Unloved (The Unlucky Ones #2)

by Marley Valentine

There is beauty in being bruised. There is beauty in being brave. There is beauty in being. MARLEY VALENTINE

I should’ve touched him. Not just today, but every day. I should’ve told him how I feel. I should’ve. I should’ve. I should’ve.

We’ve been best friends since our first day of college, and I think I was already in love with him on the second. It’s stupid and going absolutely nowhere, but I can’t shake it. I know he doesn’t feel the same, because he told me exactly that, but my heart feels safer being caught up in his unrequited love than ever giving it to someone else.

“I’m not ready, Sammy.” Without missing a beat, another text comes through. Then I’ll make him wait till you are.

“But what people forget to understand is that addiction is a disease.” I don’t know why, but my eyes fill with tears as I listen to her. “It’s a sickness, and just like any other sickness, it needs to be treated. Getting help when you’re sick isn’t a weakness, Rhys.”

I am Samuel Hart, in love with his best friend, living in denial and so fucking full of regret.

Secrets are no longer an option. It doesn’t matter that we’re two grown men. It doesn’t matter that we haven’t spoken to each other in years. It doesn’t matter that he, of everyone in my life, hurt me the most. Because right now he’s my brother and the one person I need.

One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi.

The tension between them is palpable; the kind you have when you love someone but you’ve also hurt them. They really need to fuck or fight it out.

They are the complete opposite of one another—Samuel like the sun and Rhys reminding me of the moon. They’re night and day. Samuel’s eyes are bright and completely transparent—what you see is what you get. While Rhys’s are overshadowed by the dark circles surrounding his eyes, hiding as many secrets as I had been.

On one hand, hope keeps you going, but on the other, nothing hurts more than the loss of it.

I want to kiss him. I want to cradle his face in my hands and finally press my lips to his. I want to finally tell him how I feel about him, without saying anything at all.

He is beautiful, in all the ways I never knew a man could be. Perfectly shaped lips, defined cheekbones, and eyes that have lived a thousand lives. Soulful eyes that I want on me in this lifetime.

I’m playing with fire, of that I am certain. I just know I’ll never regret it.

Rhys is the sun after a rainy day.

Samuel isn’t the protective bodyguard in the bedroom; he listens to each and every one of Lennox’s instructions like a good fucking boy.

After the weekend, there’s no denying there is something between the three of us. It was instant and unexpected. It’s emotional and it’s physical, and most importantly it’s effortless. None of us question what it is or where it’s going. We don’t need rules and don’t require labels. There is no jealousy, no comparison, and no envy.

I’ll take it all and give him all the love back. Angry love. Hurt love. Desperate love. Scared love. So much scared love, because that’s what we are. The three of us. Scared. So fucking scared.

“Good.” I bring his forehead to mine. “Because I’m in love with you, and I like to keep what I love.” “I don’t think anybody has ever loved me before,” he says softly.

That my love for him is everywhere and in everything. It’s as permanent as his pulse, beating every second of every day.

There is no happy medium. There is just happy. Find it. Be it.

“I love you,” he says, reading off the screen. “I love you both. I love you individually. I love us all together. All my todays are for you, and all my tomorrows are because of you.”

“I’ll love you when it’s desperate and dire. I’ll love you when it’s beautiful and boring. I’ll love you from this breath to the next, and for every breath after.”