Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Wow

Sourdawg:Yeah…

Dudebro10:That’s a lot of blood

Sourdawg:Wow, you can actually see brain matter on the ground. Nice headshot

Dudebro10:Mwahaha!

Sourdawg:Ugh, honestly tho, IDK about this game. The gore’s making me queasy

Dudebro10:Yeah, I’m not a fan. On to the next one?

Sourdawg:Yep. Hey

Dudebro10:?

Sourdawg:You look rly cute in that top

My cheeks wrestle with my mouth to keep the smile from taking over my face. I can feel the heat rising up the back of my neck, all the way to my ears, and it’s next to impossible to keep my eyes locked on my computer screen. Don’t look up, don’t—

Our eyes meet over the tops of our screens. Liam waggles his eyebrows, and I can’t help bursting into delightfully embarrassed laughter. Oh my god, this boy. He reaches around the side of his laptop and puts his hand over mine, its warmth enveloping me, trailing up my arm and making my heart thump in a sweetly painful way. Together, we get up and walk around the desk, and he puts his arms around my waist, pressing me up against him.

“Do you think it’s weird that we still chat online even though we’re, like, right in front of each other?” Liam murmurs.

It takes a moment for the words to sink in, because I’m so distracted by the movement of his lips. They’re so close to mine, I can practically feel the magnetic pull of them.

“Are you objectifying me again?” he says.

“Huh? Sorry, what? I wasn’t listening, I was—”

“Busy admiring my face? Can’t say I blame you.” He laughs, then grimaces when I punch him in the arm.

“Anyway, yeah, maybe it’s weird to chat online when we’re in the same room, but I dunno…” I shrug. “I kind of like it.”

“Same here.”

“So are you nervous about starting at my old school tomorrow?”

An eyebrow shoots up. “Me? Nervous? Have you seen how cool I am?” But then he gives me this sort of nervous grin and says, “Sort of, yeah. But everything you’ve told me about it sounds amazing, so I’m not too nervous.”

“Well, don’t worry, I’ll be right beside you.”

A slow smile plays on his irresistible lips as he gazes at me. He pushes a lock of hair gently off my face. “You do realize you’re the one who makes me really, really nervous?”

I quirk my eyebrows up. “I do, huh?”

In answer, Liam takes my hand and puts it against his chest so I can feel exactly how fast his heart is going. To be fair, mine’s not exactly doing a slow crawl either, but I’m not about to tell him that. Instead, I raise myself onto tiptoes, inhaling the scent of him, marveling at the everythingness, all the pieces that moved just so in order to lead us both here, in each other’s arms, and I close my eyes and kiss the boy I’ve been in love with for a really, really long time.