I Love You More Than I'm Afraid (Our Forevers #2) by Rebel Hart (the first e reader .txt) 📕

Just sit with us at lunch today and we’ll act like it never happened.” Another pause. “Next message from—Ceradi. When you’re ready, we’ll get Aria back, just let me know—Would you like to respond?”

I sighed. “No.”

“End of messages.”

In the midst of listening to Ceradi’s messages, I’d plugged my curling iron in, and, waving my hand over it, I could feel the heat wafting off. I reached behind my head and pulled the ponytail holder out of my blond hair and grumbled at it falling straight against my face. Hair that was slightly curly was more fashionable, at least in Ceradi and the rest of the school’s opinion, but my hair was as straight as an arrow. Though it took time out of my morning to do so, and I actually didn’t mind my hair being straight, I always gave my hair some beachy curls.

Once my hair was done, I opened up the medicine cabinet and pulled out the packet of blue contacts. Looking inside, I saw that I was down to only a few sets remaining. I made a mental note to myself to order more, and fished a pair out. I blinked in the image of my naturally brown eyes briefly before slipping a blue contact into each of my eyes, and then I took in the sight of the fresh blue irises. I frowned a little, but ultimately let it go.

The last thing I needed to do was also my least favorite, applying my fake nails. I absolutely hated wearing nails. They made everything more difficult to use, and given I was a natural klutz I tended to scratch myself a lot. They were also unbearably expensive for something that I didn’t even want. It was fine when it was an occasional trip with Ceradi and some of the other popular girls, but to maintain the image without actually having to deal with them outside of school, I just used fake pop ons and tried my hardest to be careful. I packed extra tape just in case.

Finally, I’d completed my speed-run of getting ready for school, and I bolted out of the bathroom with my phone in hand to get dressed. Since I didn’t have time to pick out anything more complicated, I went with a sundress that I knew I’d pulled out of the laundry recently and grabbed a jean jacket to hide my arms and shoulders. I topped the look off with a pair of wedges, grabbed my backpack, and took a sigh of relief.

I was finally ready to go.

Downstairs, my parents were both sitting at the dining room table, both already half-finished with their breakfast. They looked like a regular sitcom family, with my dad reading an actual newspaper, and my mom sitting there quietly and submissively. There was a third plate at the table with egg whites, turkey bacon, and wheat toast atop it.

My mom smiled as she looked up. “Wow. Even short on time you look incredible!”

I smiled. “Thanks, mama.”

“Did you hear?” my father said, not even looking up from his newspaper. “Arden got into a nasty fight with her parents this morning. Told them never to speak to her again. Can you imagine?”

“How would I have heard that?” I asked as I sat down at the table. “Arden and I don’t speak.”

My mom frowned. “It’s terribly sad, isn’t it? You two used to be so close. Maybe if you had stuck together, she wouldn’t have drifted off down the wrong path.”

My skin covered in angry goosebumps at the tones of my parents’ voices, but there was nothing I could do. Me staying in Arden’s life wouldn’t have convinced her to be less gay. I could assure them of that, not that I would ever risk saying something so stupid to them.

I settled for, “Maybe.”

“I was talking to Fawna yesterday, and she’s so sad that her relationship is so poor with Arden. She wishes it was like ours is, Hannah,” my mom said.

I shrugged, sticking turkey bacon into my mouth as an excuse not to respond. My mom and Hannah’s mom, Fawna, were best friends. Much like Arden and I had been, they had been brought up as babies together by their mothers, who were also best friends. For a really long time, purely so my mom and Fawna could remain inseparable, Arden and I were inseparable as well. It didn’t take long for us to bond though, and in no time at all, we were one another’s entire world. There was just one key difference.

Arden and I fell in love.

Unfortunately for us, Arden and I came from hyper-religious families that believed homosexuality was wrong. My parents just expected certain things from me, and as their only child, I felt obligated to carry on their legacy with pride. If my family believed so staunchly that it was wrong, didn’t that mean that it had to be? Arden’s parents believed in it so firmly that they were willing to disown her just to have her not be that way. They sent her to that awful camp that starved her and attempted to drive her insane. If that was the amount of effort they were willing to put in, wasn’t it just easier to do what they were expecting?

Right?

“I told Fawna I’d talk to you about reconnecting with her,” my mom said. “I know that you were confused about your relationship with her at first, but now that you understand the difference, maybe you can help her understand too.”

I couldn’t help but snicker, envisioning myself sitting down with Arden and explaining to her that, no, we’re just confused. We’re not attracted to one another, we’re straight and just really, really, really, really, really close. She’d laugh at me so hard it would give me third degree burns. Thanks but no thanks, mom.

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” I said. “She can’t stand me. Why would she listen to me anyway?”

My father shook his head at that. “It’s a shame that she became so jealous