Page 81 of Bitter Truths
“Mom, Griff loves you and Dad, and I think this is killing him, you know?”
“Honey, Griffin made some very unfortunate choices, and I just don’t know—”
“He hasn’t made any more mistakes than the rest of us. We all did horrible things to each other, and he’s just as much a victim as I am. Please, he loves you,” I plead.
Her eyes soften, and she turns away before mumbling, “Okay, honey. Maybe.”
With a beat of hope, I smile into the universe and eat a cookie, gasping when she swats me on the arm and moves the rest out of my reach.
Chapter Twenty-Five
You left me.
HALSEY
It’s Christmas Eve, and nervously, I wait in the kitchen for Griffin to arrive. My stomach feels like a thousand butterflies are whooping it up in there, and I can’t sit still to save my life.
Mom reached out to him, and he agreed to come to dinner. And now I’m fucking on tenterhooks. This feels like the first real overture since it all began to fall apart, and I have hope in my heart that, at the least, we can come back together as friends, if nothing else.
“Hey, Mrs. Moore.” I hear Griffin’s deep voice, and my heart jumps into my throat.
Sucking in a breath, I tiptoe to the threshold of the hall and stare at his beautiful form.
“Oh Griff, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Laura?” Mom says, and he smiles.
The beauty catches in my throat, and I roll my eyes down his body, starting with his broad shoulders and beautiful arms, over his trim waist, down his legs and back, meeting his stare when I do.
He looks wonderful and terrible. His eyes are dark with fatigue, and his mouth is tight, but he smiles slightly, his eyes cautiously warm.
With a shy grin, I step into the hall as Max appears beside me. But Griffin stiffens, the joy dropping from his face before he nods rigidly, and Max smiles with empty eyes.
“Come, come, dinner’s almost ready. You can sit in the living room while I get everything served,” Mom says.
“Do you need help, Mom?” I ask, but she waves me off with a soft smile, and we all congregate in the living room.
The crazy butterflies in my stomach turn to a frenzy when Griffin sits beside me on the couch but at the opposite end. Max takes a side chair, and we commence by avoiding each other’s gazes.
I can feel Griffin’s warmth even across the distance, and my fingers tingle to touch him, my core aching at his presence. He’s my one, but this feels wrong because we’re so stiff and guarded.
“Well, this is weird,” Max says after a moment, and I chuckle.
Griffin smiles, but it’s halfhearted, and looking at my two best friends, I say softly, “I miss you both. I miss what we used to be, and I don’t know if we can ever get back there, but I’d like to try. I’d like to have my people back.”
Max gazes at me solemnly before he smiles, but it’s tentative when we both look at Griffin. His mouth is curved in a smile, but his eyes, they’re dark.
My heart sinks at that because I don’t know how to move past the rejection I sense coming.
Is it too late?
“Griff?” I ask, pressing my fingers over my wobbling lips.
His eyes soften before he takes my hand and squeezes it between his fingers, saying with a pained expression, “Of course, Hals.”
“Okay,” I say on an exhale, smiling tremulously. I’ll take it, although the warning tingle in my spine tells me I’m wishing on stars that are already dead.
“Okay,” he says before we move into the dining area and sit down to dinner with my parents.
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