Chapter twenty three

Okay, a few facts in case you never read the first book to this:

While you didn't have to read it to get this story, there is something that happened in the first book that is mentioned in this chapter. So I am going to fill you in the shortest way I can.

Mia use to have a crush on her brothers bestfriend named Sterling. Kayla, Kelsey, and Mia grew up in the same town as him and Mia cared for him for a long time. In My Girl, she has to compete for Aiden and Sterlings love and she realizes she cared for Aiden more than Sterling.

I know that doesn't seem important, but in the long run it will. Anyways, please excuse my grammar mistakes because I have been uploading these chapters fast. Anyways, this is it! Enjoy <3

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I have imagined kissing Julio a hundred times.

But nothing was close to the real thing.

His lips meet mine tenderly, tentatively. At first, he’s hesitant. As if this was the last thing I wanted. It was the sweetest kiss I ever had and the funny thing is the fact that it didn’t stay that way for long.

With my hands still in his hair, I try to bring him closer.

I needed him to know this is what I wanted more than anything in the world. Julio answers my request greedily and his mouth scorches mine faster, hungrier,  as he pushes me back. The momentum makes us fumble backwards and I feel my back hit the front of a tree.

Julio tightens his hands around my waist and his fingers bite into my flesh. I run my hands from his hair, down his neck, till I grasp his shoulders. I bunch his shirt in my fists and I try my hardest to catch my breath.

I pull him closer , bring toward me by his shirt and Julio works my mouth open with his mouth and tongue. I feel his hands travel from my hips to my thighs slowly and it makes my heart beat faster.

His hot hands run over my exposed legs and I gasp in his mouth, the feeling spreading through my body more than I was able to handle.

Before I can think, he lifts my thigh up and soon it flushes with his hip. He pushes me back against the tree more and I feel myself getting lifted up against the trunk, his mouth still hot and fast on mine. I tighten my hold on his shoulders, feeling my shirt get lifted from the bark of the tree.

Julio holds my weight, his hand firm under my thigh. His mouth leaves mine and he starts kissing down my neck. My breath comes out shakily and I lean back as he brings his other hand up and brings my tank-top and jacket down, making my shoulder just as exposed as my legs.

His mouth finds my skin and he trails kisses along my neck, over my collarbone, and down my shoulder. My breath comes out quick and when his mouth starts it’s way over my my cheek and reaches the corner of my mouth, I can’t take the teasing anymore.

Fire is coursing through my body and I move a little till his mouth was on mine again. This time, I take control. I reach down to where his hand was on my thigh and move it up more, letting him know this is what I want. My mouth is eager on his and if it isn’t for him pulling back just then, I have no idea what would've happened.

He’s breathing heavily and so am I. I feel his breath hit my face and he slowly brings me back down from the tree, whatever just happened forgotten. I bring my shirt down and Julio smiles as he brings his hand out fixes the tank top at my shoulder.

Even though he’s not kissing me anymore, I can still feel everything he just did like we never stopped. My body is on fire and all I want to do is pull him closer. To feel his body all over mine again.

Lust is an emotion in itself, but when he kissed me I felt more than that. I felt him. He kissed with an aggressiveness, an eagerness, like at any moment it could be his last kiss. He kissed with passion, with love, with his everything and damn, damn did it set my body on a whole other level.

He looks down at me, a slight smile on his face. I don’t have time to be embarrassed from my sleazy display because he comes forward and kisses my lips softly again, his fingers wrapped around my chin lightly.

“I have wanted to do that for a very long time.” He says against my lips and I smile, pulling back.

But still so close.

“If I knew it was going to be like that, I might have let you do it awhile ago.”

The words escape me without me thinking about them and I blush. I freaking blush. Something that seemed so irrational.

As I go to look away, to hide my embarrassed face, his catches my chin again with his fingers. He turns my face up till I was meeting his eyes. “Don’t be embarrassed. That was ... fucking amazing.”

I don’t say anything and he comes forward, dropping his voice. His mouth meets my ear and he says in a whisper:

“Though, if there weren’t people around, I don’t think I could have stopped so easily.”

And sadly, I don’t think I could have either.

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I wake up the next day to two very eager faces.

