If You Miss It

38. stars

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

STARS

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"Okay, do you promise that this isn't a double date?"

Eden sighed for the fifth— or was it the sixth?— time that evening, reaching up to fix Dmitri's collar that was sticking up, smoothening it down and stepping back as she scanned him up and down.

"I promise, this is just four friends hangin' out," she tried to assure, but it did nothing to ease Dmitri's worries. "I'm movin' out in like— four days, I just wanted to hang out before we moved. That's it."

It wasn't that Dmitri didn't want to go on a date with Tariq. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to go on a date with him.

It was just that Tariq didn't even know that Dmitri was head over heels in love with him.  Meaning that this not-a-date could end up very badly. Very badly.

"I'm literally in love with him, E," Dmitri muttered, watching as Eden strapped on a thin gold watch on her wrist, fixing the strap on her gold dress, the same one that she wore at Trinh's birthday party. "Like, I want to spend the rest of my life with him kind of love."

Of course, since Dmitri hadn't mentioned any of this to her until that exact moment, she let out the loudest fucking gasp of her life, throwing a hand over her mouth and saying, "Holy fuck. Does he— ?"

Right at that moment, Trinh apparently decided to pound on the door, yelling out a sharp, "Eden, if you aren't ready in the next two minutes, we're leaving without you!"

"Bitch, I'm your girlfriend!" Eden yelled back. "I know you wanna see me look pretty, so just— wait for a minute. Jesus." Then, she turned around to face Dmitri again, continuing, "Anyway. Where were we?"

Sighing, Dmitri shook his head, fastening Eden's necklace for her as he said, "He doesn't know. Tariq. We—" Wait, can Trinh hear? Lowering his voice to a whisper, he continued, "We kissed the other day. Well, that was a literal month ago, but anyway. And we've been spending so much time together, and I know that he doesn't hate me or anything, but I don't know if he wants a relationship. At all."

"At all?" Eden echoed.

"I don't know if he ever wants to do a relationship again," he admitted softly, the words sending a spike through his own chest.

All he wanted was to be able to kiss Tariq without regretting it every time. That was all he wanted.

Honestly, the whole situation felt so unbelievably familiar, save for the fact that now, it was dialed up. The genuine love that Dmitri felt for Tariq, the longing to kiss him, the need to hear Tariq tell him that he loved him too. Everything was in excess, to the point where it was practically oozing out of him.

It was easier before. Because before, Dmitri knew that Tariq loved him. Now, he wasn't so sure.

"I..." Eden trailed off, staring up at him, just staring for a whole four seconds, until she sighed. "I think you should tell him. I get vibes from him."

Dmitri frowned as he shoved his wallet into the pocket of his dress pants, making sure that the dark blue material of his shirt was fully tucked into his pants. Then, he just laughed and said, "Vibes?"

Fervently nodding, Eden shot him a wide smile, teeth contrasting against her dark skin and equally dark eyeliner. "Y'know. The..." she mumbled, but Dmitri had no fucking clue what she was insinuating. "The love vibes. The absolutely, one hundred percent whipped vibes. I saw it right from that time last week when he came over because Juno was sick and he knew that you always get overwhelmed when she was sick."