2016 WATTY AWARD WINNING CHEATER, FAKER, TROUBLEMAKER SEQUEL
Written by Jenny Rosen & Kristen Maglonzo
For rehabilitated bad boy, Elias King, falling in love again means losing everything--including his life.
When a ghost from his past tears him aw...
NOTE: Dear Audiobook fans and new listeners, if you'd like to experience the full emotional intensity of this chapter, I cannot more highly recommend that you listen to kaelking12's phenomenal performance of this chapter! Featuring music from Paramore, Elina, Andrew Belle, Kurt Hugo Schneider/Alex G, and Fleurie!
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Alex
Dear Nobody,
Sometimes miracles happen in little moments. Ones where total chaos settles into to calm, fighting turns into forgiveness, and misunderstandings mellow out to the point where they seem almost forgotten.
I watched one of those moments play out at the dinner table last night. I sat there staring at Elias, Maria, and Dan making the best of a situation that nearly tore them apart. Elias and his mom were laughing and smiling together, sometimes crying together, the way families are supposed to.
The two of them have probably needed moments like these for longer than Elias has been willing to admit-because for the first time in a while, Elias seemed whole. Like he'd found a piece of himself in Maria and Dan that he didn't know he was missing.
And I wanted to be a part of that happiness.
That joy that the three of them had as they lost themselves in bubbly Thanksgiving dinner conversation like nothing bad had happened a few hours before.
But no matter how hard I tried or how much I wanted to feel different around them--I was distant from them.
Every smile was forced.
Every laugh fake.
Feigned.
Hollow.
After a while, I got to the point of being so numb that I barely felt aware of Elias holding me. Touching me. Reassuring me that I was his.
From the outside, he looked like a dream.
A gentleman pulling out all the stops for a girl who supposedly meant everything to him.
And I went along with his charade for a while-pretending to be okay.
Pretending to be in love.
Pretending that we were the kind of people who weren't hiding terrible secrets.
I let him kiss me.
I let him lace his fingers in mine.
I let him believe that every single sweet thing he did for me last night was nothing short of beautiful.
But in the quiet moments, when reality settled in, in the moments where I'd find myself alone in a room full of people, everything beautiful about what we are-what we were-turned into something bitter.
