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

said. “It doesn’t matter. In fact, people are just born this way. Just like you have blond hair and rare purple eyes, I like women instead of men. It’s normal. No more in my control than my unfortunate height.”

Willow finally cracked a smile at that. “Really?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by people who try very, very hard to change what they shouldn’t be tinkering with. I’ll tell you something.” I flicked a couple of Willow’s tears away and looked right into her eyes. “You believe god created everything exactly as he intended.”

Willow nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then how could we be born wrong?” I said. “Something that I feel deep, from within my core. Something that I know I can’t change, and wouldn’t want to even if I could. Would god give me something like that if it was bad from the outset?”

“No.”

I winked at her. “No.”

“Are you going to see Aria?” Whitney said, speaking up for the first time. My entire family had met and rapidly fallen in love with my best friend, not that it was a shock for that living, breathing, angel. “She’s texting me, so if she’s ready a little early I may hang with her. Otherwise I’ll see her at school.”

“Can we go out to lunch with her again this weekend?” Whitney said. “Maybe…” A blush rose to her cheeks. “Maybe Tristan can come too?”

“He’s dating Aria,” Willow hissed.

“I didn’t say anything!” Whitney squeaked.

I just laughed at them. “You know I’m always down for some sisterly bonding, it’s whether we can get around the wardens that is the issue,” I responded.

Willow shrugged. “I’ll tell them we’re hanging out with some of our church friends.”

I fake cried and put a hand on Willow’s shoulder. “You’ve become such a good manipulator.” I wiped away fake tears. “I have nothing left to teach you.”

“Weirdo,” Willow said.

“Feeling better?” I asked.

Willow nodded. “Yeah. You’re really strong, Arden.”

“People keep telling me that,” I said. “I’m not sure that I see it, but thanks.” I ruffled her head, then reached behind her and pinched Whitney’s cheek. “Love you two. Be good at school, alright. Education is a farce, but necessary. At least—”

“Make it worth it,” they both finished the statement.

“Love you too,” Willow said, and Whitney nodded behind her.

I turned around, glad that at least some of my family didn’t hate me down to the bones. When I graduated high school in a few months, I was leaving that house and never coming back, but I’d still have to try and find a way to see my sisters. How my parents managed to create anything so wonderful was beyond me.

But I wasn't going to let them take everything away from me.

2

Hannah

I knew the second I woke up that I’d overslept. My phone was playing some calming, lo-fi music that had failed to wake me up, and the sun was already streaming in through the window. I sat up and stretched my arms above my head, bathing my cream skin in the rays before finally pulling back my covers and climbing out.

Just as my feet were hitting the floor, there was a knock on my door that preceded the door opening. My mom poked her head around the corner, her dark brown hair fluttering in her eyes.

“Oh, you’re awake. I didn’t hear you moving around and thought you might have overslept,” she said.

“I did, technically. I just woke up.”

My mom held up her hands. “Well, I won’t distract you then. I know that beauty takes time. Breakfast will be waiting for you when you're ready.”

“Thanks, mama,” I said with a smile, and she gave me one back before retreating from my room.

Checking the clock, I saw it was just a little past seven, which meant I only had about thirty minutes to get ready if I wanted to eat breakfast and not race through my ten minute drive to school. Fortunately, I had some idea of what I wanted to wear to school, so the bulk would just be preparing my face.

I grabbed my phone and rushed into the bathroom, noticing I had a flurry of texts, so I set my phone to read them aloud while I got ready.

First up was my makeup. It was mostly second nature by now, my concealer, my blush, my eyeliner and eyeshadow. Highlighter, lipliner and lipstick, and then I finished everything off with a spritz to hold it all in place.

“Text message from—Tristan,” my phone started as I worked. “Good morning, gorgeous. I finished the paper for history last night and sent it to you to look over. See ya at school.”I smiled, imagining my best friend’s face in spite of the robotic voice talking. “Would you like to respond?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Cool, thanks buddy. I'll see you soon!”

I glanced down at the text and made sure the speech-to-text had translated correctly, then I hit send.

“Next message,” my phone said. “Text message from—Ceradi.”

“Unexpected, but okay,” I grumbled out loud.

Though Ceradi had actually remained halfway decent to me since Tristan and me split from the popular kids’ group, she hadn’t really reached out to me. Back in the fall, my best friend and the most popular guy in the entire school, Tristan, chose the love of his life, Aria, over Ceradi and all of the popular kids. Aria was an unashamed debate nerd who wasn’t stick-thin, but rather wore her curves like trophies. Even I could admit she was stunning, and she and Tristan had a history that had them rapidly falling in love when she transferred to our school at the beginning of the year. As happy for Tristan as I was, Aria was a struggle for me.

And Ceradi knew it.

“Hey slut!” Ceradi's text began, which sounded weird coming out of my phone’s tech voice. “Just checking in to see if you’ve given up on those losers Tristan and Aria yet and are ready to come back?” My phone paused for a minute and then, “Next message from—Ceradi. I’m sure you don’t wanna talk about Tristan’s stupidity.