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

“Okay,” I said. “Um… Is Tristan there?”

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s pretty upset, Hannah.”

That let me know definitively that Tristan had seen me, and had told Arden. The only thing that it didn’t tell me was why Arden didn’t seem to be more angry with me if she knew. “If I came to talk to him, do you think he’d listen?”

“Maybe?” she said. “He’s kind of shell shocked. I can’t tell if he’d be better off having you here, or worse.”

I sniffled in, emotional for many reasons that ranged from knowing this was the longest, amicable conversation I’d had with Arden in a long time to knowing I was responsible for hurting the love of my best friend’s life. “I really messed up, Arden.”

“You and me both,” she replied. “Do you think you’ll come here? I wanna give him a heads up if you are.”

“Yeah. I’m on the way.”

“Okay. Be careful. Don’t drive crying,” she said.

That really only made me cry harder. She was always worrying about me. Had she ever stopped for even a day? “Yeah. Bye.”

“Bye.”

The second the line went dead, I dropped my phone and collapsed against my steering wheel. I was sobbing so loudly that if anyone were to come within ten feet of my car, they’d hear it and think I was giving birth. I just wanted love. From Tristan. From Arden. From my parents. From my friends. It hurt so badly to have a relatively normal conversation about such an abnormal, horrific situation. That was what I wanted. I wanted to just be able to call her and talk to her and hear her voice when I wanted.

I just wanted her.

Sitting up and wiping my eyes, I started up my car. Tristan needed me. He was owed an explanation and an apology and anything else I could muster, so I needed to suck it up. No more playing the victim. It was time to take responsibility for my actions.

All of them.

My drive to the hospital was grueling. Every time I allowed my mind to wander, I brought myself to the verge of tears again, imagining Tristan or Arden hating me. I couldn’t even lie and say that I didn’t know what I was doing. I knew Ceradi was unstable and hated Aria. I never should have involved her. I could barely even blame her for what happened. I brought her to where Aria would be and coaxed Aria there myself.

Aria’s injuries were totally on me.

Once inside the hospital, I wasn’t sure where to go to find Aria, so I approached the front desk. “Hi,” I said. “Um… My friend fell and hit her head and they brought her here by ambulance. What floor would she be on?”

“Probably trauma.” She pointed around the corner. “This floor, follow the signs.”

“Thank you,” I said, then ran off in the direction she’d pointed. I followed the signs until I could hear a couple of voices talking that I recognized. Tristan and Taylor.

The door slid open into the trauma waiting room and everyone inside looked over at me, though there were only a few people there that I recognized, Tristan, Taylor, and Arden. A few of the other people gave me that passing familiarity like I’d seen them somewhere before, but I couldn’t quite place it.

Shockingly enough, it was Arden who stood up and walked over to me. I felt compelled to walk directly into her until she hugged me, but knew why that would be a bad idea and abstained. “Hey,” she said.

“Hi,” I replied. “Some of these other people look oddly familiar to me.”

“Yeah, Aria’s whole family was in town for graduation.”

It was like someone shot me. Of course, I’d seen them at graduation. It was Aria’s extended family. “Oh my god.”

“Hannah, what happened?” Arden asked. “I mean… tell me you didn’t…”

“I’ll explain everything to you,” I said. “I really want to, but right now—”

“Yeah,” Arden cut me off. “Go. Talk to him.”

I walked around Arden a little and then stopped before I got too far into the waiting room. “Um, Tris? Can I talk to you, please?”

Taylor pushed his brother. “Go. I’ll let you know right away if we hear something.”

Tristan stood up from the chair next to his brother and walked towards me. Again, I thought about hugging him, but I could only duck my head in shame.

“Outside,” he grunted as he passed, not breaking stride, and I turned around and walked after him, noticing the look of disappointment on Arden’s face as we went.

We passed back through the sliding doors and walked until we were in the hospital’s main waiting room just outside near the reception desk. Tristan sat down in one of the chairs and I sat down next to him, not entirely knowing how to start.

“Um,” I said quietly. “I’m so sorry.”

“What did you do?” he asked, looking over at me. “I mean, what did you do?”

“It got really out of hand,” I admitted. “I was drinking a little and Ceradi was trying to shove me upstairs with this guy and I was overwhelmed. I didn’t want to go and she thought it was because I was still hooked on you and you’d been stolen by Aria. She said she’d help me get revenge.” I stopped there. “I can’t blame it on her. I told her where to go, I convinced Aria to come. This is totally on me. I didn’t know that she was going to start that whole fight, but that’s no excuse. This is my fault. I admit that.”

“Why?” Tristan asked breathlessly. “Aria’s such a good person and she’s never done anything to you but try and be your friend. How could you do this to her?”

“Because…” Tears filled my eyes and I was irritated that I was going to get hysterical, but there was nothing I could do. “Because I don’t like her. She came into your life and you’re crazy about her. And Arden’s crazy