Always There

Chapter Six

Chapter Six:

Lexi's POV

I don't feel like myself.

It's as though having Scarlett here, flirting with Bryce like that, set off something within me. I hadn't felt that angry in a very long time, angry enough that words didn't seem to be enough.

Bryce means the world to me. I'm only eighteen but I can already visualise myself spending my entire life with him oh so clearly, and since I find our connection to one another grower stronger and stronger each day, the thought of losing Bryce is becoming increasingly more terrifying.

I'm well aware that it makes me a bad person for hating Scarlett merely because her and I are interested in the same guy, but I just don't understand how someone can sanely go after a person who is already in a happy and loving relationship.

To me, it just seems disrespectful.

Especially considering Bryce is already being kind enough to allow her and Anders to stay with him so unexpectedly.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I roll over onto my side. Bryce has been gone for no longer than a minute from what I can tell, and all I've done since he left the room is laid here on my back, enjoying how the pillow smells like him.

Since I'm now facing his bedside table, I take some time to look at what he keeps on the small wooden table.

I firstly notice the book sitting beside the lamp. Picking it up, I inspect the cover to find that it's a copy of Gerald's Game by Stephen King before I set the novel back down. Beside the book is a glasses case, Bryce's glasses resting on top while what looks to be his contacts case sits a few inches away.

My eyes are then drawn to the two picture frames standing upright. I don't think I've noticed them before, and therefore Bryce must have set them up recently.

In the smaller of the two frames, there's a photo of Bryce and Leo.

Bryce couldn't be older than ten in the photo, and though he obviously looks much younger, his smile is just the same. Meanwhile, Leo looks only a little bit younger in the photo, which just proves my theory that Leo Bradshaw really doesn't age at all, and I can't help but to take note of the fact that they're in the backyard of Leo's current house back home.

Where Bryce and I had our first kiss.

I also notice that the photo is cut off, as if someone had taken a pair of scissors and cut down the middle.

I would bet money that this must've been a family photo that Bryce cut his mom right out of.

It makes me smile a little. Not because I'm happy that my boyfriend has such an awful mom, but rather because cutting a person out of a photograph rather than just framing another picture seems exactly like something my Bryce would do.

Now looking to the photograph in the larger frame, I'm shocked to find that it's a photo of Bryce and I.

After getting over the initial shock of realising that Bryce has a bigger photo of me on his bedside table than his own father, I take a closer look at the photograph.

It's from our senior trip. Bryce and I have our arms around each other, his mouth pressed against mine despite the smile on my lips. Bryce is holding his middle finger up to the camera, which is why I'm fairly certain that Jordan has taken it.

Bryce Bradshaw. Perhaps a little bit rude sometimes, and though he certainly lacks manners on many occasions, I wouldn't trade him for the world.