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There’s a ton of things I need to do and they all lead back to Elsa, not my family name.
If she thinks I’ll let her get away she must not know me after all. I’m happy to have her relearn me all over again.
“This is about Elsa, isn’t it?” he asks. I lift a shoulder. Everything is about Elsa, but neither he nor Jonathan need to know that.
Hehe
“You don’t deserve her.” “Just like you don’t deserve Astrid?” “At least I changed for her. What did you do for Elsa?” “I found her again.” And no one will take her away from me.
Ma ruined his innocence. She smashed and crushed it to the ground, leaving a broken boy in her wake. No wonder he’s chosen to be a monster. In his warped logic, being a monster is better than being a weak mess.
I want to cry for the little boy he used to be. The boy with tousled, black hair and metal eyes. That boy was my friend, my light in the darkness. Eli sent him to me.
“I don’t give promises I don’t keep. You’re the one who does that over and over again. I told you loving me is a one-way road. I told you not to say the fucking words if you didn’t mean them.” I throw a glance at him over my shoulder. “I meant those words. I love you, Aiden, but I also love myself enough to walk away from you.”
“How old are you?” she asks. “Eight.” “I’ll also be eight soon.” Her missing tooth shows when she smiles big. “We can be friends.” “I have friends.” “Oh.” Her expression falls. I want to kick myself for making her feel bad. Cole keeps saying I should make my words less direct. No idea what that means. However, I don’t want Elsa to feel bad. What if she never returns and I’ll stay in the dark all alone? She peeks at me through her eyelashes with puppy eyes. “Can’t you add one more friend?”
“Hey, Grey Eyes.” “Hmm?” I watch her twinkling eyes as she chews. Some of the chocolate sticks to her upper lip. “When I grow up, I’m gonna buy you a bucket of Maltesers.” “Why?” “Because Dad says you have to buy gifts for the one you marry.” “Marry?” I whisper. “Yup!” She grins. “When I grow up, I’m going to marry you.”
“You can’t marry me.” Her face contorts. “Why not?” “Mum says you have to love someone to marry them.” “Then you can just love me.” She throws her hand in the air. “What’s so hard about that?” I remain silent. This girl is crazy.
“Promise you’ll marry me.” She holds out her pinkie. I curl mine around hers. “I promise.”
There’s no one before Elsa and no one after her. She’s a constant, and soon everyone will know that.
She’s all mine with a capital M. And now, she’s back. This time, only death would do us part.
“Go, nineteen, I guess,” Teal says. Both Kim and I gawk at her. She just called Xander’s number. “What?” She glances up from her phone. “Isn’t he on Knox’s team?” “Yeah, but there are ten other players on Knox’s team.” Kim narrows her eyes. “Why him?” Teal lifts a shoulder. “Why not him?”
She’s so fucking beautiful. And she’s happy. The fact that she erased me this fast deepens the dark hole inside my chest. If she can get over me so quickly, why the fuck has she told me she loved me? Empty words. Empty promises.
Alicia used to say that in order to be accepted, you have to bare yourself. I never understood what that meant. Until Elsa. Now, I’ll do whatever it takes to be accepted by her. If it means letting everything go, then so fucking be it.
Aiden I’ll dream for the both of us. The memory hits me out of nowhere. “I don’t remember my dreams,” I tell the boy with grey eyes. He pinches my cheek. “I’ll dream for the both of us.” “Promise?” “Promise, Elsa.”
I don’t have to look up to feel him. He’s in my bloodstream, remember? He flows inside of me. I’m conscious of him whether I like it or not.
Aiden doesn’t and won’t ever care about them. However, he cares about me. It’s in the way his features lighten upon seeing me even though his expression is still vastly unreadable. The way his entire body language points in my direction. How could I have been so blind not to see it before?
Since we were children and even now, Aiden’s features only light up when I’m around. You’re the only thing who breaks the endless vicious cycle.
“Do you remember the time we spent together ten years ago?” I ask before I can stop myself. He nods, eyes darkening. “And you don’t.” My heart skips a beat. He hates it. Oh, my God. He hates that I don’t remember him from back then. It must be why he’s been such a dick all this time, calling me Frozen and heartless.
