Last night with the girls actually made me feel a whole lot better.

They let me rant about Tristan to get it all off my chest.

And then we ordered pizza and watched our favorite feel-good movies and blasted some music to have a dance party of our own.

Today, the first thing I woke up to was a text message notification.

It was from Tate.

>>

>>

I huffed out in annoyance before typing again.

>>

I didn't know what he meant by that last part, considering I never made any official plans for tonight.

And then Leah called me the second after.

"There's a party tonight, we're going." She greeted.

"who's we?"

"Me, you, Maylan, Carson, and Tate, he'll meet us there."

"and...?"

"...and Tristan."

There it is.

She went on, "Some kid from Anderson high is throwing the party, so Tate made sure to invite Tristan along, only he doesn't know that Tate invited the rest of us too. Figured you could use his surprise to your advantage."

"I don't know Leah." I hesitated.

"Ada, you're doing this. Because the two of you are meant to be together and this little bump in the road can easily be fixed with a little communication, okay?"

"I communicated plenty, thank you very much. I feel like an idiot for practically begging him to stay Leah, and he just walked away."

"That was yesterday though-"

"Thursday." I corrected.

"That was Thursday though, he's had time to let his poor decisions simmer and now you're going to give him that extra little nudge he needs."

I just sighed into the phone without saying anything.

"See you tonight?" She asked me hopefully and I took an extra second to think about it.

"See you tonight."

———————————

I was nervous to say the least, but I was as ready as I'll ever be.

I was just touching up my hair with my curling iron when Carson let me know he was starting the car.

We were arguing about something I probably wouldn't remember the next day when we finally arrived at the house and Leah knocked on the car window.

After rolling it down she asked, "are you ready? Let's go."

Maylan waved at me first and went to the drivers side to greet Carson and we walked to the door together. Some boy i've never seen before answered the door to let us in and the party seemed to already be in full swing.

We were basically pushing past crowds until we found Tate.

He had a big smile plastered on his face when he saw us, especially when he saw Leah. He went over to her first and said something in her ear that I couldn't hear over the music.

Then he turned to me and said, "I'm glad you decided to come."

"Yeah well someone was very persistent, I'm sure I would've been dragged here either way." I said, motioning to Leah who was getting herself a drink a few feet away.

"yeah, that sounds like our Leah." He said proudly and then changed the subject, "He's around here somewhere. You probably won't have to look that hard."

I nodded my head and went off on my own.

Tate was right, it wasn't that hard to find him.

It bothered the hell out of me how good the back of his head looked.

He was talking to some guys who I assumed were Tate's friends from the school that he went to.

One of them shoved Tristan in the shoulder while laughing and I guess he noticed me from his peripherals because I was stuck in his captivating gaze now.

I nodded my head towards the back door and didn't look back to see if he was following me.

I left the door open behind me and got my confirmation that he followed when I heard the door shut behind him.

I turned around to see him lean against the brick walls with his arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his tone neutral.

"I know what you did to Walter," I said motioning my head towards his bruised knuckles. He looked down his hand and clenched his fist. "Why'd you do it?" I tried.

He opened his hand again before responding. "His face annoys me."

He looked back up to me again. He was lying, we both know it. "Is that all then?" He asked and started to move back towards the door.

"I decided I'm not done with you." I said simply.

He stopped in his tracks for a moment, running a hand through his hair before leaning back against the wall. "Adelaide we already talked about this."

"No, you talked. You decided. You made a choice and now I'm making mine. I'm not letting you get rid of me that easy. Not this time"

"Believe it or not, I'm doing this for your sake. This isn't just hard for you, its hard for me too."

"It doesn't have to be Tristan. I'm perfectly capable of making my own choices. You don't have to do that for me."

"It's better this way Adelaide, just leave it alone."

"No." I said stubbornly, "You told me the other day that you didn't live a safe life. Well I don't care about that."

He opened his mouth to say something, but I didn't let him, "I care about you. I care about spending time with you. I want to take risks and make some stupid decisions. I want to enjoy my life and I want to have fun, but I want to do it with you, grumpy or not. So, no more turning your back on me Tristan, no more pushing me away. Because I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, so deal with it."

He didn't say anything as his breathing picked up. I knew he wanted to say something, I knew he was fighting with himself over what to do next. I wish he would just do it already, whatever he was going to do I just wanted him to get it over with, the anticipation was killing me. But...

His eyes went softer as he pushed himself off of the wall. I didn't realize what he was doing until he was right at my feet and his hands gently cupped around my face. His actions slowed there.

It was as if he was giving me a second to turn away, to take back everything I just said but I didn't. I just zeroed in my gaze on his lips, hoping that was indication enough.

And it was, because the next thing I felt were his lips on mine and it set off an explosion in me. It was a giant burst of color, a swirling storm of powerful emotions. It was everything that went right in my life. I didn't know how badly I needed this until it happened, and now I would give anything to know this feeling forever.

As our lips were moving in sync, I couldn't help but wonder how a kiss could feel so gentle and passionate at the same time and then I couldn't think anything else because I was kissing Tristan Presley and he was kissing me back.

When he pulled away, it took me just a moment to find my speech again, "I'm still mad you, you know? You're not off the hook with one kiss."

"Okay." He leaned his forehead against mine as he smiled and asked, "how about two?"

And then he kissed me again, and again, until I had forgotten I was ever upset in the first place.

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