(That title right there ^^^ is awesome. Would you read a book with that title?)
Speaking of books, I published the new book, the one i was talking about a while ago, earlier today. Really appreciate it if you'd check it out! Just head on over to my profile and you'll find it there. Do you think we can get it as popular as this one?
Speaking of popularity (sorry) 24K reads, over 700 votes, and over 1K comments! All of you guys are awesome and I love each and every one of you <3<3
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"Cass," Dad says seriously from where he's sitting at the dining room table across from me, our arms resting on the table in a similar manner.
He's already talked to Aaron, and when Aaron came up to my room to tell me Dad wanted to talk to me, he had a traumatized look on his face. He had also taken the opportunity to wrap me in a tight hug, his face buried in my neck.
I shake my head slightly to remove myself from thoughts about Aaron, remembering where I am and what I'm supposed to be doing.
"Dad," I reply.
His eyes twitches.
I really need to stop doing that; apparently, it's irritating. Well, not to me, but it irritated Kyle enough to the point where he broke my fucking leg, so...yeah, maybe I should stop.
Dad clears his throat and I remove myself from my thoughts to focus my attention back on him.
"Cass," he says again, in the same serious tone. "You're eighteen now, and that means that you have matured into a young lady." He pauses, obviously assuming I know where he's trying to go with this.
Doesn't he know I'm an idiot?
"A very beautiful young lady," he prompts after I raise my eyebrows.
I barely hold in my scoff.
"Alright, Dad, thanks for the compliment, I guess. Can I go now?"
"As you are a beautiful young lady," he continues, as if I'd never spoken. "And you are more mature than you were a couple of years ago, I have deemed it the appropriate time to have the talk with you."
What the fuck is the talk?
Dad gives me a meaningful look from across the table and my face pales.
Oh. That talk.
"Ew, Dad," I say, my face scrunched up in disgust. "I'm not doing anything like that for you to be giving me the talk."
Technically, I'm lying, but technically I'm not. Making out doesn't count as baby-making does it?
He holds up a hand, silencing me. "I've already talked to Aaron about this, and he's over at his house while his parents are giving him their expectations."
"Dad," I groan, dropping my face into my hands as I'm overcome with embarrassment. "Please don't."
I'm ignored, just like I thought I'd be.
"Do you know how to put a condom on a male's appendage?"
A series of fake gags leave my mouth.
Why is this happening to me?
And why do I want to cry?
"No, Dad, I do not."
What kind of question is that?
I feel myself shudder in disgust, and Dad stares off into space, thinking.
His eyes shift back to mine. "I'll call Aaron back over here and he can help show you."
"Dad!"
"What?" he asks, his voice screaming innocence.
"I do not want to see Aaron's dick," I yell, something I immediately regret when I hear Mom's yell from the kitchen.
"Swear jar."
Motherfucking shit.
I push back from the table with a huff and grab my crutches so I can go up to my room and find a dollar.
Honestly, this swear jar crap needs to stop.
Wait...
"Mother," I yell excitedly.
She doesn't come and I sigh.
"Mom," I say, my voice quieter, and she comes around the corner, wiping her hands on a washcloth.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"It's only fifty cents."
I'm doing a happy dance in my head right now because I'm so fucking happy.
I'm elated.
I totally forgot about the whole reason I started wearing the clothes Gracie wanted me to, and it seems Mom did too, because she says something I never thought I'd hear her say.
"Damn it!"
My mouth drops.
"You-I-what?"
Mom stares at me in confusion, but realization crosses her face, followed by horror as she slaps a hand to her mouth.
She briefly moves her hand away to apologise, but that is not what comes out of her mouth.
"Fuck."
What in the fucking world is happening?
Mom doesn't curse; that's literally the whole reason she started the swear jar thing.
Hell, neither one of my parents curse, probably because they're trying to break me out of it.
I put a hand to my forehead. "I am so confused right now."
Nobody says anything, so, of course, I have to say something.
"I'm not mad, Mom." I pause, then decided I'm going to pull a Dad on her. "Just disappointed."
Dad honestly sucks with his little tricks to get me to fess up to something and make me feel guilty.
The mean person in question bursts out laughing and stands up from the table to wrap Mom in a hug, burying her face into his chest as he softly strokes her hair.
That's so sweet.
Gag.
"Please remind me why we wanted kids," Mom says, her voice muffled.
Dad laughs again and presses a kiss to the top of her head, his arms still around her.
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I can't look at my bed.
Every time I do, I just see what Aaron and I did, and heat flashes through me, my face heating up in the process.
