Chapter 11 - Luna
Best birthday present ever! I can’t stop smiling at how much fun playing capture the flag was as I finish taping up another box to take to university.
It wasn’t even the game so much as being included in something my brother and his friends have been playing for years.
My smile gets even bigger when I think about what happened with Reid…
and Mars. My stomach is filled with butterflies as I remember how Mars snagged my wrist as I ran past to escape Atlas and hid me in a tree hollow.
His hard body pressed against me, chest to chest. The way his fingers tightened on my hips the longer we stood there, our mouths so close I could feel his every breath.
I thought for one breathless second he was going to kiss me before Atlas spotted him and shot him in the ass.
We went from an intense moment to him yelling how much it hurt, and me ducking away to escape getting taken out myself.
Something has been building between Mars and me this summer.
He stopped being just another one of my brother’s friends to me.
Long looks across the dining room table during family dinners, subtle brushes of his hand as we walk past each other, and what used to be fun, flirty banter that feels like so much more now.
I shake my head at my foolishness. I’m about to move three hours away to start school.
Whatever I think might have been happening is dead in the water with my moving away.
Kissing Reid, on the other hand, was one of the sweetest moments of my life.
I admire and like him so much. The way he pushes through his crippling anxiety to keep going is awe-inspiring to me.
I’ve seen him in the midst of panic attacks and tried to help where I could but it’s really his internal strength that always pulls him back.
I don’t think he even knows how strong he is.
The fact that he’s gorgeous to look at with all those golden curls and amber colored eyes doesn’t hurt either.
I hum out a small laugh at how much teasing I’ll get from Kara if she finds out I kissed him. She already makes fun of me for crushing on her brother.
I tape the last box closed and scan around the bedroom I’ve had all my life.
I’ll miss it and all my family and friends but I’m so freaking excited to start this new chapter of my life.
I’m finally eighteen and ready to go out into the world to adult.
I’m going to love every minute of what’s to come.