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Farrow Keene abandoned a medical career and changed paths with the snap of a finger, and here I am, miserable in college. Unable to move in a new direction. When I know, deep down, that I’d be happier if I were back home in Philly and pursuing something other than a degree. I breathe in, a weightless feeling rushing through me. I’m going to drop out of Harvard.
someone, quick, invent time travel. Just so I can tell my teenage-self about the future where I’m temporarily living in my childhood home with my childhood crush. Who’s now my fiancé. Maybe it’s good that time travel doesn’t exist. I think I’d die.
“I dreamed of a winter wedding. The snow, the cold. That was one of the things I dreamed up at thirteen—when I didn’t know who I’d marry.” His eyes redden. “But I’m marrying you, and the way you exist in the sun is the purest shit in the world.” My chest rises. “I want to marry you in the summer, wolf scout.”
Maximoff glances towards the door, then looks into the camera. “So you know how I’m planning to marry this really, really aggravating guy? I’m pretty sure he’s in the bathroom right now, plotting ways to piss me off.” He tries not to smile, but he looks infatuated with me. I’m grinning at the phone.
“Just ask Akara for that one temp with the chin dimple,” Maximoff says. “The butt chin,” I correct. He smiles. “Chin dimple. He wasn’t that bad last time.” I nod a few times. Fine. I click my mic. “Maximoff is requesting Butt Chin for duty.”
I missed them <33
“You know me better than any guy ever has. You’re my person.” His chest collapses in a breath. “You know I feel the same.”
His love for his family has always been extremely sexy. And I’m going to be honest here: it makes me want to have kids with him. Badly.
😁😁😁
“I wouldn’t hurt her,” Donnelly emphasized. “Man, you don’t have to convince me.” I know how he is with one-night stands. I know how he is with women. He’d let a girl walk all over him before even contemplating walking all over her.
I love donnelly
“And Luna prefers one-night stands. She might not even want to hook up with Donnelly again.” “Yeah,” I say, but I feel for Donnelly. If he risked our friendship to be with Luna, there’s a good chance he really likes her.
awww
Silver buffet trays line the café bar counter, and the unmistakable scent of breakfast clings to the air. My eyes burn with emotion. Wolf scout.
IM THROWING UP, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH
Yeah, to be honest, I didn’t know if I would find a love like this, but I wanted that pure, unshakable thing. And of course I want that someday for my friends.
“I just had a very giant heart attack,” I mutter under my breath to him. He drops his hand. “You didn’t.” “I did,” I say stubbornly. He leans close and stares ahead at Jane as he whispers to me, “I’m the doctor.”
I know what she’s about to say and offer because she’s my best friend, my other half, and we look at each other with reddening eyes. Emotion surging like a tidal wave come to carry us to shore—years and minutes and moments washing down my body. And something else. Something that transcends time. A love that understands without sound or reason. And I feel one of the purest acts of love when Jane tells us, “I can carry your baby for you. I’d love to be your surrogate if you’d want that.”
A wolf tattoo covers his right bicep, and he has a dermal piercing on his cheekbone and wears Doc Martens and a Metallica muscle shirt. Also, not that strange. But I’ve never met him. Definitely wasn’t the one to help train him, and in the amount of time I’ve been looking at this fucker, his eyeballs haven’t swept anything other than Maximoff.
JEALOUS FARROW
Maximoff Hale wants me more than even humanly possible, for eternity. That soul-deep, soul-clenching feeling will never grow old.
My lips lift at a thought: I’m going to be his Winter Soldier. For decades. For life.
Thatcher is easy to be around, and that’s how I like my friends. More than that, the way he’s staring at Jane—before he turns to me—is what she deserves. Just incomprehensible love and devotion.
I laugh when I glance at the bulge in the breast pocket of his black suit jacket. Thatcher breaking security rules is one thing, but seeing him break bakery rules by bringing a kitten inside this establishment is entertaining as shit.
LOL he brought LJ
“This is for you, by the way.” I pass him a business card. He looks confused at the Philly Aquatic Center logo. “Flip it.” Thatcher turns it over and reads the scribbled words: be my groomsman?
I’m happy that my hand is still in Farrow’s. In an alternate universe, he’s not with me, and I’m here with a stoic bodyguard who barely speaks.
You should know that I can survive in any universe, but I only want to live in the ones with Farrow Redford Keene.
I wish you could see the way he’s staring at me. With utter, eviscerating love that deserves fanfare and centerfolds and documentaries just focusing on that one look. And God, the way he makes me feel.
“I promise, I won’t fuck with you.” This really means something to him—and a realization suddenly slams against my head. “The tattoo is about me.” Maximoff nods a couple times.
WAIT THIS IS SO CUTE
“Yeah.” He cracks his knuckles. “There’s only one tattoo I want, one I’d even consider, and it has to do with you.”
