Songs for this chapter:
• my hair - Ariana Grande
• EX - Kiana Ledé
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Two:
Bryce's POV
My eyes open to find Blossom staring directly down at me, hazel eyes huge as saucers.
I nearly jump out of my skin.
"Jesus Christ, woman. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I mutter, squeezing my eyes shut.
Blossom giggles. She's seated on my abdomen, both of us still entirely nude, and she reaches up with both hands to tousle the hair at the top of my head. "You're so dramatic. You're not going to have a heart attack at twenty-three."
My hands reach out for her now, settling on her hips. I stroke one of my thumbs in a small circle against her soft skin, and she shivers.
I smile a little. "I feel like the music industry has aged me ten times quicker than normal, babe."
She frowns, and I watch a crease form between her eyebrows. "Don't talk like that. You're young and healthy and we are going to have a long, happy life together."
My smile dissipates at the sudden emotion in her eyes, the emotion I can hear clogging her throat as she speaks. "I was just teasing, Blossom. We are going to have the very best life together. I pinky promise."
When I hold up my fist and extend my pinky finger towards her, she loops her finger through mine without a moment of hesitation.
I chuckle and pull her hand to my face, where I press a gentle kiss to the back of her hand. "How long have you been awake, my girl? You never wake up before me."
"Not very long," she whispers. Her smile is shy, and her eyes leave mine. "I was trying to wake you up. I thought that maybe if I stared really, really hard right at you, I could will you awake. I think it maybe worked."
I can't help the burst of laughter that escapes me. "You're such a dork."
She beams, clearly very satisfied with herself, and snuggles up on top of my chest. I tuck her head underneath my chin and snuggle her close.
"You've done so much for me over these past few days, Bryce. Thank you. I think it's my turn to do something for you now, though. You stay here and relax and I am going to go downstairs and make us breakfast. I'll bring it up and we can eat in bed together," she whispers to me. Her small, soft hands are gently stroking my biceps as she speaks, and all I can do is press my head back into the pillow and breathe deeply to calm my racing heart.
"If you keep touching me like that, you won't be leaving this bed for another three days," I hiss.
Blossom giggles, and in one fluid motion she's rolled off of me and is now standing beside the bed. Her hand ruffles my hair, and with a quick peck to my nose, she spins around and disappears into my bathroom.
Since she didn't bother to close the door, I watch as she rummages through my drawers. She lets out a little victorious noise from the back of her throat when she finally locates a small grey face towel, and I watch her with a small smile as she dampens the towel with warm water and begins to wipe between her legs with a small wince.
"I usually do that for you. I was tired last night. I'm sorry," I say, rolling over onto my side and propping my head up with my hand so that I can have a better view of my girl.
She glances down at the towel before bundling it up in her fist. "It's okay. Yesterday was a really long day. We flew into the city, went to the hospital, had a date night, and then stayed up late. I was tired too. Don't worry, though. I can handle it myself."
"I know you can, baby. But I made the mess, so I should clean it up," I say. I can't help but to smile as she furrows her eyebrows and stares at the towel in her hand, not quite sure what to do with it. "Just leave it in one of the sinks," I tell her. "I'll toss it in the laundry machine. I need to do some laundry later anyway."
I watch intently as Blossom brushes her teeth, washes her face, and runs a brush through her hair. The soft waves become frizzy, and as she stares at her reflection in the mirror, she lets out an aggravated huff.
"I'll braid it for you," I offer. "Just come back to bed."
She scoffs. "If I get back in that bed, I won't be able to walk in an hour's time."
I grin and shut my eyes for a moment. "That's my specialty, angel."
With a tender smile, Blossom takes a few steps away from the sink and towards me. She pauses just behind the doorway, and I watch as she reaches with one hand to begin closing the door.
I jerk upright in bed. "Hey! Why are you doing that?"
Blossom crinkles her nose. "I have to pee. Don't be gross."
