I delete it before sending it and choose to instead send him a late reply to his morning texts.
Elsa: I don’t dream, remember?
My heart lunges in my chest when my phone vibrates with a reply.
Aiden: I’ll dream for the both of us.
The memory hits me out of nowhere.
* * *
“I don’t remember my dreams,” I tell the boy with grey eyes.
He pinches my cheek. “I’ll dream for the both of us.”
“Promise?”
“Promise, Elsa.”
18
Elsa
Aiden shows up at school during lunch.
I visibly move from my seat the moment he walks into the cafeteria.
To do what?
Hug him? Kiss him?
What the hell, Elsa? Just because I was worried about him doesn’t mean I’ll jump in his arms.
I sit back down and move the fork in my lunchbox. Telling myself to focus on my food and ignore him doesn’t work. There’s no getting rid of Aiden. He’ll always be there. A constant. A nuisance. A thrill. He’s under my skin, flowing in my bloodstream.
Xander, Ronan, Knox, and Kim’s conversation fades into the background the closer Aiden comes.
I don’t have to look up to feel him. He’s in my bloodstream, remember? He flows inside of me. I’m conscious of him whether I like it or not. My senses are tuned to his confident strides, his all-powerful presence, and even his scent. I can smell it, clean and male and all him.
There’s no ounce of hesitation about where he’s heading. All the people in the cafeteria cease to exist in his eyes. It’s cruel, but it’s true.
Aiden doesn’t and won’t ever care about them.
However, he cares about me.
It’s in the way his features lighten upon seeing me even though his expression is still vastly unreadable. The way his entire body language points in my direction.
How could I have been so blind not to see it before?
Since we were children and even now, Aiden’s features only light up when I’m around.
You’re the only thing who breaks the endless vicious cycle.
He told me that once, but I was at a point where I doubted everything about him.
Did I ever believe a word he said? How did that make him feel?