Chapter 9 – dorian #2
We could leave now too, but Piper doesn’t move, so I milk this moment for everything it’s worth and stay right where I am. It’s cozy in Luke’s living room with the historic features and mid-century furniture. Everything is warm tones and a blasting heater, so I could really sit here all night.
“Your family kind of feels like something special.”
My chest swells from the praise. I think so too, but I’m biased. Hearing that from her lips brings me immense pleasure. “We get along well now, but it was a different story when we were kids. You saw how competitive they can get.”
“It’s a lot.”
“Add that to capture the flag or football. There’s a reason I chose to hide out and read most of the time instead.”
“It wasn’t because of the dragons?”
“Those too.” I narrow my gaze on her gorgeous green eyes. “How did you know I liked fantasy?”
“Because that’s what you started writing. The book in your bio that will never see the light of day.”
“Ah. That probably needs to be replaced.”
“I don’t know, I think it explains a lot.” She gives me a strange look. “I get why I found you hiding in your house at graduation.”
My stomach drops. I didn’t think she’d bring that up.
Most of us who started in that house together freshman year stayed all four years and graduated together, thanks to Charlie’s rich dad and Charlie renting out the rooms. So naturally that was where we’d held our last hurrah.
Charlie had told me the girls were coming over, and I’d talked myself into telling Piper I liked her.
What did I have to lose? We were going our separate ways after that.
But Piper had found me in the basement, where we had a broken foosball table and Xbox console, before I was ready for her. We were alone, so I went for it.
Only my mouth didn’t connect with my brain. I’d told her that I did like her, which she took to mean as a friend, and I insisted we hug it out.
She ran from me after that, and I didn’t try again.
“It was quite the hug,” she says now. “Electrically charged, you know?”
“You felt that too? From the way you ran, I thought you were freaked out.”
Piper blinks. “You weren’t making any sense. I hovered after the hug, but you didn’t try to stop me. You let me go.”
Yeah, I guess I did. I’m good at that, right? Knowing she felt the electric currents like I had doesn’t really make me feel better now, though. It only adds to my regret. Things could have been so different if I wasn’t so painfully shy.
“So,” Piper says brightly, “what made you switch to thrillers?”
I lean my head on the back of the couch, considering the question. If she wants a change in subject, I’ll give it to her. “It wasn’t really a switch. In Leon’s class, do you remember that project where we had to write those scenes from the perspective of a villain?”
“Yeah, I loved those. It was so interesting to dive into their heads. But, like, creepy.”
I can’t help but chuckle. “The exercise unlocked something for me. Figuring out my villain’s motives snowballed into plotting an entire thriller centered around him. The next thing I knew, I was creating his antithesis—my hero.”
“You worked backward.”
“Essentially. It wasn’t on purpose, but it came together that way, and I started working on the novel that year.”
Piper looks up. “We were…sophomores.”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes dart to mine. She is so close. If I lean forward, our foreheads could touch. The fact that she isn’t moving away when we have an entire empty couch—an entire empty room—is a good sign, right?
“How many books did you have finished by the time we graduated?” she asks.
“Just two.”
“There’s no just anything, Dorian.” She shakes her head. “That’s crazy. You were so young.”
“I was also learning that I had ADHD, so getting that under control made it easier to focus on writing. Before that, my process was significantly slower.”
“I can only imagine.”
I watch her, waiting to see if she’s going to catch on. She’s a fan of my work, which means she’s read the books I wrote about her. The main character’s love interest, Kiley, is a direct replica of Piper, down to her unique tinkling laugh.
There’s no way I’ll kill her off, despite what Henry Jacobsen, with an E-N, thinks is a good idea. I can’t kill off my Piper.
“I caught what Carrie said tonight about your dad.” She swallows. “You don’t have to talk about it, of course, if it’s difficult. But I was wondering how he’s doing?”
“He’s better now.” I nod along like that will lend my words truth and gravity.
“He had a double bypass. They think they caught it early, so he’s watching his intake and seeing a doctor.
We’re all on his case to walk regularly, which is making him grumpy, but it’s a good prognosis, as long as he listens to the doctor. ”
She presses her shoulder further into mine, and I wonder if she knows she’s doing it. There’s so much couch behind her; if she wanted space, she could take it. But she hasn’t moved back. “I can’t imagine how difficult that was. If my dad went through something like that, it would have wrecked me.”
“We were terrified. He’s our rock. Or…he was?”
“Who stepped into that role?”
“My mom, kind of. But she needs one too. So we’re all kind of leaning on each other. Luke started these game nights just to get our minds off of everything and give us a night together, and we’ve kept them up. The two youngest are more hit-and-miss, but the rest of us need them.”
“It’s admirable how close you guys are.”
“I guess I have a handful of rocks.”
“Sounds like you’re a good support for them, too,” she says softly.
I don’t take compliments well, so I want to shrug it off, but I resist. The lighting is warm, and she’s leaning against the couch, facing me.
I don’t know how we got here. I’ve been looking forward to the signing in her store for months, the days and weeks dragging by in anxious anticipation, until I finally saw her, and now we’re swept up in a tornado and can’t put our feet down.
But I’m loving flying beside her.