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Here’s to the 10 characters, 5 couples, 3 teams, 2 sets of siblings, and 1 amazing friend group that changed my life. This one is dedicated to you, the readers.
Thank you for hanging out in Chicago with me.
Fine. Rio, you back or what? Me Your care and concern for me hold no bounds. Honey, I’m home! Ryan I hate this. Me I know. The distance was hard for me too, Ryan. Ryan I’m leaving this group chat.
Hilarious duo
“Watch it, Blue,”
Those green eyes. That sneaky smile.
He’s everywhere.
God, I’m the worst. This guy is trying to impress me and I’m over here having an existential crisis.
Rio DeLuca.
his eyes flit upward. To me. He freezes in place,
refocusing on me. Cataloging me. Studying me.
The arena has emptied out. It’s completely silent, only him and me.
Because I may have loved Rio DeLuca once, but I don’t anymore.
“What are you listening to?” “I don’t know the name. I just picked a song to remember the moment.”
“I pick a song when something cool or important happens so I can remember it. Then when I want to relive a moment, I rewind it back and start the song from the beginning.”
Was that her? It had to be her. I’d recognize that face anywhere. Those hazel eyes.
Rio DeLuca can go ahead and fuck himself.
His eyes don’t leave me for even a moment as he removes his helmet and lets it hang at his side.
Those green eyes soften, searching mine, and I swear I see him. The person I was most comfortable with. The one who knew what I needed without me having to ask. The person who knew me better than I sometimes knew myself.
He laughs, deep and full, and I feel it through every nerve in my body.
my old Rio
“God, how do you remember that? That was forever ago.” “Hard to forget the years you had shit taste in music, Hal. It’s been burned into my memory and not in a good way.”
Because I didn’t tell him the truth all those years ago. He doesn’t want to forgive me for it.
The four members of the Rhodes family started coming to Sunday dinners here at the Shay house and thus formed our little Chicago found family of nine. Yes, nine. Because everyone is paired up except for me.
What was once just Max here sleeping upstairs during family dinner has turned into a whole slew of little ones.
Zee and Stevie have one. Ryan and Indy have two, as do Kai and Miller. Isaiah and Kennedy are too focused on their careers to think about having kids, and I…well, I’m single as fuck, so there’s that.
There’s something about my friendships with women, especially these women, that I value in a way that’s different from my male friendships.
But when I need to discuss a tough topic, I tend to find that I get a more empathetic and understanding approach from the women in my life.
I don’t ask for clarification and instead, decide to overthink that single sentence for the rest of my life.
“Rio, please. We both know you don’t actually care if something is upsetting me.”
If only that were true. It’d make my life a whole lot easier if I could care less about this girl.
Reaching between us, I find the leg of her chair and pull, bringing her seat flush to mine.
When I look at Hallie, all I see is the girl from my past, my literal favorite person.
“You’re telling me you never once vented and talked shit about me?”
“No.” My tone is even. “Never once, Hal.”
“You used to be my best friend, and yeah, we haven’t seen each other since then, but I’d rather hold on to the memory of the sweet neighbor boy I loved than replace it with this version of you.”
that is until my thirteenth birthday when he fell asleep on my bedroom floor as we listened to music, and he realized he could sleep just fine there.
“I don’t hate you. Hurt, yes. But I could never hate you, Hallie.”
My hand is still in his when he runs that same thumb over the soft skin of the inside of my wrist before letting it go.
“Friends,” I agree. Feels wrong. Tastes like a lie.
We’re not friends. We’re just trying not to kill each other. And personally, I’m trying not to rip off his clothes.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this meeting? Do you want to, I don’t know, put a shirt on?”
“Nothing you haven’t seen before, Hart.” “Please stop talking.” “You were the one looking.”
“I’m not sure what I want. Regarding the house.”
“What catches your eye?”
“If this were your house, what would you do?” The answer sticks in my throat.
Because there was a time I thought I would be designing our house.
It feels like a drug, being this close to him, one that I used to be highly addicted to. God, I missed him.
Stevie with the curly hair and worn-in Nikes on her feet. Indy with her blonde braid and Converse. Miller with her tattoos and overalls. Kennedy with the Vans and striking red hair.
I’m about to say something when Miller and Indy look at each other, hands over their hearts, crooning, “Hal,” as if that’s the most precious thing they’ve ever heard.
He could be a joke to everyone else, but he was never a joke to me.
