LOVE and SECRETS

💖THE BONFIRE💖

Bodhi met Jake in the kitchen. "Dude, where were you?"

"I was talking to Perri."

"Perri? What were you talking to her about?"

"Just asked her if she ended up going to prom."

"Oh." He took an apple from the bowl on the island. "Yeah. That was a bunch of bullshit. I felt really awful for the poor girl." He took a bite. "I would have taken her. Holden shut that idea down fast. I mean, I wasn't going to try anything. I respect her. Now, I can't say the same if it was Annie." He winked at him. 

"You are like always on. Aren't you?" Bodhi asked, rolling his eyes.

"Is there any other way to be?"

"Come on. Rosaleigh is here, and she brought Katie and Tiff."

Fuck my life. Katie AND Tiff. Was I like an evil dictator in my former life? He went to the fridge. "Where did all the beer go?"

"We put it in a cooler outside. We also got a bottle of Peanut Butter Whiskey out there. Come on."

Bodhi followed him outside. He glanced back to see if maybe Perri was making her way down the hallway. She wasn't.

After she closed the door, Perri went back over the corkboard and took the Puka Shell necklace off the pushpin. She put it around her wrist, looping it twice like a bracelet. 

He was going to kiss me, just like that day when he gave me the necklace. Please remind me to kick Jake in the nuts next time I see him. I wonder what his kiss feels like. And him holding me in his arms close to his chest—I have never felt so special. Maybe I should go outside. He wants me to. 

She laid back on the bed and put her earbuds back in. She played Three Door Down again. Despite how it had made her feel, this was now her favorite song. She looked at the necklace around her wrist. She slowly started to drift to sleep.

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"Put some more wood on the fire," Holden told Tommy. 

"Why me?"

Holden looked at Tommy. "Because I told you to, you little prick."

Holden knew exactly what had gone down between Tommy, Perri, and Annie. He was the one who held her as she cried all night, took her prom dress to Goodwill, tried tirelessly to convince her that she was more beautiful than Annie would ever be, and decided he was going to make Tommy's life a living nightmare.

The fire was hot, but the temperature outside was dropping quickly. 

"Holdy. I'm cold." Rosaleigh curled up on Holden's lap. 

"I can go get you a sweatshirt, babe," he said, putting his arms around her.

"No. This will work for now." She nuzzled her face into his chest.

Bodhi was sitting in his chair, staring into the fire. He had already had five beers and about eight shots of whiskey. He was feeling pretty buzzed. He was about two beers away from being drunk.

"Dude." Holden tapped him on the leg. "What's wrong, man? You've been out of it all day."

"Just got some stuff on my mind. That's all."

"I'm sure Katie can help you get your mind off whatever is bothering you." Holden bounced his eyebrows.

Bodhi finished his beer. He kept turning, looking towards the patio door. He had been hoping for the last hour that Perri would come outside. He wanted to go for a walk and talk to her, maybe finally give her the kiss he'd been trying to give her for the past four years.