Always There

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Summer's over, though. It was the most perfect summer I could've possibly asked for, but it passed by so incredibly quickly that my brain still hasn't really processed that I'm back in New York City, back to working at the cafe, and back to school in no time at all.

Oh, I'm also moving into my first apartment tomorrow.

Which is literally so terrifying that I'm just going to pretend that it's not happening at the present moment.

I'm excited. I really am. I get to continue living with Kennedy, which I'm happy about, even though I'd rather be living with Bryce instead. That's not an option right now, though, and so I'm trying to be more positive about this experience. I really am glad to be moving into my own place, because even though it's quite possibly the smallest apartment in the world, I'll finally have my own bedroom again, which is very exciting considering I shared a tiny, one-room dorm for many months last year.

We've technically already moved in, I guess. All of the furniture is already in the apartment—which isn't very much furniture at all because as I said, the apartment is seriously tiny—but our bedrooms are fully-furnished and so is our little living room. All of my personal belongings like my clothes are still at Bryce's place, though, and so I'm staying here, in his apartment with him, for just one more night.

I've been staying with him every night since we flew back to New York, and even though it's only been a few nights, I've become attached all over again.

Embarrassingly attached.

So attached that the thought of throwing a fit and refusing to leave tomorrow morning actually doesn't seem that absurd to me right about now.

"Hey," Bryce says gently, drawing me back to the present moment. "There's no need to talk like that. If you miss me, call me, and I'll find a way to be wherever you need me to be. You're also always welcome here, so feel free to stop by whenever you want, whether you need a hug from your favourite person in the whole wide world or if you just need someone to talk to."

I open my mouth to say something, but the small smile that Bryce gives me shuts me right up.

"No matter where our lives take us," he says softly, "I want you to remember that you will always be my number-one priority. Always. So if you ever need anything—and I truly do mean this—I want you to come to me. I can't promise you how different I'll be in ten, twenty years from now, but the one thing that will never change is how I feel about you, Lexi Brooks."

His words render me speechless.

I take a few moments to let it all sink in, because my heart is racing so damn fast in my chest right now as I try so so hard to think of the right thing to say in response to a declaration like that.

Eventually, I manage to whisper, "You really are, you know."

I watch as Bryce's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "I really am what?"

I glance downwards, at where our hands are intertwined on Bryce's thigh.

"My favourite person," I clarify. "You really are my favourite person in the whole entire world."

Bryce tilts his head to the side, as though considering this.

And then, his voice as faint a whisper as mine, he says, "And you're my favourite person. My favourite person in the whole entire world."