The Pledge (41 page)

Focus, Hart.

I tugged on her hand, and she smiled as I pulled her toward the football field.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the glow we could see in the distance.

I lifted our hands to kiss the backs of her fingers. “You’ll see.”

We walked hand in hand until we reached the area of scorched earth that was filled with at least a hundred lit candles. I finally looked over at Taren to see that her eyes were bright with happy curiosity. I set down my bag and pulled out a blanket and spread it open across the grass just outside of the circle.

“What is this? Are we having a night picnic?” Taren asked, staring at the circle of candles which looked like a sea of flame. “God. How beautiful.”

“Yes, you are.” I reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. In the flickering candlelight, she looked like an angel. I would have to remember to thank Taren’s aunt Claire for helping get this ready in time.

“So what’s going on?”

“I’m re-writing history,” I told her.

“Oh really?”

I took both of her hands in mine and pulled her close to me. “Ask me to go to Homecoming, Taren.”

She tilted her head in confusion. “What?”

“I wish I had said yes when you asked me to go to Homecoming. I wish I had known myself enough then to make the choice that I wanted to make—and not the choice that everyone else expected. I didn’t know myself back then, but I do now. So, we have our own bonfire.” I gestured to the candles. “Will you ask me to go to Homecoming? I really want to say yes.”

She looked over at the candles, and I saw the moment when it registered with her that this was where I’d broken her heart and trust that awful night. She shook her head as if I was being ridiculous, but when she turned to me, her smile was brilliant. Taren bit her bottom lip before looking up at me through her lashes. “Will you go to Homecoming with me, Alec Hart?”

I was surprised at how strong my relief was and how much I needed a do over on that night.

“I thought you’d never ask.” I wrapped my arms around her back while still holding her hands. Her body arched into mine, and I bent over to claim her mouth with a kiss. “Yes. Anything you ever want. Yes,” I whispered between kisses.

She laughed. “I just want you.”

“I just want the chance to finally dance with you.” I let go of her fingers, and she reached up to wrap her hands lightly around the back of my neck. My hands found her waist. With her body pressed up against mine, we danced in the flickering light of hundreds of candles on a night of second chances.

Taren brought her hand to my cheek, and her thumb caressed my skin. “You know, as hurt as I was when you said no, now I’m glad it happened that way.”

“Why would you be glad that I hurt you?” We swayed, and I kissed her shoulder. My lips traced a path up her neck until I reached the tender skin under her ear. Taren leaned her head back and sighed. My mouth moved down the front of her throat to the neckline of her sundress.

“We weren’t ready for each other then. Now I’m stronger and so are you. I know we’ll make it through anything because we love each other.” The words were breathy, pleading for me to show her just how much I felt the same way. How much I’d changed from the boy I was in high school.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the old red piece of silk that had been through so much with us. I twined my fingers with Taren’s and then brought our hands up between us. She watched as I weaved the ribbon in and around our hands and wrists. I tangled us together so tightly that no matter what we faced in the future, we’d never fall apart from each other again.

“We’ve both made pledges that are important to us and the things we believe in, but this time, my pledge is to you. I don’t ever want you to doubt the way I feel about you.”

“I don’t doubt you.” She leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss me.

“I know, but I’m making this official. I should have said yes all those years ago. I want you to know that you will always be my yes. I promise that no matter how life might try to tear us apart, no matter how tangled things get, I will always come back to you. I promise to believe in my trust for you and not my own insecurities. I promise to always be
all in
with you. I promise to love you with every piece of my heart. Tonight, I pledge myself to you.”

Taren searched my eyes, before her gaze fell hungrily to my lips. “Pledge yourself to us.”

“To us,” I said, lifting our hands to kiss her wrist.

My lips had barely left her skin before her mouth crashed into mine. I wrapped my free arm around her, and she pushed me backward until I was sitting on the blanket. She straddled me and then kissed me so desperately I could barely catch my breath.

She finally leaned back to look at me. Her free hand roamed under my shirt until her fingers rested over my heart. “This moment is so perfect. After everything we’ve been through, this means so much.”

She brought our bound hands between us looking at the red ribbon twisted and tied around our wrists, fingers, and hands. “I love you, Alec Hart.”

“I love you more, Taren Richards.”

A wicked smile curved along her lips, and she bent over our tied hands to take one of my fingers into her mouth. She wrapped her tongue around it, sucking as she pulled back.

Holy. Shit.

“Naughty little Taren.” My words came out in a groan.

“I pledge to us, too. Always.” She kissed my fingertips and curled her body into my lap.

Taren Richards owned me, body and soul. I couldn’t think of anything else in the world I wanted more than to belong to her.

Chapter Thirty-Three

WILLIAM

Love was strange. Alec and Miss Taren loved each other for a long time, but they were afraid of it. I was afraid of lots of things.

But not love.

Love was the only thing that helped people make the right choices. I listened to people all the time. I learned a lot by sitting still.

People could be mean. They were cruel to one another. Sometimes they were cruel to me. Life would be better if they knew what was really important. Happiness and love. That was all that mattered.

I was not in love. Not yet, anyway. I loved my parents. I loved Alec. I loved Miss Taren like a friend. The love like I saw with Alec and Miss Taren? I did not have that. I wanted it, though.

I thought I might be able to love Sarah. Her Dad said no. That we were too slow.

He was wrong. Nobody was too slow to love. Everyone could love. They just needed to find the right person.

