Page 66 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
She sighed. “You’re trying to distract me. But something could still be up with you despite the global sensation that is my eighteenth birthday.”
That pulled a laugh out of me. “If only we’d planned a parade.”
“You mean you didn’t?” Her mouth fell open in dramatic shock.
“Missed opportunity,” I agreed wistfully.
She tapped the tip of my nose and grinned. “You’ll do better next year.” Our gazes caught, and she looked away quickly. “I mean, not that we’ll still—” She squeezed her eyes shut. “You know what I mean.”
Sometimes being with Clara felt like walking a tightrope of uncertainty. One minute we’d be joking or kissing or talking, and the next, something would happen that made everything shake.
As if trying to get us back to solid ground, she pulled out her camera and asked, “Message for the birthday girl?”
Instead of smoothing the moment, the silence extended as I held her eyes with mine, so ready to tell this girl how I felt. The words had formed on my tongue, only she stepped back and changed the subject with a joke the way she always did when she was uncomfortable.
“You forgot to get me a birthday present, didn’t you?That’swhy you’re being weird.”
It was my turn to flush. I didn’t forget.
That was why I had her card with me. I’d spent the previous week writing it, throwing it out, rewriting it. I brushed my fingers across the edge of the envelope in my back pocket, my heart hammering.
“Actually—”
Both of our phones buzzed with a text from Delaney in the group chat.
We read it quickly:I have it on good authority Legacy spots have been chosen!!! Can’t believe we have to wait until tomorrow!!
“Doomsday approaches,” I joked.
But Clara didn’t laugh.
Birds chirped in the surrounding trees, their calls faintly echoing across the canyon.
“I have a bad feeling,” Clara said quietly. “What if I don’t get it?”
If I had learned anything from my years running, it was how competitionreallyworked. Who was serious and who would fall away when the course tested them. Clara was as serious as they get. Determined to see her dream through. She’d already done the hard part by actually getting into California Film Academy. The day she found out was probably the happiest I’d ever seen another person.
“In thathighlyunlikely scenario, it wouldn’t stop you. Nothing can stop you.”
“Do you really believe that?” she asked, her eyes round with a mix of fear and hope.
“Yes,” I soothed, grabbing her hands. “You’re going to be chosen as a Legacy, get the scholarship you deserve for film school, and make amazing films that change the world.” I trailed my finger under her jaw and lifted slightly. “So chin up, Suarez.”
“What am I going to do without you next year?”
That stung, but for reasons I couldn’t quite articulate. Why did she keep saying stuff like that? “CAFA is only a few miles from Stanford,” I reminded her.
She pressed her forehead into my chest. “I know.”
I tried to decipher that torn look on her face as she looked up at me again. To figure out what she was thinking.
To know if I was alone out there or if those two words meant she’d finally changed her mind about the future of us.
If she hadn’t, I’d respect her choice like I had all year. It’d tear me apart, but I’d respect it. And I’d keep the card to myself.
But if she had…
I leaned down, losing myself in the softness of her mouth and that gasp across my lips when my palms found the bare skin of her waist under her shirt. Though I tried to slow us down and savor it, she threaded her hands through my hair and tugged. Was she trying to kill me? I let out a gruff, urgent sound, and she smiled. Yep. She was.