The moment I see Kayla and Mia looking down at me, smiles on their faces, I shake my head and roll over till my face is tucked into my pillow.

I was still riding on what happened the night before and I wasn’t about to ruin it for them.

Last night was one of the best damn nights of my life. I’m sure I have said that plenty of times, but with Julio, I am sure I was going to have plenty of those nights in the future.

I think about his mouth on mine, his hands grasping my thigh,  and I smile into my pillow. He dropped me off shortly after are display at the party and he gave me one last kiss, saying he would text me later.

Now, knowing I had to answer to the two people still standing in my room, the excitement fades away faster than it came.

“Oh, don’t think a pillow can save you,” Mia says, amusement filling her voice. “We all know the pillow face of shame.”

“What do you guys want?” I say into the pillow. I feel somebody sit at the edge of my bed and Kayla’s voice answers me.

“Well, it just so happens I was walking back from the Cafe with Mia when we both saw you, my dear twin sister, getting dropped off. Do you want me to tell you what we saw?”

No. I pretty much already know what they saw.

“I kind of want to say I told you so,” Mia pipes in, her voice still full of that amusement. “But that doesn’t change the fact we saw you kissing someone.”

“Someone who looks kind of like this guy we know.” Kayla says. I feel her hand hit the edge of my pillow and before I can can hold on, she pulls it out from under me.

“And,” Mia says, showing up in front of me. I groan as she continues to speak. “This guy we just oh so happen to know drives a motorcycle, has tattoo’s, and likes to say chica for fun. Now, whoever could that be?”

She turns her head to the side, biting her lip to keep from laughing. I push her face away from me as I sit up, pulling my jacket from last night around me. Sadly, I was so in my Julio high I forgot to change into my pajamas.

“Okay. You caught me. I kissed Julio, alright?”

They both look at me, their eyebrows raised, and I sigh.  Might as well get this out of the way. It didn’t look like they were going anywhere anytime soon.

“Okay, we kissed more than once. And it was freaking amazing. Actually, it was more than amazing. It was .. perfect.” Kayla breaks into a breathtaking grin and Mia shakes her head, a slow smile forming.

“I told Aiden this was going to happen. I knew the moment at the Cafe that something was going to happen between you two. And while I know I should be the good best friend, and tell you to be careful, some reason I feel this time you know what you are doing.”

She was right. Every other relationship I had I just jumped into without thinking. I guess every new guy I dated I thought would be better than the last so I didn’t take the time to actually work up to anything.

With Julio, it was more than that.

I took my time getting to know him. I took my time to make sure I was ready to get into a relationship again. Even if I did get hurt, I knew this time it would be different.

“So, does this mean no more blind dates or ….” Kayla looks at me, waiting for an answer, and I laugh.

“Yeah, that means no more blind dates.”

“Thank god!” She shouts, she throws her hands in the air and flings herself on my bed. “Do you know how hard it is to find a guy for you?”

“That wasn’t the problem and you know it.” Mia says, leaning against my dresser. When I look at her, she answers my question. “Mostly when we found a willing guy, Kayla would stake her claim before I could even ask them to actually go on a date.”

Kayla smiles sheepishly and I shake my head.

In two weeks we would be heading home for thanksgiving break and I needed to make sure Kayla didn’t get in trouble before then. While I hated that thinking about my mother was muddling my happy thoughts, I had a reason to be concerned.

I didn’t need my mother to think Kayla wasn’t doing her best. If she did, my mother would stop paying for college and make Kayla get a job.

Like I said, my mother wanted perfection and if Kayla wasn’t succeeding in it, then she would make sure she would find perfect somewhere else.

Though, I’m starting to wonder if Kayla was the one my mother shouldn’t have been worried about. Ever since this thing Julio I have been questioning a lot of the things I was so sure about before.

Things that before I never really noticed.

I was going to college to be a lawyer. Something my mother thought was to be the perfect job. I mean, what couldn’t be perfect about a job that paid well, helped people in need, and expected nothing but the best?!

But now … now I wanted something different. For once, I wanted to live for me. I wanted to break out of this shell, this perfectly sculpted thing I was stuck in, and be the person I was meant to be.

I wanted to live life to the expectations I wanted and it took me this long, took one person, to make me realize I couldn’t live for someone else.

