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

clusters of bar patrons, we made our way down the hallway and out the side door. Suli gasped at the sight of Codie’s car parked next to mine. “How did you get a spot back here, my god.”

“Just got lucky,” Codie said. “Someone was pulling out.”

“And…” I said.

He side-eyed me and then smiled. “And some guy saw me searching and offered it up.”

I nodded. “There ya go.”

“Arden!”

Suli, Codie and I looked up and saw someone standing shaded in the darkness of the night near my car. The body stormed towards us, and when it came into the light of the flood lamps on the side of the building my jaw dropped.

“Aria?!” I yelped. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh my god, you’re gorgeous!” Aria screeched at Codie. “Are you human?”

Codie giggled. “This is Aria? I like her.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked again.

“Me? What are you doing here?” she spat back. “This is a twenty-one plus club and you are not twenty-one plus.” She walked a bit closer to me and stared into my eyes. “Are you drunk? Did you take drugs?” Her head snapped in Suli’s direction. “Did you give her drugs?”

“Oh yeah,” Codie said. “Definitely like her.”

Aria reached forward and grabbed my arm. “You’re coming with me.”

I frowned, frustrated that Aria was killing my buzz. “I’m not going with you. I’m going with Suli.”

Aria laughed. “No. You’re not. Come on.”

Suli yanked on my arm. “Hey, back off. She said she wants to come with me.”

Aria looked Suli up and down. “I’ve been nice to you so far. Do not make me change that.”

Codie laughed next to me. “Here we go. This is awesome.”

“Did you talk to Hannah?” I said. “I’m surprised that you would listen to—”

“Don’t you dare insult me to my face,” Aria hissed. “I came here because I’m worried about you and you are clearly not thinking straight. Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” I said.

She pointed backwards towards my car. “Then get in the car.”

I looked over at Suli and then frowned. “I’m gonna go with her.”

“What?” Suli said. “What about me?”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said.

She yanked away from me, clearly frustrated. She gave Aria an up and down look before stomping off. We stood in silence as she got into her car, started it up, and eventually drove away.

Codie pulled his phone out and held it out towards Aria. “Puh-leese, drop me your contact. I love you.”

Aria snorted. “I’m not all that happy with you. Who are you? How could you let an eighteen year old drink and take drugs?”

“Aria, I make my own deci—”

She stabbed a finger at me. “I’m not done with you. Just wait your turn.”

Codie let out a bright, belly laugh. “That’s right. Get me girl!” He ran a hand through his hair. “Trust me, I tried to interfere with both. This little relationship too, but Arden is much stronger than me, trust me.”

Aria narrowed her gaze. “She is very strong.” Then she pulled out her phone and touched it to Codie’s, exchanging their contact info. Then she put her phone away. “Call me if she turns up here again.”

Codie nodded. “I will gladly be that snitch.” He must have been able to feel the heat emanating off of me, because he turned and kissed me on the cheek. “You’ll forgive me for this, trust me.” He gave Aria a hug. “Thank you for being wonderful in every way.”

“Yeah. Thank you,” she replied. Then Codie got in his car, but stayed sitting in place. “What’s he doing?”

“He won’t just leave us here, so we should go,” I said.

“Where are your keys?” Aria asked.

I didn’t respond, just fished my keys out of my pocket and handed them over to her. She took them from me and went around to the passenger’s side door first to unlock it and let me in, then she went around to the driver’s side and climbed in. She started up the car and then said, “Hopefully Codie is okay waiting for a sec. I have to make a couple of calls.”

“Fine,” I said.

She dialed on her phone for a moment and then brought the phone to her ear. “Hey baby, I’ve got her…” I could hear Tristan’s voice responding on the other end, though I couldn’t make out the words. “Yeah, actually, that would be helpful. Thank you. Bye.”

She set down her phone and then started up my car before pulling out of the parking lot and setting off into the night. I was fully expecting her to start laying into me. She’d screamed at me that she wasn’t done with me when we were still talking to Codie, but now she was just staring forward, her hands throttling the steering wheel with her eyes narrowed. It was like having an angry parent. The silence was worse than the screams.

“I thought you said you needed to make a couple of calls. You only made one.”

“Tristan offered to make the other for me.”

“Are you gonna yell?” I asked.

“Yep, but not right now. Not while you’re like this,” she said.

I just bowed my head. “Okay.”

Aria took me back to her house and when we walked inside, I was even more upset to see that her mom was not only awake, but sitting on the couch fully dressed. She stood up as soon as we walked in and rushed over to me. She tilted my head back and looked into my eyes, then frowned. “What’d you take?”

“X,” I responded.

The disappointed look she gave me killed me. “How much?”

“A couple of pills over the course of a handful of hours.”

“Okay.” Then she pushed me off towards the stairs. “To bed.”

I might have felt much better if either of them would yell at me, but they both seemed to not want much to do with me while I was high, which was a terrible feeling—at least somewhere between the high and buzz it was.

Aria mumbled a couple of things to her mom that I couldn’t make out in my