17. Ethan | fine

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With Cameron's arms around me, it hit me how much I missed this, missed him

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With Cameron's arms around me, it hit me how much I missed this, missed him. I rested my head against his chest, swaying to the beat of an imaginary slow song even though I was sure the song actually playing was closer to 200 bpm.

It was a bit unusual dancing with him with his team here, but half the team was too wasted, and the others had already shared how nonchalant they were about us being...something. I wasn't sure where this would go or if we could really call this a thing, to begin with, but the familiarity and comfort were still well worth the curious onlookers. Besides, we were too busy looking at each other in the dim bar lights to be concerned about who was looking and what they thought of us.

Even though Cameron didn't drink much, his face was still flushed, like he had an Asian glow, something I would tease him about later.

Cameron's pouty lips seemed to deepen as he looked at me, his drunken mind staring through me like he was trying to solve a puzzle. In hindsight, this was quite true; I was a complicated puzzle that Cameron had struggled for years to figure out, and when he had figured it out as we dated, I tore the puzzle apart—destroying the perfect picture of us, just for him to return to my life and try to put it back together again. Only this time, I wouldn't tear it apart, not if I could help it. Sure, we'd return to our colleges Monday night, but that didn't mean I had to ghost him again as I had after graduation.

"What's with that look?" I teased him.

His eyes blinked as if he was trying to blink away being drunk. "I...I'm still very much in love with you."

I sucked in a breath, pulling away to look at him better. "Do you, now?"

He nodded, his hands resting along my hips.

"You're drunk, Cam."

"Only a little," he chided. "It doesn't make it untrue."

My chest tightened. "You really mean that?"

Cameron bit his bottom lip in nervous habit, his eyes widening as our eyes met."When I said I loved you, I had never been more sure of anything else. There was never a moment where I didn't love you." He looked down at the floor before looking up at me through the lashes of his signature puppy-dog look. "I still am very much in love with you, Ethan Wong."

While my immediate thought was to deny it and tell him he was mistaken, that he couldn't possibly think that after all I did. But his confession had rendered me speechless.

He grimaced, closing an eye, and added, "Well, that wasn't how I was going to say that."

"What?" I breathed.

Cameron mumbled something incoherently, then cleared his throat. "It was a longer speech in my head. And well, I told myself I'd do it sober and without my team here to eavesdrop potentially."

Kenji, who had been dancing with another teammate behind us, turned innocently. "I wasn't."

"Sure," Cameron said sarcastically as Eric slipped through the crowd.

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