I raise an eyebrow. "How am I being gross? I have all sorts of your bodily fluids in my mouth all the time, but you really think that being able to hear the sound of you p—"
Blossom slams the door shut.
🌸🌸🌸
"Your birthday is in a few days, isn't it Lex?"
I pause just at the bottom of the staircase. The voice that spoke was male, coming from the kitchen, and the idea of some man entering the house and cornering Blossom in the kitchen fills me with a sudden inexplicable rage.
I storm down the hallway, face heated with anger and anxiety. Blossom is speaking now, and I can hear her say, "Yes. It's on the thirteenth. I doubt I'll do anything special for it, since my dad is still in the hospital. Twenty-three isn't usually a big birthday, but it marks ten years since me and Bryce kissed for the first time, which I think was the moment I realized that I'm in love with him, so it means a lot to—"
Blossom cuts herself off as I burst into the kitchen, hands clenched into fists at my sides. "Who the hell is in here?"
Blossom is standing behind the stove, cracking eggs into a steaming hot pan. A cutting board is beside the stove, and a stack of uncut fruit is piled on top of it. I can faintly smell the scent of coffee, and when I look over Blossom's shoulder I can see that she's turned on the coffee pot.
At my appearance, she tosses the last eggshell into the compost and turns to look at me.
Her eyes immediately widen, big and brown in the centre of her face. She's tied her long hair into a knot at the nape of her neck, but a few strands have fallen free and I want so badly to reach out and tuck them behind her ears.
After she had finished in the bathroom, she disappeared into my closet and emerged wearing a pair of atrocious blue plaid boxers that never should have been allowed into my home and a tiny, nearly-sheer white tank top that is leaving very little left to the imagination.
She's still wearing this, and only this, as she stands in front of the stove. I watch in fascination as her nipples pebble under the thin fabric.
"Naughty girl," I mutter just as another male voice, different from earlier says, "Little one? Hello?"
British. And, judging by the nickname, Knox.
My eyes scan the room to find no one here but Blossom and I. It's then that I notice Blossom's phone propped upright against the paper towel roll, and I can only assume that she must be speaking to Knox and the other guy through a video call.
Relief washes through me at the realization that no one else is in here with her other than me. The fear and frustration drain from my body and I feel all my muscles relax as I lean a shoulder against the doorway to the kitchen and fold my arms across my chest.
I nod my head towards the phone and give her my best smile. "Shouldn't you be responding to Knox, Blossom? Isn't that the polite thing to do?"
She continues to stare at me, transfixed. I watch as her hands lift from her sides and instead settle on her smooth stomach, where her fingers begin to flutter nervously. I can see in her eyes how badly she wants to touch me, and the feeling is certainly mutual. If it weren't for her friends on the other side of the phone, I would've had her in my arms ages ago.
"Did I just hear Bryce in the background? Bryce? Hello?" the voice that isn't Knox's says. I'm now able to recognize that it's almost certainly Malcolm's voice.
"Yeah, it's me," I call out, hopefully loud enough for them to hear me from where I'm still planted across the kitchen from Blossom. Her fingers have stopped fluttering, but there's still an indescribable dreamy look in her eyes that compels me to say, quietly this time, "Can I come over there, or are you going to pass out if I get within a metre radius of you?"
Blossom, blinking slowly, nods her head at me. I push out of the doorway and walk around the massive marble island towards her and the stove, where I come up behind her tiny body and wrap my arms around her waist. Over her head, I can now see Knox and Malcolm on Blossom's phone screen. They're sitting together on the couch in Blossom's living room, and I notice Blossom's cat curled up on Knox's shoulder.
Knox's eyes crinkle at the corners when he sees me. "Hey, mate. How are you doing? I heard about what happened."
I nuzzle my cheek into Blossom's hair and smile down at the screen. "Hey, Knox. I'm holding up pretty well. Waking up in the hospital to the sound of your family crying is a really shitty feeling, but this angel has helped me through it even though she has her own demons she's being forced to face right now."
Blossom tilts her head back to look at me. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do for the people you love?"
