Play With Me (Playing for Keeps, #2)

by Becka Mack

I have a couple—okay, a fuckload—of cobwebs in the dungeon.

“But then every day without them is too long, isn’t it?”

A love above all the rest. That’s what a soul mate is. Someone with smooth edges to soften our sharp ones. Someone who fits us so perfectly, vibrates on the same frequency, makes all our best parts shine. And together? Together, everything is exactly the way it’s meant to be.”

I licked it. It’s mine.”

“I’m not crying,” I tell him, sniffling. “I have this, like, leaky tear duct thing. It’s a condition.”

“I bet Krissy doesn’t even know why she doesn’t like you. Because it’s got nothing to do with you and everything to do with her. She’s got her own shit that needs working through.”

“You’re allowed to have feelings, Jennie, and it’s okay if that feeling is anger.”

You don’t have to be strong and confident all the time. You’re allowed to have insecurities, to be afraid, to feel lonely. Those things don’t make you weak; they make you human.”

If you’re hurting, I don’t want you to do it alone.” Her arms come around me, a suffocating, wonderful hug. “We’re stronger together, Jennie.”

“I guess I just … don’t know where I belong.” “You belong wherever you want to belong, Jennie.”

Why is loving myself less important than the idea of other people loving me?

But what if falling in love is when being with that person is better than the comfort of the solitude? What if love is when you embrace it together, the chaos of your mind, and make it better than you ever thought it could be?

Real love isn’t conditional. It’s seeing somebody for everything they are and accepting all of them. It’s knowing you’re friends first and lovers second, understanding that arguments are opportunities to know each other deeper. It’s dinner waiting in the microwave, lights left on to welcome you home safely. It’s showering together so you can kiss a little longer. It’s two a.m. secrets spilled while you’re wrapped up in each other, dancing in the kitchen, Disney movies on the couch while crying your heart out. It’s supporting dreams, growing together, and growing separately. Because when you can stand strong on your own, you can stand strong together.