Page 77 of Billionaires Don't Date Cheerleaders
“Come on, don’t tell me it wouldn’t be fun.”
“It would be fun,” I said, “which is why I’m an awful person too. Now come on.”
We got to the backyard around the same time as Finn, so Zach was luckily spared from having to be an awkward fifth wheel. Neil and Grace showed up just a few minutes later, rounding out the group nicely.
Like many times before, the night was full of laughter and stories from the boys that they had never shared in school, bouncing from their fun times on tour to reminiscing about their home lives and news their parents had sent recently.
As I cuddled up with Jude and listened to the boys talk, I felt for the first time in a while that I was home, not in the sense of where I lived, but in where I belonged: sitting next to a bonfire, surrounded by my chosen family, and laughing more than I ever had before.
Sloane@its_sloane
Not to be too sappy or anything… but I really love my life
Take Five Boyband@takefiveofficial
Not to be too sappy… but us too
[retweet]Not to be too sappy or anything… but I really love my life
epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
The boys came running off the stage, breathing heavily but smiling. Even from back here, I could hear the screaming cheers of their fans.
“How was it?” I asked Jude. I handed him a water bottle, and he chugged almost half of it before he answered it.
“Amazing. As always.” He ducked down to give me a long kiss. “Did you and Megan have fun?”
I nodded and looked over to her to see if she agreed, but she was already pressed against the wall, kissing Hudson. For a really shy girl, she seemed to have no trouble at all with PDA. I turned back to Jude.
“She’s a little preoccupied right now, but I’m sure she would agree,” I said. Jude laughed and grabbed my hand, pulling me back to his dressing room. He collapsed on the couch and pulled me down with him. I squealed in surprise as I landed heavily on top of him.
“You know, you could just ask me to lay down with you,” I said.
“I could,” he agreed. He grabbed a blanket off the floor and threw it over us haphazardly, then moved an arm behind his head to use as a pillow. “But this is faster. And much more fun.”
I giggled and shook my head. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You love me.”
“I suppose two things can be true at the same time.” I sighed and stared into his eyes for a long few moments. “I really do love you, Luca.”
He smiled and threaded his free hand through my hair. “I love it when you call me Luca, my love.”
“Luca,” I whispered again. I kiss him gently. “Luca.”
“By the way,” he said, “I meant to ask you something.”
“Oh?”
“Well, not so much me,” he said. “My mom asked me to pass a message along. Why she couldn’t just text you herself like we both know she does is a completely separate matter, but?—”
“What’d she say?” I asked with a smile.
“She was wondering if you wanted to come up to our cabin over Christmas break,” he said. “We’re going to be celebrating a few days late anyway because of everyone’s schedules, and she thought you might like to join.”
“And you?” I asked.
“Well, yes, I’d be there.”
“No,” I laughed. “I meant, do you want me there?”
“Oh, Sloane,” he murmured. “You know that if I had my way, I would never leave your side for a single second.”
A warm feeling spread through my body. I rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes. I was so happy to be here, in this moment, with him. I felt like we'd been brought together for a reason—like it wasn’t some accident or coincidence that he’d picked me on his first day of school. No, even further back than that. Like somebody had been pulling the strings that led to him picking Grace to ask a question in that Q&A and to seemy tweet about them when I hadn’t meant for him to. Like everything we’d done in the past few weeks had been leading up to this moment where I got to lie here and call him mine. All the stars in the universe aligned to allow me and Luca to be here together, cuddled under a warm blanket on a cold autumn night, as if we were meant to stay that way forever.