That was the hard part I think. It was like shopping for shoes. Me, I liked a black gym shoe with Velcro straps. Easy to put on and comfortable when I walked to the bus stop. I had to try on a lot of shoes before I found the ones that fit best. Some people, like Alec and Miss Taren, found their match when they were young. But sometimes when you are too young, you are not ready for that match.

I was older than those two love birds. I was ready. And waiting.

I sat on the bench and checked my digital watch. I had fifteen minutes before my bus came to take me to my apartment. I was proud that I moved out of my parent’s house. I had a roommate who did not talk much, but that was okay. I listened when he did. I wished I had more friends, though. Right now my only friends were Alec and Miss Taren.

Today was a really good day. I spent time with Miss Taren. She was happy, so that made me feel really good inside.

Sunlight shone off something on the ground and made a rainbow in the air. I smiled, as I always did when the sun was shining and especially when I saw a rainbow.

“What is that?” a girl asked. She was standing next to me, pointing at the ground.

I looked up to see happy brown eyes.

“I don’t know, but it makes a rainbow.” I stood up and stuck out my hand. “My name is William.”

The happy brown eyes creased in the corners when the woman smiled. “I am Stacy.” She shook my hand. She had a nice handshake, not sloppy. “I like rainbows, too.” She pointed to a clip in her brown hair. I smiled back.

“Very pretty.” I sat back down on the bench and patted next to me. “Would you like to sit?”

“Yes, I would.” She sat next to me, hugging her purple purse to her chest. She looked over at me. She had a small grin on her face. “Are you in Good Buddies like me?”

“Yup, yup.” I nodded and angled my body to face her. “My buddy is Miss Taren. She is the sweetest.”

“Nah, my buddy is the sweetest. Her name is Alexis.” Stacy’s face lit up when she said her friend’s name. Ah, she had the sunshine in her, too. “Hey, can you find what was making that rainbow? I would like it for my collection.”

“Yup, yup.” I bent down. I studied the ground and found a small crystal. It looked like it was a charm on a necklace once. As I picked it up, light shined off it on to Stacy’s shoes.

I looked over and laughed.

“What is so funny, William?” Stacy sounded upset.

“I was looking at your shoes.”

“What about, ‘em?” She frowned, looking down at her own purple gym shoes.

“I like them. Especially the laces.”

She looked over at me and smiled again. “Thank you. I thought they were special.”

“They are. Do you have time for me to tell you a story?”

Stacy tilted her head to the side and then looked over her shoulder. “No bus. I have time.”

“Great.” I looked down once more at the bright red laces on each of her shoes. “Have you ever heard about the red string of fate?”

Don’t miss the next story in the College Bound series!

THE COLOR OF US

by

Laura Ward & Christine Manzari

*The following excerpt is subject to change.

The Color of Us

CHAPTER ONE

Those inspirational posters were nothing but lies. Rain didn’t always bring a rainbow. There wasn’t always calm after the storm. And not every ending meant a new beginning.

I only needed one violent night for those dreams to be shattered. The truth was, when things ended, there was no promise for a bright, new, shiny beginning. The only guarantee was that things would change.

I hated that things had changed.

I hated that the rain stole my rainbow. I hated that the storm tore my family apart and left nothing but broken bits inside each of us. I hated that when my sister’s life ended, so did my rosy view of the future.

Unusual silences. Empty places. Unfinished conversations. The pain came in waves, and sometimes I thought I might drown under the weight of losing her.

I always thought the worst part of grief was the moment when tragedy struck, but that’s not true.

The worst part came after the last casserole was finished and everyone went home. The worst part came a few weeks later, after the consoling phone calls had long gone silent and the last flower petal had withered away. The worst part was seeing the empty chair at the dinner table every single night. The worst part was the silence in the mornings...silence that used to be filled with my sister’s teasing voice and beautiful singing. The worst part was hearing people laugh or seeing them smile, never knowing if I’d be capable of either of those things again. The worst part was the finality of it all. Samantha really was gone and everyone just kept on living and breathing and moving as if my heart wasn’t some crushed, mangled mess inside my chest.

The worst part was that I missed my sister, and it was so fucking unfair that I had to live a life without her.

***

“Time to get up, Alexis.” My mother’s order was quickly followed by a blinding brightness as she threw open the curtains in my bedroom.

“Mom!” The sunlight pierced through my eyelids and I cringed, hiding my face under the blanket. “I’m sleeping,” I groaned.

Her footsteps echoed across my floor and then my comforter was torn away. “You’ve spent the first few weeks of summer in bed. You’ve got to get out sometime.” Her voice softened and my closed eyes stung with unshed tears. “Your father and I want you to try and enjoy what’s left of your break.”

I rolled over and wrapped my head in the pillow. Yeah right. Enjoy my summer. As if that was even possible. The only thing I enjoyed was losing myself in movies and books. That’s the only time I could stop thinking long enough to find peace.

“Today is your first day of driving school. You don’t want to be late.” Her voice wavered just enough that I peeled the pillow away from my face to brave the light streaming in through my windows.

My eyes narrowed sleepily as I stared at her. I tried to swallow but my throat felt like it was clamped shut. Driving school? Was this some kind of sick joke? “What?”

“Come on. You’ve been looking forward to this.” She met my eyes with her patented calmness, but the way she clutched my comforter in her fist betrayed her. She held onto it like it was a lifeline to keep her from drowning.

“Mom.” I shook my head. “That was before...I don’t...I don’t want to learn how to drive. Not after...”

She sat down on the edge of my bed. Her hand lifted as if to comfort me and then she cleared her throat and her hand fell to the mattress. “We’re all devastated by what happened, Alexis, but you can’t keep avoiding life. Sam wouldn’t want that.”