Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating

by Christina Lauren

when I meet someone I love, I become an octopus and wind my tentacles around their heart, tighter and tighter until they can’t deny they love me just the same.

Is it weird that I like that her hair seems to be as resistant to being tamed as she does?

“You’re my person,” she says. “Thanks for sticking up for me tonight.” She gives these vulnerable words so freely it makes fondness clench at something in my chest. Taking her hand, I bring it to my mouth and press a quick kiss to the backs of her knuckles. “I like being your person.”

He smells like Tide and the echoing tang of vinegar from his parents’ house, and I imagine opening my mouth and eating his shirt, swallowing it with the chocolate bar.

tide mentioned

I love Hazel; with the clarity of the morning sun beaming in the window,