Always There

Chapter Fifty-Four

Bryce scoffs and leans forward in his seat so that he can set the mug down on the coffee table next to the empty Tiffany and Co. box.

"I really do love it," he says. "And you really are fucking adorable. I couldn't ask for a better girlfriend. I truly don't deserve you."

I give him a shy smile. "That isn't true."

He reaches up with one hand to hold the side of my face. "It is true. And you'll see that soon enough."

I'm not quite sure how to interpret his words, and so I simply change the topic. "I have something else for you."

Bryce's eyebrows suddenly furrow. "Really?"

I nod and reach behind my back to retrieve his other gift.

When I hold it out towards him, he purses his lips together and gingerly takes it from my hands.

"It's a notebook," he says, running his fingertips along the smooth, baby pink cover.

"Open it," I whisper.

He opens up to the first page of the notebook, takes a few seconds to read the words written on the page, and then looks back to me with wide eyes.

"This is your diary," he states.

I nod at him.

He stares at me for another moment before he looks back down to the page. He skims the date written at the top with his index finger.

"You were twelve when you wrote this.

I nod at him again. "I started writing in here when I was twelve and I stopped writing in it last year."

Bryce bites his lip and then, softly, begins to read aloud.

"Hi. I'm Alexandra Elise Brooks (but everybody calls me Lexi), and I'm twelve years old. I guess I don't need to bother introducing myself though because nobody is going to read this other than me. This is the first time I've ever written in a diary, and so I guess I'm just going to write about my feelings and stuff," he says.

He looks to me as if asking for permission to keep reading.

I smile at him. "I gave it to you for a reason. I want you to keep it. You can read it all, if you want to."

His gaze falls back to the diary and he continues to read aloud. "There's this boy at school named Bryce. I really really love him. He's my favourite person in the whole entire world. He's also my best friend, but if you asked him who his best friend is, he would probably tell you that it's my brother, Charlie.

"I haven't had my first kiss yet, but I really want Bryce to me my first kiss. I wasn't kidding when I said that I love him. He's very handsome and very kind to me. He's also the smartest person I know. I think he's smarter than most adults. He's pretty much perfect, and even though I know that it'll never happen, I just wish that he would love me back," he says.

Gently, he closes the notebook and sets it down on the bedside table next to the mug. He then turns to face me, taking my hands in his own.

"That's really how you felt when we were twelve?" he asks incredulously.

I shrug my shoulders at him. "Yeah. I don't think I really knew what love was when I was twelve, but I knew for certain that the feelings I had for you were much stronger than just a crush."

Bryce gives my hands a gentle squeeze. "I reckon that I didn't have a clue what love was either. But as soon as I found out what the word love means, I was convinced that I'd loved you since the moment I first laid eyes on you."