Page 132 of Rise Above

“You know you can count on me for anything,” Dre

said and pulled me in for a long hug.

“Just reach out, and we will be there, love.” Nat

wrapped me up in another hug. “You’re our girl. We’ve got your back, and we know you have ours.”

The three of us were having a moment, and the guys

were letting us. These two women were my rocks. I knew I could count on them, and I hope they knew I’d drop anything for them.

“Alright, let’s stop the sappy shit.” Zeke broke into

our little moment. “I’m fucking hungry.”

A small laugh bubbled out of me. Of course, the big

hockey guy was hungry. It was nice to have some humor though. Humor seemed to always help the situation.

“Well, then let’s go eat,” I said.

As always, we wound up at our favorite little diner

near the University of Chicago. And as always, all six of us ordered our usual routine of breakfast food. Small talk rounded the table as we dug into our food. Things were

281

Rise Above

beginning to feel better. I used to believe I thrived in chaos, but chaos was kicking my ass. I needed calm.

Talon placed a hand on my thigh as we continued to

eat. It instantly made me smile. I still wasn’t sure what our label was, but I was excited to find out together. He made me happy, and I finally felt like I deserved to be happy. It was tiring to constantly punish myself for things out of my control. If Talon was willing to try with me, I was ready to try with him.

“So, what’s going on with you two?” Dre pointed a

fork between the both of us.

My skin flushed. This was weirdly embarrassing to

discuss with my close-knit friend group. They’d been with us from the beginning of our weird relationship. We were one week from Christmas now, so three months of whatever our label was. It was still a little weird to open up to the group.

“Dre…” Nat began to scold our best friend.

“They’re both blushing.”

“Okay and?” She cocked an eyebrow at Nat.

“We’ve seen these two pining after each other since like August. Did they finally like kiss or fuck or something?”

“Jesus,” Talon mumbled under his breath. “Dre, for

fuck’s sake. How about y’all tell us if you and Zeke are something? Or Nat and Davis?”

The entire table went silent. Everyone’s face was

pink or red now. Our little friend group was keeping secrets. Clearly, we all had some sort of feelings flailing around. Maybe we just needed to air it all out.