Page 50 of Jump on Three
Delilah swiveled toward me. “What about you, love?”
A minute ago, I had wanted to go, but that had been before seeing how sad Bella still was.
A knock on the door interrupted my response. Delilah cracked it open, and Rhys’s voice cut through the room.
“He’s not going. It’s safe for the girls.”
Bella kept her arms crossed. “Sorry, I’m not in the mood to go out.”
I shook my head. “I’m going to hang with Bells. You go have fun with Rhys.”
Delilah’s lips parted into a little o. I wasn’t a hang-out girl unless she was around. Maybe I was changing.
Maybe I wanted to change.
“You’re certain?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yes. We’re good. Thank you for asking.”
She hesitated a little longer before accepting me at face value and leaving with Rhys.
I turned to Bella, who had her knees tucked under her chin. “You’re sad.”
She heaved a long sigh. “It’s really stupid. We’d only been going out a couple months. I shouldn’t have let him get to me this way, but I can’t get over it. I keep thinking about him tellin’ me I’m too much, and it cuts deep.”
“Why do you care what Felix said? He’s a coward.”
“Because I find myself wondering if he’s right, then I want to punch him in the nuts for makin’ me doubt myself.”
The hem of my shirt was twisted tight around my fist. Feelings made me nervous since I rarely got them right. But I could tell, plain as day, Bella needed me to say something—and right now.
“Well, I like you.”
Her brows twitched. “You do? I always kinda wondered…”
That stung, but it wasn’t the first time I’d heard something similar. “I’m not the best at outwardly emoting. It’s probably due to being autistic, but also because I have shitty parents who don’t really care for me and a twin who understands me without me having to say anything. But yes, I like you very, very much. I think you might be the coolest girl I’ve ever met. Definitely the most self-confident.”
“Thank you,” she rasped.
“Being as self-confident as you are is probably terrifying for an eighteen-year-old boy. For him, I think it might be easier if you came half-empty and he could be the one to fill you up, but you’re full, Bells. Brimming, really. Felix isn’t capable of handling a girl who doesn’t need him to be whole. He tore you down, and I bet he thinks he can now fix what he broke in a way that’s comfortable for him.”
My mouth had run away from me. Sometimes, it did that. I talked and talked and didn’t look at the other person until my words ran dry.
I looked at Bella.
She looked back at me with wide, wet eyes. “You…I didn’t know you paid attention like that.”
“I notice and think and wonder. It comes off as being in my own world, and sometimes I am, to be fair. But often, I’m watching how people interact. I’m sorry if it’s creepy.”
She gasped a raspy breath. “God no, Ev. There’s nothing creepy about carin’ for your friends. Why would you say that?”
“Well, I don’t just watch my friends…” I huffed a laugh. “I suppose I kind of watch strangers when I don’t realize I’m doing it.”
She unfolded herself and straightened her spine. “If I’m not too much, you’re definitely not creepy.”
“I don’t know—”
“No.” She slapped her hands on her thighs but kept her voice soft. “If you want me to believe you, you gotta believe me.”