach hurt like this, but in a good way? Why am I still in l—