Thoughts of my wonderful, comfortable bed are forever tainted with his memory.
Normally, I wouldn't be complaining, but I'm trying to take a nap, and I can't if all I can fucking think about is Aaron.
My brain kicks into overdrive at the one small and insignificant thought of him, magnifying it until he's all I can think about, and it takes thinking about a random song to get him out of my head.
He's just so...captivating.
A knock on my door causes me to look up away from my bed, and I walk over to it with a sigh.
As I'm walking closer, another knock sounds, and I realize it's not coming from my bedroom door.
It's coming from my balcony doors.
I turn and my eyes meet Aaron's smiling green ones.
A grin instantly appears on my face, but I realize what I'm doing and force my mouth back into a neutral line.
Aaron smirks at me from the other side of the glass, and he places a hand against his chest, feigning hurt, when I flip him off.
I stick my tongue out at him and walk back to my bed-trying to push away the dirty thoughts racing through my head.
It doesn't completely work.
Damn him and his effect on my brain.
My phone vibrates from where it rests on my bed, and I peek at the screen.
Call from 'Love That Ass'.
His contact picture is a picture of SpongeBob.
Don't ask me. I don't know either.
I pick it up and hit the answer button, and Aaron's voice fills my ear.
"Open the door, Cassie."
I turn around to face my balcony and shrug. "Sorry." I nod down to my broken-but healing-leg. "I can't walk."
"You have your crutches, Cassie," he says, shooting me an emotionless look.
Shit, I do.
An idea forms in my mind.
I sit down on my bed, and throw my crutches across the room. They hit the wall, and I smile in satisfaction.
"No I don't," i say happily into the phone, my grin broadening when Aaron glares at me.
He sighs and shakes his head. "I didn't want to do this, Cassie, but you leave me no choice."
And with that he drops to his knees and starts to pick the lock.
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Aaron, as I've already figured out, is a huge cuddler.
He likes to be pressed right up against me, his face in my neck as his arms are wrapped around me, my face pressed into his hard-but, somehow, still comfortable-chest.
"I can't believe you picked the lock," I say, my voice coming out muffled. "How the fuck did you even learn to do that?"
I feel his body move as he shrugs. "I looked it up. Autumn used to get upset if I went in her room without asking, and she locked the door." I know he's smirking because I can feel his lips move against my neck. "I did it to piss her off, mostly. But also because I thought it could be useful later on. And would you look at that," he says, snuggling closer. "It was."
I want to roll my eyes, but his warmth distracts me. That, and the feel of his muscles.
"Cassie?" comes his soft voice as I start to drift off into to sleep.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think you'd want kids?"
My brain recognizes it's way too early to be having this conversation-to be thinking about it-but the drowsiness overtaking me and the exhaustion running through me prevents me from voicing that opinion.
Instead, I give him the other answer, the one I should probably not be giving out.
"Yeah," I whisper.
I've always wanted kids, along with the lasting relationship that comes with it.
I want what my parents have, and I want it with everything in me.
And I want it with Aaron.
A vision of him chasing me and a little girl around a dining room table, all of us with smiles on our faces as our little girl lets out adorable giggles flits through my head in the span of a second.
The scene switches to one of me watching Aaron throw a football around with a little boy that looks just like him, and the little girl from before comes running forward to wrap herself around Aaron's legs.
It switches to me and Aaron standing in the doorway of a room, my head on his shoulder as we watch two little bodies sleeping soundly.
I can see the rest of my life with him, the rest of our lives together, and I want it.
So much.
And then the scenes playing out in my head stops and I'm back in reality.
And it's because Aaron's not pressed against me anymore.
I sit up and see him pacing in front of my TV.
"I need to tell you something," he says, chancing a brief glance at me before he looks away, his eyes trained on his feet once again. "And you might not feel the same way yet, and you might not ever feel the same, but people keep telling me I need to tell you how I feel, so I am." He pauses, stopping in his tracks, panic briefly flashing across his face. "And I get you aren't the best with feelings, but...just don't freak out, okay?"
I nod, thinking I have an idea of where this is going, and Aaron nods back, taking a deep breath, like he's gathering his courage.
I don't know why; I'm not that scary.
He stops pacing and faces me, opening his mouth, but he falters, his eyes squeezing shut.
I watch him in worry. "Aaron?"
His eyes snap open and he takes in my worried expression. That seems to restore his courage, because his chest puffs back up and takes steps towards me until he's kneeling in front of me-the same way he was earlier today.
It causes my heart to start beating harder against my chest, even though I know this situation is not going to end the same way the other one did.
A girl can dream, though.
