Time Out (Dear Lonely Guy #2) - Alison Hendricks Page 0,2

him a half-hearted smile. My heart suddenly felt heavy, and not in a good way. "Be better if you were there."

I knew I leaned on Brendan way too much. I needed to find my own way and stop relying on him all the time. It was just always nice to know he would be there to pick me back up if I fell, just like he had a hundred times before.

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere. Just because we're at different schools doesn't mean we have to stop hanging out."

"It won't be the same, though. And... things are going to change, Brendan. That's just the way it is."

I sat up, scooting to the edge of the tailgate, my legs hanging off the side. My hands came up to rub at my arms, despite the fact that it was a warm, muggy summer night.

"Change how?" he asked, sitting up right beside me.

I couldn't escape him now. This wasn't the conversation I wanted to have, but maybe these were things that needed to be said.

"You'll make new friends, man. And since you're all at the same school, it'll just be easier to hang out with them. And... shit, you'll probably finish your degree before I even figure out what I want to do with mine."

I didn't want to feel this way. I knew it made me look like some hopeless kid who couldn't stand on his own two feet without his best friend there to prop him up. But I was... afraid. Afraid Brendan would outgrow me. Afraid that if I told him how I felt about him, if I told him I loved him and couldn't bear losing him, it would just speed up that process and ruin things forever.

"Hey." He put both of his hands on my shoulders, turning me to face him. He was so close to me, thigh touching mine, our faces less than a foot apart. "Listen to me, okay?"

I swallowed hard, but nodded.

"Things are going to change. You're right. We'll both meet new people and start doing new things. But I'm never going to stop being your friend, Keith. You're never not going to be the most important person in my life."

My breath caught in my throat as I looked into his eyes. I could tell he truly believed what he was saying, and the strength of that made me want to believe it, too. It also made me want to believe that when he said I was important, he might just mean something a little deeper.

"You're important to me, too," I said, barely above a whisper, my voice trembling.

My mouth was open, I knew the words I wanted to say, but I was just too afraid to voice them. Even if this wasn't my last chance, it was the perfect opportunity, before the rest of the world interfered.

I could have easily just pulled away, hiding my blush and my racing heart from him. Instead, I reached up and touched his jaw, my fingers stroking tenderly over those patchy tufts. I searched his eyes, finding a flicker of confusion, but not disgust.

I was so close I could feel his breath warm on my lips. Looking into his eyes again, searching for any sign of resistance, I closed the distance and pressed my lips to his, committing myself to what could be the biggest mistake of my life. Or, just maybe, the start of a new life. With Brendan.

It was just a warm brush. The slightest taste of what I'd wanted for years, ever since I realized my feelings for Brendan weren't just as a friend. I was trembling the whole time, shaking like a leaf, and when I pulled back, I was so afraid of what I would see in his eyes.

The confusion was still there, churning in that sea of blue. It was like I was bearing witness to him puzzling it out in real time, trying to decide what this meant and how he felt about it. I wanted to say something, to break the tension like I always did, but I couldn't manage to get the words past my very dry throat.

Then I saw something rearrange in his expression, settling and solidifying. I didn't know what it meant until his hands moved up to my face and he pulled me to him for another kiss. This one wasn't a tentative, exploratory offering like mine was. It was a desperate clash of lips, teeth, and tongues; an explosion of passion that stole the breath from