MAKE OVER

CHAPTER NINE

Accepting compliments, standing up for myself, doing something I've always wanted to do, taking a risk despite what others might think—I'd accomplished all but one task on the Make Over Project. My life was as close to perfect as I could make it.

As the summer heat gave way to reds, yellows, and brisk mornings, I discovered that the only person who held me back all these years was myself.

During autumn, it became clear that Dalton's feelings for me were not fleeting like the changing leaves on the trees. We had outlasted the Perfs' unfounded projection, by months.

But while Dalton and I exchanged our favorite movies, wrapped in red and green paper, I couldn't help but question why he wanted to sit alone with me in the freezing cold.

Every moment I spent with the boy who made my heart flutter and my cheeks ache from laughing, I waited for it all to fall apart. I always wake up from the best dreams too soon, and I expect nothing less of my time with him.

New Year's Eve is surreal. Most everyone at the party Matthew and Sunny dragged us to are completely out of control and seeing everyone wearing 2020 glasses and party hats is just sad, knowing the dumpster fire it will turn out to be.

"What ya thinking about, beautiful?" Dalton whispers in my ear, sliding his arm around my waist and holding a drink out to me.

I flush and turn around, taking the cup from his hand and sipping the Coke inside. "Just about how wild this party is," I say.

He laughs. "You've never been to one of Recker's Ragers, huh?"

"No. I don't believe I've had the pleasure," I answer with a scoff.

"Well," he murmurs as he leans closer. "Do you want to go somewhere quieter and talk?"

The butterflies host their own rager in my stomach. "Sure."

Dalton leads me through Clay's backyard and into a gazebo set apart from the party, and even though it's unseasonably warm for Nashville in December, I'm chilly. Dalton must feel me shivering because he drapes his North Face over my shoulders. I grin and snuggle into it, relishing the smell of his laundry detergent.

We sit in silence for a few minutes when I look at him and ask, "Was there something you wanted to talk about?"

He smiles while watching his thumbs twirl around one another. "I'd talk to you about anything, Maddie. It has never been so easy for me," he looks up and our eyes meet, "No one has ever made me feel the way you do."

Chewing my lip, I nod once. "Me either. I—" I take a deep breath, steel myself, and continue, "I don't think you realize how long I've wanted this with you. I've had a crush on you since the first day of freshman year...and I never thought you'd look twice at me. This is...this is like a dream come true, Dalton."

His cheeks shift to a beautiful shade of pink. "What if I wanted to make this official?" He straightens up and takes both of my hands in his. "I want to call you my girlfriend, Maddie."

I look down at our hands and back up to his eyes, and something inside me splinters. I revert to the girl I was at the end of my first senior year—the girl who thought she deserved nothing good, especially the affection of the one boy she'd crushed on for so long. The hope I feel in my heart is so foreign that my body seems to reject it. It's the cusp of 2020, the worst year of my life, and I'm about to do it all again. Why would this second go-around be any different? Why would I get everything I always wanted?

"Dalton...why...why do you want to be with me?" I ask in a small, trembling voice. "What changed? You never looked at me for three and a half years and now, you want me to be your girlfriend?" 

"It sometimes takes an extraordinary chain of events to see clearly. And once I saw you, I couldn't look away."

I shake my head and take my hands from his, running my fingers through my hair. "And what is it you see? Because you know what I see? I see an average girl on her best day. A girl with about fifty extra pounds on her, grades just good enough to snag an honors diploma, no romantic history to speak of, unruly boring brown hair, and did I mention fat?" My heart pounds so fast that I'm sure it will give out at any second. "How can you like me when I barely like me?"

"Stop! Why are you doing that? Why are you insulting the girl I deeply care about?" He scolds me, jumping to his feet. I flinch and Dalton takes a deep breath, runs his fingers through his hair, and kneels before me. "I don't expect you to see the intelligent, witty, caring, beautiful girl I see, but I do expect you not to talk down to her. We don't have to see eye to eye, but you have no right to belittle what I feel for you, Maddie."

I open my mouth and close it when nothing comes out. Instead, I place my palms on his cheeks and brush my lips against his, every inch of my body breaking into goosebumps as he shifts into me and kisses me with an intensity we haven't shared before.

I pull away a couple of centimeters, the words I'm needing to say bursting at the tip of my tongue like a dam about to burst. I've wanted to say it so many times, but I've been too scared. Now, I can't stop them.

"I think I'm falling in love with you, Dalton Gray," I murmur against his lips.

"There's the fearless bathing-suit-wearing girl that captivated me. I love you too."