Knox adjusts the angle of the camera, and James enters the frame as he throws himself down onto the couch beside Malcolm. He rolls his eyes as James ruffles Malcolm's hair before turning back to face the camera and saying, "Have you guys figured stuff out yet? About the two of you?"
Blossom relaxes back into my chest. "Yeah. I think we have. There's so much else going on right now, so we're going to take things slow. I love him and he loves me, and that's all that matters right now."
I can't help but to grin at her words. Leaning in close enough that my lips brush the shell of her ear, I murmur, "You consider all that dirty, dirty sex we had last night to be 'taking things slow?'"
Blossom blanches, and in the blink of an eye she snatches her phone off the countertop and zips around to the other side of the island, where she pulls out a barstool and takes a seat.
I gesture at the eggs on the stove, the unsliced fruit beside it. "You like burnt eggs and unpeeled bananas?"
She cocks her head to the side. "I think you can handle that. You should pop some bread in the toaster while you're at it."
I wrinkle my nose at her. "I thought this was supposed to be a nice gesture for your boyfriend."
She beams at me. "Isn't my presence nice enough?"
I chuckle and begin to rinse off the berries Blossom had placed on the cutting board earlier as she goes back to speaking with her friends.
🌸🌸🌸
"Do you want me to walk you inside? I can't stay, but I can walk you up to your dad," I offer to Blossom.
Her and I are sitting in my red truck, parked underground in the hospital parking garage. After her and I finished our breakfast of slightly-burnt fried eggs—she was distracted talking to Knox and her roommates and I was distracted watching her mouth move as she spoke—I persuaded her to take a quick, steaming hot shower with me. By some goddamn miracle, I was able to keep my hands to myself as I washed Blossom's hair and body, towelled her off, and then got us both dressed in sweatpants and sweatshirts of mine.
And now we're siting here, Blossom in the passenger seat beside me, and she's staring at me with these huge brown eyes. There are so many different emotions reflected back at me that I can't even begin to decipher how she must be feeling right now.
I tried to persuade her to stay at home with me today, since I think Kathleen was right to say that Blossom needs a break from all this hell going on in her life, but she didn't listen to my advice and instead insisted I drive her to the hospital to be with her family.
I, of course, am absolutely shit at saying no to her, and so here we are.
"I would very much like if you walked me in, please," she says in that soft, timid voice of hers that she hasn't used with me in awhile.
I smile and lean in to brush a strand of hair out of her face. I offered to blow dry it for her after our shower, but she declined, and so the strands are still hanging in slightly damp waves. "Of course, sweetheart. Are you ready to head inside?"
She gives me a small smile accompanied by an enthusiastic nod of her head, and so I unlock the doors of the truck with a loud click.
Blossom lifts one dainty hand towards the door handle, and I watch as light glints off of the ring of my name that she still wears on her ring finger since her promise ring is still hanging from a chain around my neck.
And then, she says something so bizarre that I never could have expected it:
"Was I the first girl to ever give you a blowjob?"
I choke on my own saliva and end up sputtering like an idiot. In my peripheral vision, I see Blossom's hand lower from the door as she furrows her brow and relaxes back into her seat.
When I'm finally able to stop coughing, I hiss, "What makes you ask that?"
Blossom lifts one shoulder in a delicate shrug. "Since you had had sex with so many girls, I just assumed you were experienced with everything and that there was nothing you hadn't done before. But then you told me that you always had sex with them in a very specific way, right? From behind, no touching, no eye contact. That means that I was your first for way more things than you like me to believe."
I can't help but to snort as I lean my head back and shut my eyes. "I knew you had never done anything before, and I didn't want you to be nervous. I figured it would help your nerves if you thought at least one of had a clue what we were doing."
When I open my eyes, I see Blossom shoot up in her seat. Her eyes are sparkling. "So for those first few times, you were just totally bluffing, weren't you?"
