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Her brows raise.

“Is that a yes?”

I don't hesitate, nodding vigorously. I might wake up any second now, and realize this was some dream, so I'm not looking to waste time.

Kara leans in to place a soft kiss on my cheek. Her hot breath on my face sends a shiver down my spine.

“Great,” she whispers. Then, when she backs away, “Are you ready to head out?”

I nod again, still not sure how to use my words properly.

We step outside, hit by the cool fresh air of an early evening.

“Did you just say that to piss her off?”

“I mean… that was a plus,” Kara admits as we approach the car.

“So… no?” I ask, needing confirmation.

“I might be a bitch, but no. I’m not enough of a bitch to ask you to be my girlfriend just to piss someone else off.”

It's nice to hear her say it.

35

Islowly open my eyes. Confusion is the first emotion to break through my sleeping mind. Then my heart rate picks up, my blood starts to boil. Oh, this too familiar feeling that I had assumed wasn’t coming back.

I sat up in bed so quickly that it made me lightheaded. One glance to my nightstand, and the shaking photo frame made me not care.

“Oh, no you don’t!” I yell, sure I’m the only one that can hear me.

Before I know it, I’m running out my door. I don’t even throw my slippers on, and all I’m wearing is an oversized shirt and my underwear.

I aggressively bang on her door, seven times before it opens before me.

“You are not pulling this again. You can’t just—“ I’m stopped short by the realization that she’s laughing at me. Deep, uncontrollable laughter that has her hunched over with onehand on her knee and the other in a fist in front of her open mouth. “What the fuck?” I ask, but some of my anger has turned into astonishment, causing the words to sound less hostile.

She can’t stop laughing long enough to answer me. Between shaking her head, and fanning her face, she’s really going through it with this laugh.

And I let go of an even bigger piece of that anger because… her laugh is the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard, and it’s so rare. Maybe she chuckles at my sarcasm here and there, or I receive a titter in return for my bad jokes. I’m smiling before I can stop myself, aware that I should stop myself.

Her music is still going, and my body still aches to be in my bed asleep right now.

“You evil woman, why are you laughing right now?”

She fans her face, an attempt to dry the tears that her laughter caused.

“It’s just like old times,” she says in a high pitched, amused voice. Then she surprises me by invading my space and wrapping her arms around me. I don’t waste a single second returning the hug, and enjoying the way she feels in my arms. “I called you, but your phone must have been on silent. This was the only other way I could think to get you over here.”

I slightly shake my head, and I know she feels it while my face is buried in her neck.

“I am not a fan of your methods.” I place a kiss to her smooth skin. “But I’m here. What’s up?”

She pulls out of our embrace to take my hand and pull me inside. She walks backwards, her gaze locked on mine while she goes, a smile still pulling at her lips. She outstretches a hand to hit the power button on the speaker that has been used to torture me way too many times.

“I just didn’t want to sleep alone.”

Something about that sentence, that small piece of vulnerability that I didn’t have to fight tooth and nail for… it’s everything to me. I pull her closer again, and press my mouth to hers sweetly.