Before Forever Ends ✓

#18 in TeenFic [prev titled "The Way We Almost Were"

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❝Don't,❞ he pleaded softly, offering her a tiny smile, ❝please don't make me a promise you will never be able to keep.❞ He released a quiet but deep breath, leaning forward even more, tilting his body towards her, until their noses were merely inches apart.

❝You are so, so beautiful, Bree,❞ he told her in a hushed voice, as if afraid someone was going to hear. He lifted his hand, trailed a single knuckle down the side of her temple, her cheek, her jaw, ❝you have so much good inside you, it makes me want to grab onto you with all that I have, because I need good, Bree, I need to know good. To see good. To believe in good,❞ he breathed shakily, ❝but all the goodness in you cannot defeat the monsters that walk in broad daylight. Monsters like Chase, like Alec, like...❞ He squeezed his eyes shut tight, closing the distance and resting his forehead against hers, the tips of their noses pressed against one another. ❝They'll get away. Monsters always do.❞

Bree swallowed past the lump in her throat, fought against the need to tilt her face and brush her lips against his, and instead, turned her head to kiss the corner of his mouth, where his upper and bottom lip met. ❝They don't always get away,❞ she whispered into his skin, sealing the vow with another soft kiss, ❝but until you learn to believe that, I'll fight them for you.❞

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In which Nick Fraser, the boy who'd grown up seeing monsters, believes he will spend the rest of his life running away from them... but then meets Bree Salvare, the girl with laughing brown eyes who makes him want to pause, take a deep breath, and stay instead.

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