Kayla smiles at me and I can’t the smile growing on my face. No matter what happened from here on out, I knew things were going to change. For the better. And even if Julio and I never worked out, I knew I would owe him this moment for the rest of my life.

“So, “ Mia says, coming up and joining Kayla and I on the bed. “ I’m thinking when we get back to our old neighborhood we have a girls day. Aiden wants me to stay with his family for thanksgiving. I hear Sterling was coming back for the week...”

Her voice trails off as her thoughts take over. I knew Mia was sad that Sterling and her didn’t keep in contact after the whole ‘Aiden and her’ thing, but sometimes it takes time for pain to heal.

A frown starts to form on her face and I am about to jump into a big rant about how it wasn’t her fault, when Kayla jerks up fast, her eyes meeting mine and Mia’s.

“Wait. Sterling is going to be in town?”

I close my mouth and look at her in surprise. It took a lot to get Kayla riled up, so I was at a loss of words. Mia snaps out of her thoughts and looks at Kayla mournfully, not even catching on.

“Seems so. He still talks to Mason, you know. He just doesn’t mention me. I know I broke his heart and I would love to talk to him again, but apparently he doesn’t want to see me yet.”

Her voice turns sad and I wrap my arm around her shoulder, giving her a little squeeze.

“It’s all going to be fine.” I tell her, hating to see her sad about something she really couldn’t control. She shrugs. “I guess sometimes love is about letting go. Even if you want to hold on.”

A thoughtful look passes over Kayla's’ face and she shakes her head, giving me and Mia a quick glance.

“I’m sorry, but what honorary bullshit.”

Mia and I both freeze at Kayla’s words. Usually she was so carefree and happy, it was unusual to see her all worked up.

“If you love someone, truly love them, you don’t let go. You fight. No matter what. That is what love is, not being able to go a day without knowing someone, somewhere, is thinking about you the same way you are thinking about them. Counting on you. And when you have that feeling, that feeling that you know your heart is safe in their hands, why would you let that go? I guess that’s what all those books were trying to say. When you have that kind of love, why would you ever want to see that go?”

She takes a deep breath, her eyes meeting mine.

“That’s why Aiden couldn’t let go of Mia. Why Mia was able to let go of Sterling. That’s why dad was able to leave mother so easily. Why you gave Julio a chance. When two people love each other, there is nothing they wouldn’t do to be together. They will fight. They will argue. They will do absolutely anything to be with that person.”

She stops, looking away and standing up.

“But the worst part? The worst part is when someone cares about someone else more than the other. When love isn’t returned. Cause then you know that you would do anything for someone who could leave you with no second thought..... I- I gotta go.” She says swiftly, picking up her coat and shutting the door behind her before anyone can move.

I want to chase after her, to demand what the hell all that was about, but I don’t. Because a part of me already knows.

A part of me that didn’t want to acknowledge it awhile ago.

“Holy shit,” I say under my breath, dropping my hand. I realize maybe the way Kayla acts isn’t because of my mothers ways.

Maybe she sleeps with these guys, wants these men to want her, because the two people she cared about in her life left her.

Because she thought they didn’t care for her back.

“Are you thinking the same thing I am?” Mia looks at me, hurt filling her face. I scrub a hand over my face, my mind going over way too many things at once. But the one thing I couldn’t get out of my mind?

That Kayla was in love with Sterling and he picked someone else.

The same way my father did.

This was a mess and I knew it was. Mia must realize that too because she comes forward and lays a hand on my shoulder, her eyes filling with concern.

“Give her some time. When she comes around, I’ll talk to her.”

I nod my head, realizing she was right. There was nothing I could do at this moment. I just hoped things worked out for Kayla the same way things have been working out for me.

I hope she realizes, the same way I have in the past, that you shouldn’t worry about what other people want and that sometimes, it takes courage to face the thing that scares you the most.

I hear something buzz next to me and when I look over and see the name of the one person I wanted to see right now, all the other problems in my life vanish.

Mia must see something change on my face because she smiles and stands up, heading toward the door.

“I’ll leave you to other things.” I hear the door close behind her as I reach for my phone and open the message.

Meet me outside.

And before I can even think about what I am doing, I leap out of my bed, change my clothes, and head out the door.

Leaving every worry in my life behind.