At this, I can't help but to chuckle. "I was also bluffing when I said I knew how to choke you that first time when I said I had done it with other girls. Trust me, I never did anything like that before you. I knew I wouldn't hurt you, and I just wanted you to believe me."
Blossom giggles to herself. "You've always been so good at everything. I never would've guessed it was your first time doing all those things if you hadn't given it away."
I snort and reach for the door handle. "It's always been easy with you. It feels so natural, and so right. You're very responsive, too. I always can tell when you like something."
Over my shoulder, I see Blossom's cheeks flush pink, and so I push open my door and step out of the truck. I walk around the front to Blossom's side, and I open up her door for her.
She slides out of the truck and drops to her feet on the ground beside me. I slam the door shut and then lock the truck with the press of a button on the key fob.
I hold out my hand for her, and she slips her fingers through mine. We begin to walk towards the elevator on the far side of the parking garage when I can't help but to ask her, "What made you think about blowjobs? Did you just want the satisfaction of knowing you're the only girl who's had my cock in her mouth?"
Blossom freezes in place with a squeak, effectively pulling me to a halt beside her. "Bryce!" she hisses. "You can't speak like that in public!"
I quickly kiss her hair. "Why? 'Cause it gets you all hot and bothered? That's your problem, not mine." I glance around the parking garage, just to be certain. It's empty. "We're the only ones here, honey. Just answer my question."
Blossom's eyes are trained on our feet, on our matching Converse. Her eyes don't meet mine, but she reaches out with her free hand and clasps mine so that all four of our hands are joined together in some way.
"I was just thinking that . . . that I probably won't be able to do it again for you anytime soon. Because of Liam. So if that's a dealbreaker for you, I just want to make sure that—"
I cut her off with a stern look. "No. Don't talk like that. I love you, Blossom. So much. I want to be with you no matter what. Even if you never wanted to have sex ever again, I would still want to be with you. I promise."
Finally, she makes proper eye contact with me. I see a sadness in her gaze that I wish I could take away. "You deserve the world," she whispers to me. "And I want to make sure you have everything you ever want. If there's something that I can't give you, I understand if you don't want to settle for me. For less than you deserve."
This time, her words make me physically wince.
I drop her hands. "Don't you dare talk like that. I am not settling for you. I am beyond blessed to have you. I wake up every day and am grateful that you're giving me one last chance to prove myself to you."
I take both her hands between mine and raise them up to my mouth. I press a single kiss to each one of her knuckles. "I am yours, Blossom. Always. And I promise you that no matter what shit happens in our lives, no matter what you go through, I am always there for you. Always. Do you understand?"
Blossom's eyes are full of tears, and I watch her try to blink the moisture away as she nods her head at me.
I beam at her. "Perfect. I love you, habibti. So much."
I drop her hands from mine, and the very moment I do, she launches herself into my arms. I laugh and lift her up, letting her hook her legs around my waist before I spin her around in a circle.
"And I love you, Bryce. So much," she whispers back to me, fingernails and heels digging into me as she holds on tight.
I know she wants to go up to see her dad, but I also know that she's overwhelmed. Even though I've known her all these years, I think that I'm finally starting to understand how easily her brain can become overstimulated. I can understand why parties have always been so hard for her, why she gets so freaked out whenever I take her to a club at night.
I'm beginning to wonder if, perhaps, her and I have more in common than I thought. Maybe our mental health struggles are almost completely aligned, and even though we experienced very different types of trauma, maybe it has affected us in almost an identical way.
Because of this, I hold her in the silence of the parking garage. I decide to let her choose when she's ready to face the world again.
A/N: I know a lot of you wanted a Knox scene before the end of the book, and since Lexi and Bryce won't be back in NYC before the book concludes, this is the best I can do for you <3
Today is my last day of Christmas break which sort of makes me want to cry, but I really wanted to finish this chapter for you before I go back since I probably won't be able to finish another chapter before I have exams at the end of the month.
There are only a few chapters left but I'm super excited about the next project I'll be working on and so I really hope you guys will stick around for it too :)