Pure Belleza | ✔️

(65)

It was so quiet that I could hear my fractured heart attempting to beat through its pain.

Flynn stared down at me with his big brown gaze, piercing me. I hadn't been able to get those eyes off my mind for the last seven months.

I'd been torturing myself, convinced I didn't deserve him. And in the same moment I wanted to fight for him, I remembered the moment I'd stopped being worth his love and my stomach turned into a nauseous pit.

"Well shit," Lucas rested a hand on his hip and gestured at Flynn. "What a surprise. I wasn't expecting you. How's it going?"

I managed to turn from Flynn and give Lucas a flat glare.

He grinned and stepped into his shoes. "Well, I'm going to go upstairs and find Mills. Make sure no one is bothering her since my bodyguard left his post."

Flynn then turned his flat glare on him. "You told me to sneak a drink down here."

Lucas lifted his finger to his lips. "Ssh."

And then he was gone. The room felt smaller than ever. My throat was about two ragged breaths from closing over.

I stood up, thinking that might help. But it didn't. It just put me closer to him. I'd forgotten how tall he was. 6'4 to my 5'3.

His slow glance swept me from head to toe and I wanted to crumble, let him catch me and never let him go again.

"I didn't know you would be here," he broke the silence and shifted from foot to foot. "I would hav—"

"I didn't even know I was going to be here until a few hours ago," I assured him. "I had to come and tell Lucas that he's not the total asshole I've treated him like for too long."

"I bet he's feeling on top of the world right now."

I shrugged.

"I mean it," he said, ducking his head so I had to meet his intense stare. "He's kind of been in hell for these past months. You're his favourite person."

"I feel like that title belongs to his girlfriend."

"Siblings come first," he smiled. "So I believe. I mean, I don't have siblings so you are genuinely my favourite person."

My chest felt tight and I tried to breathe through the knot of tension balling in my throat.

I couldn't even form a response, so I just stood there and stared at him in his faded jeans, mustard boots and black fitted t-shirt. He hadn't changed at all.

Not that I expected him to. But it was nice to see he was still himself. Still his breathtaking, tall, blushing self.

I felt like I was staring at the other half of my heart. An extension of me. The person that made me feel at home after months of feeling like a drifter.

That awful unsettled, homesick sensation was cured just from being near him and the revelation almost knocked me over.

"Can we go for a walk?" I said.

His expression brightened and he walked straight over to the door, holding it open for me.

Before long, we were out in the warm Texan night. The campus was illuminated with street lamps and building lights shining through the large windows.

For a while, it was quiet. Neither of us said a word. We just strolled and peered around at the architecture.

There had been a time that I was going to attend this school and get into business. Mom said it was a good degree to have. But instead I'd chased a dream that had become toxic and damaging.