“You wiped my face with a wet cloth then covered me with a blanket just so you could slip underneath it with me. Oh, you also held my hand and kissed my cheek. Child Elsa was a stage five clinger.”
“You mean to tell me that you came without a plan?” “I did have a plan.” He tilts his head in my direction. “Anything that involves having you by my side is the perfect plan.”
“Don’t.” The harshness in his voice startles me from my thoughts. I peek at him. The sombre expression on his handsome face takes me aback. “Don’t what?” I’m genuinely confused. “Don’t pull away from me.” “I’m not pulling away.” “I call bullshit. You’re going Frozen on me again.” “Don’t you think you deserve it?” I glare at him. “The only thing I deserve is you.”
For a moment, he’s the most important person in the world. I want to engrave myself under his skin so nothing can separate us again. I want to be one with him.
“There hasn’t been a day where I haven’t thought about you. Every time I manage to sleep, I dream of you. You were my obsession since we were kids, but now it’s way fucking worse. I don’t know how I managed to spend eight years without you in my life when now I suffocate if I don’t see you for hours.”
I’m ready to fight her if she doesn’t snap out of her stubbornness. It used to be adorable, now it’s pissing me off.
She slaps a hand over my mouth and watches her surroundings like she’s a spy. “We’re in Dad’s office.” I kiss her palm. She removes it with a jerk and turns crimson, if possible.
The tattoos. His arrow tattoos are inspired by what I drew back then. He’s right. I’ve been under his skin for such a long time just like
I need to go back and fuck the three of them up for even thinking I’d leave Elsa. That will only happen after death. Even then, I might make a deal with the devil so I can haunt her from afar.
I’ve been imagining the look on King’s face when he finds out you’re my fiancé.” He hums. “You think I’ll be able to catch his expression on camera before he chops my head off with an axe?”
I heard the flight from China to England is more than twelve hours. He must be exhausted. Still, I relish in the fact that he came to me first. He crossed the seas for me.
I’ve always belonged to Aiden and he’s always belonged to me. It started ten years ago and has been ongoing since. I was just too stubborn — and scared — to admit it.
How the hell do I tell him that my world revolves around him when he’s so frustrating right now?
“I was thinking about you, dickhead! I was thinking about how my life is an empty shell without you in it. I was re-reading your texts in class because I couldn’t stop missing you. I had to run in the rain like a lunatic because of thinking about you.
“I’m addicted to you. I’m obsessed with you. I’m mad about you.”
rest my cheek on his tense back, the back full of welts and scars. The strong, strong back that never bowed down.
I’ll eat them when she returns. Maltesers are too sweet and I don’t like them much, but I haven’t told her that. Elsa’s so enthusiastic about them and I like watching her eat them. Besides, she loves it when I share the chocolate balls with her.
“I’m always right, Ethan. You wouldn’t be in this predicament if you listened to me and didn’t marry her.” “If I didn’t marry her, I wouldn’t have Elsa. I would repeat it all over again if I was given the choice.
Awwww
“There hasn’t been a day where you weren’t fucking mine, Elsa. You’ve been mine since that first day you walked in here. ”
If we never find a way out of here I’ll die happy knowing I’m with the person I love the most. The boy I loved since I was seven.
“Are you on Viagra?” Elsa pants as she lays her head on my arm.
“Do you regret it?” she murmurs, her tiny hands gripping my arm. I like how she’s holding on to me with all her might. Her entire body clings to mine like it’s the most natural place to be. “Regret what?” I ask. “Getting to know me. Pursuing me. All of it.” A stuttering breath chokes out of her. “If you stayed away from me, you wouldn’t be here.” “I regret nothing, sweetheart, least of all knowing you.”
My second regret is not fighting to stay with you when you pushed me out of this room. My third regret is believing you were dead and not searching for you.”
“I’m glad I met you back then,” she says after a while. “You were my light in the darkness.”
I’m tempted to try and catch him, to spend more time with him, but I recognise, deep down, this isn’t where I’m supposed to be. Someone is waiting for me. And I have a promise to keep.
