Page 177 of Tell Me I'm Enough

The nerves of today are also making me itch to grab more than I’ve been limiting myself to.

Simone is back on campus, and all I can think about is seeing her again.

When did I become so wrapped around her finger?

I didn’t expect summer to be this hard without her around. I didn’t expect to miss her this much. I never need people, not like this. People always let you down. I’ve never put too much into caring about anyone, because when they inevitably leave, it won’t bother me.

Yet, there’s nothing I could have done to stop myself from needing Simone around like a hit I’m desperate to take.

She’s more potent than any alcohol, and if I could choose a hard drug to try, it’d be her.

I feel my phone buzz, and pull it out.

Simone: I’m downstairs stranger

Fuck.

My heart drops, and I feel a sheen of sweat break on my forehead. I hop up, rushing to throw on some pants.

I’m still in my room searching for a shirt when I hear a knock on the bedroom door, and turn around to see Simone standing there in the doorway, smiling ear to ear. I slam my dresser drawer shut and run over to her, picking her up and spinning her around. When I set her down, she’s breathless from laughing so hard.

“Missed me?”

“More than I should,” I tell her.

She stares up at me, grinning. “You cut your hair.”

I run a hand through my now shorter, dirty blonde strands. “Yeah, guess I finally gave in to the business look my dad has always hounded me about.”

“I like it. It makes you even hotter.” She backs up a step and trails her eyes over my body. I forgot I’m still shirtless. “And it looks like you spent a lot of time working out this summer, too.”

My smirk turns a little cocky. “You checking me out, pretty girl?”

She rolls her eyes. “I can’t help it.” She waves a hand over me. “This new look is giving very Chad Michael Murray vibes when he played in Dawson’s Creek. But a little more clean-cut, and a little more…ripped?”

I bite back a smirk.

I’m stuck staring at her, eyes trailing down to her lips and then back to her eyes, where she’s already staring back at me.

“Ireallywish I could kiss my best friend right now. You know…give her a proper hello.”

I can see her bite the inside of her cheek. “Then why don’t you?”

I can’t help but suddenly be pulled back into all the thoughts I had while being away from her, how much I know I’m not good for her, especially right now, how she couldn’t want anything past the friendship, flirting, and good times. But the permission she gives me is all I need to say, screw all of those thoughts right now.

I take her face in both my hands and kiss her the way I have in every dream of mine all summer long.

I pull back and rest my head against hers. “Fuck, I missed you, pretty girl.”

“I missed you too,” she tells me, still catching her breath.

“Did you, really?”

She rolls her eyes playfully. “Of course I did.”

She goes to sit down on my bed like she belongs there, like nothing changed while she was gone.

I sit on the floor, back against the frame, and my knees drawn up, watching her talk with her hands as she tells me about Lydia, about rehab, about how she finally heard back from a law firm she applied to and got a part-time position at.