“If I’m tattooing your name on me, it’s going to be one-hundred percent visible. For the whole world to see.”
he’s my greatest love. The only man I’ve asked to marry me. The only man I’ve wanted to be with for a lifetime. Fuck, he’s my entire world, and I’ve vowed to protect him, even on the days where he says he can protect himself.
“Lily heard some noise, and I came down to make sure Kinney wasn’t trying to communicate with the dead. She has school tomorrow.”
Lo hones in on me comforting Maximoff, and he seems to stare faraway, then he nods. “Alright.” He heads towards the fridge, and I can’t mistake the look he slips me. It’s a thank you. For taking care of his son.
🥹🥹🥹
My friend is sitting on the ground in the hallway, phone hanging limply in his hand. Elbows resting on his bent knees where his jeans are worn and ripped. Donnelly’s eyes are bloodshot, but I can’t discern if he’s been crying or if he’s just angry.
I’m scared
“Why is the hospital calling you?” My veins ice over. “The doctor said there’s a girl, and she’s…uh…she’s sayin’ that I have a kid. And the details are kinda foggy, you know. Because I think I blacked out.”
no fucking way
“Could you give Maximoff and me a minute alone?” That question is like facing a head-on collision. I know what’s coming. I see the aftermath. But I’m still holding my breath.
they’re gonna take the fucking baby omg
“Aristotle says there are three types of friendships. Friends for usefulness. Friends for pleasure. And then there’s true friendship. Friends that do things in pursuit of good for each other. Not for any other reason.”
Farrow takes a step forward. “I’m going to become the guardian.” Donnelly shakes his head with force. “No, I can’t ask you.” “You don’t have to.” His face cracks, and Farrow steps closer to put his arms around him just as Donnelly breaks down, bringing his own shirt up to cover his face.
🥺🥺🥺
Aristotle said it best. Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
Welcome to my strange life. Directed by Unknown Forces. Maybe God. I’m not that religious, but I’d like to think that this is supposed to happen the way it’s happening. It makes me a bit less apprehensive.
you’ve already been peed and spit up on. There’s only one more box to tick off, man, and I don’t know if you can handle projectile poop.”
You should’ve seen my dad call Uncle Connor for an “emergency” meeting with the lawyers. Jesus, he acted like DEFCON 1 passed us by and we were already in apocalyptic territories.
lo 😭
For one, everyone is drawn to Farrow. He’s the kind of guy who’s so effortlessly cool that people either want to be his best friend or they’re jealous of his mere existence. He might be selective about friendships and put people at arm’s length, but that just adds to his allure.
Because my parents are addicts, and I understand, well and good, that addiction is a disease. It’s not a fucking choice—and this baby’s mom isn’t a villain for what she did. She just wasn’t ready to be a mom, and she wasn’t as lucky as my parents, who had money and resources and a support system in place.
I wave the parrot with an eye-patch. “I think Oscar bought it for him.” I heard through the family group chat grapevine that bodyguards were adding gifts to the baby supply haul.
“My mom and dad raised me to fight the demons that they weren’t raised to fight. I’m strong because of my parents, and maybe that’s the point. They broke the cycle, and now I’m here to fight for him.”
I guess I just really want his family to love him. Love that doesn’t hesitate or take a second-thought. It shouldn’t be that hard.
So I’m standing here, buck-naked, a millimeter from my childhood-crush-turned-bodyguard-turned-doctor—and I’m staring at my inked handwriting: Maximoff Farrow has my name on his body. Somewhere, in another timeline, my sixteen-year-old self is hyperventilating.
“Is that a yes?” “Fuck yes.” Donnelly smirks more. “You asking Oscar too or what?” “To be a groomsman.” I nod. “But I only have one best man.” That rocks him back. “What?” His eyes redden, more overwhelmed. “Really?” It had to be Donnelly. Only Donnelly.
We both know I never tried to get rid of him. I never wanted to. I had no siblings too, and for whatever reason, he chose to hang around me. For over a decade. And when I get married, I want him by my side.
“I love you, sis.” Luna smiled. “Love you to planet Thebula and back.”
My mom and dad bolster my accomplishments as my own. Never make me feel indebted to them. In any way. And I’ll never understand just how difficult it must be for my mom to untwist the vines that’ve snaked around her for decades. From birth.
Unpopular opinion time: I don’t hate them together. But this is also way too fucking complicated. Which is why Maximoff is a six-foot-two G.I. Joe.
eeek I love lunelly
When he embraces me, my dad pats my back for an extended beat, and we hold on longer while he whispers, “I love you, bud, and I’m grateful for you every goddamn day. And I can’t wait to see you marry the man of your dreams.” It’s a phrase that stays with me. Man of your dreams.
He grabs my wrist and checks the time. “We have seventy-years until we die, give or take.” Yeah. I can work with that.
