Day and Night

Ch. 17 Let her go

“I know, Wes. I love you, too, but I don’t know if it’s enough. Things were great with us, but you’ve always been more of my best friend than my boyfriend. We were the same age and we were already so close it just seemed logical to date, but maybe we’re better as friends. I hope that we still can be,” I tell him honestly.

“Of course we can. You’ll always be family,” he says with a smile. This is when I know that everything between us is going to be alright. Things might be weird for awhile, but we’ll make it and I love him for that.

Wes and I continue to talk for awhile after this. It’s been so long since we’ve had a real conversation and it’s just so easy to slip back into the way things used to be. The only difference is that we make sure to keep any relationship stuff out of it. We are strictly friends from this point on and we’re both okay with that. The best part is that we can still talk about things that happened without it being weird.

“Do you remember the first time we kissed?” I ask him as we laugh at old memories. This one would be the one I would always remember most and I wondered whether he would too.

“Sure. It was in my tree house when we were twelve. You had just eaten a grape popsicle and your lips were still purple,” he laughs and I frown at him.

“No, that was after we were already dating. Our first kiss was when I was nine. Don’t you remember? You told me that you were going to marry me one day and then Dace came out and asked me to come watch a movie with him,” I remind him and this time he frowns at me.

“I know I’m not the best with memories, but I definitely don’t remember that happening. Besides Dace never watched movies with you, remember? You used to beg and beg him, but he always refused. I used to watch them with you, though. Peter Pan was your favorite,” he says and I just stare at him in disbelief. He couldn’t actually be telling me the memory I had always prized the most wasn’t actually real, right? He seemed completely earnest, though, and I could tell he wasn’t messing with me.

“But then how…? I definitely remember it happening! Unless…,” I trail off, feeling very confused. I examine the memory in my head, trying to fit together all the pieces. Something is off, though. Now that Wesley said it wasn’t him I can’t picture his face as the one that leaned in to kiss me. Instead I can only see…Dace.

“Unless it was Dace,” I say in the barest of whispers. How could have I remembered something so important so wrong? It was always supposed to be Dace. Even all the way back then.

“Are you saying that Dace kissed you?” Wes demands and I roll my eyes.

“Does it really matter? I was nine,” I reply. It does matter, though. At least to me. Staring at Wesley, I know that he is the only thing truly standing in between me and Dace. He might not even be angry, but Dace wouldn’t do it regardless. So, maybe I should.

“Wes?” I start and he nods for me to go on. “We’re friends, right? No matter what?”

“Why? What’s going on. Ivy?” he asks.

“Just promise me? Please?” I beg.

“Okay, yeah. I promise. Now, spit it out,” Wes replies and I take in a lungful of air before proceeding.

“I think I’m in love with your brother,” I say using only a single breath to get the words out and then add just in case he didn’t fully understand, “With Dace.”

There is no reaction whatsoever to the words. He just stares at me without saying a word. He could be made of stone with the amount of emotion he’s showing, which is none.

“I’m gonna kill him,” he says finally.

“What? No!” I protest as he stands up and tries to walk towards the door to go inside. I throw my arms around his legs and tightly hold them together so that he can’t walk any further. “Wait! He doesn’t even know!”