He cups my face in between his hands, tilting it until we're staring into each other's eyes.
Even though I know he's trying his hardest to hide it, trying his hardest to appear calm and confident, I can see the smallest gimmer of fear in his eyes.
He can't be that scared to tell me, right?
The worried look is back on my face.
I know I'm mean to him, but I'm mean to him in the way I'm not mean to other people.
I'm mean to people I don't like, yes, but I'm also mean to people I do like; the only difference is I tease the people I like, while I'm straight up mean to people I don't.
"I love you," he says, his voice soft.
My heart stops as I look into his eyes.
"I love you, Cassie," he repeats, firmer and a bit louder this time. "I love your smile, and your donkey laugh-" Rude. "-and your eyes, and the way you look at me, and the way you always look towards me when you laugh. I love it all. I'm in love with it all. I'm in love with you." He needs to stop talking before I start to cry. "I'm in love with how needy you are when you're sick, I'm in love with the things you would do for the people you love, I'm in love with how strong of a person you are, I'm in love with the way you look up at the stars at night, like they're your everything. I'm in love with everything about you, and I'm in love with you. Whether you're being mean or nice, whether you're wearing sweatpants or a dress. I'm in love with you, and I always will be."
Tears are falling from my eyes and he's wiping them away with the pads of his thumbs, and he's looking at me with a look in his eyes that I've seen before.
It tells me that everything he's saying is true, that he's in love with me.
And I'm in love with him too.
But I can't get the words past my lips.
I try. I open my mouth and will them to come out but they won't.
I've said the words before, but the last time I did, I ended up getting hurt in the worst way possible. And I don't want Aaron to hurt me.
Aaron misunderstands my inability to speak as me not feeling the same, because his face falls and he starts to pull away.
But I'm not having it.
I leap forward and press my lips to his, trying to convey what I feel but can't say, pouring everything I have into this kiss.
He kisses me back, and when we finally break away, he rests his forehead on mine with his eyes open, a blinding grin on his face.
I night not have said it, but he knows.
Thank God.
He's always so oblivious.
"You sure?" he asks, and, without asking him to clarify, I know he's talking about what the kids meant, whether or not I actually love him.
I nod my head slightly. "I'm sure."
His eyes flood with unrestrained happiness and joy, and he pulls me up from the bed, taking me with him as he stands up, spinning around with me in his arms.
He stops, and we're both standing, and I feel warmer inside, warmer than I've been for a long time.
And I know, without a doubt, that the rest of my life is going to be spent with Aaron.
And it's going to be great.
"Are you kids using protection in there?" says a deep voice through the door, a voice that I recognize to be my father's.
"Dad," comes my groan.
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I originally wasn't going to update today, mostly because I wanted to wait until Friday, but I changed my mind.
Overnight (i think) this book jumped from 18K to 20K, and I really appreciate that. What I'm more focused on is the amount of messages I got, messages from people who asked me to please update.
They told me they read the whole book in under four hours, or under three, or under two, and they really wanted me to update because they wanted to know what happened next.
To everyone out there that did that, know that I love you all. This chapter was for you.
I may or may not update tomorrow. We'll see.
Also, someone brought two things to my attention. One was that in chapter twenty-six or something, and every subsequent chapter after that, I keep saying that we're so close to the end, and then there's twenty chapters and the book's still not completed. Oops.
The other thing was that it's been 42 chapters, and they haven't even confessed their feelings for one another. Again, oops. I swear I didn't mean for it to take this long; things just kept popping up in the story that would be important for later and their whole feelings thing ended up being delayed until now.
Clarification: I've never confessed my love to anyone nor had someone else declare their love for me, so I'm sorry if this was a bit unrealistic.
Anyways, thank all of you so much for reading! We're so close to the end (for real this time) and I cannot wait until the book ends and I can upload the bonus chapters I have written (yes, they're already written; I'm weird like that).
That's it for me. Bye!
--Rose
P.S. Start thinking about things you want to see happen between Aaron and Cassie, or any other two characters, or even anything at all you want to see and tell me what it is. I'll try and write it.
Also (sorry I'm almost done), my next book should be out within the next week or two, no later than Valentine's Day, for those of you interested.
Bye, for real!
Wait, no, sorry. I need a new title and cover for this book (Aaron wasn't really portrayed as a player in this which was my fault but yeah he's an ass in the rewritten version but I still want to change the title and cover so there's something distinguishably different between the original and rewritten versions, you know?) so if you know anybody that you think would be willing to do this for me or you do stuff like this yourself, please contact me.
Now I'm done.