"Em? I thought we were doing FaceTime tonight. Crap, hold on," Josh said as his little brother whined in the background. "Not now, Toby. I'll come play with you in a little bit, okay?"

My stomach twisted at what I was about to do. Damn it. Why was I doing this? Because fifteen minutes ago, I wanted to make out with Justin in my kitchen, that's why!

Ugh. I just needed to say it. Just say the fucking words, Ember!

A door closed on Josh's side. "Okay, he's gone. You wanna FaceTime? I miss seeing you."

"Have you talked to Katie?" Damn it! That wasn't what I meant to say, but shit, I needed to know why my so-called best friend was ignoring my texts.

"Yeah, she just left a few minutes ago," Josh said.

"What?" My face scrunched in shock as my voice escalated. "Why was she there?"

"She came over to get help with her history project, and then we ended up watching a movie." Josh was acting like Katie always went to his house, which never happened unless she was meeting me.

I started pacing in my tiny room. "Well, that's really interesting because I've been texting her for days, and she's been ignoring me."

"Really? It's probably because she's been pretty depressed. She misses you like I do. She said hanging out with me makes her feel like you never left." Josh said.

"Um... no. That's not what's happening here, Josh!" I said. "If she missed me, she would return my texts. You know what's going on here. Open your eyes!"

Someone knocked on my door, and I whipped it open, revealing Lucy. I waved her in.

"Is everything okay?" Lucy whispered, closing the door.

I shook my head and threw my back against the wall. I couldn't believe Katie was doing this to me.

"I promise we've only been hanging out as friends. Nothing more." Josh's voice was calm.

"Break up with him." Lucy mouthed.

I put one finger up, angrily. "Where's Katie's boyfriend, Josh?"

"He broke up with her the night before you left. She's going through a lot." Josh sounded genuinely sad for her. Katie never mentioned one word about her boyfriend breaking up with her, but that would require her to text me back, which she still hadn't done.

Releasing an angry huff, I punched my pillow. "Katie changes boyfriends like she changes shoes, Joshy. Come on! We've joked about this a million times."

"Don't you think I know that? I'm not stupid." Josh's voice was full of irritation. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just hard with you not here, and she's been keeping me company."

"I can't listen to this. I'll call you back." I hung up on him and threw the phone on my bed before I crumbled to my knees. I covered my face, groaning angrily into my palms.

"You didn't break up with him." Lucy chided.

Knotting my fingers in my hair, I squeezed until my scalp burned. "I just found out my bestfriend is trying to steal my boyfriend."

Lucy folded her arms and cocked her head to the side. "Okay?"

"Okay?" I looked at her like she was crazy. "Did you hear what I said?"

"I heard you, but what if I told him what you've been doing, Ember?" Lucy's threat brought me back to the reality of my situation.

"You wouldn't." My hands fell from my messy hair as I analyzed her sweet smile.

"Of course, I wouldn't." Lucy sucked in her bottom lip and shook her head. "But you need to let him go. You know it's never gonna work. I mean, you got three of the hottest guys in the universe begging for your attention. Let Josh and your friend do whatever. You don't need them anymore, and you're better off if they are already showing signs of cheating."

"How? You suck at this!" I yelled. Lucy flinched, making me feel like crap. I blew out a hard breath to calm down as I stood. Slowly, I moved to rub her shoulder. "God, I'm sorry, Luce. I just hate that you're right and this situation sucks. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

Lucy nodded, sending me a sad look as she sat on my bed. "It's okay. I'm just trying to help. You just need to rip the bandaid off. You'll feel better when it's done."

Sighing, I grabbed my phone and called Josh. It didn't even ring one time before his voice was in my ear.

"I'm sorry, Em. I won't let Katie come over anymore. I really didn't think it through." Josh's voice was full of remorse.

Okay. I could do this. He deserved happiness, and so did I.

"We need to break up, Josh." There, I said it.

"What? No! Didn't you hear me? I said I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I didn't know she was ignoring you. I swear to God, nothing happened." Josh pleaded.

"Joshy, you deserve to be happy. We live too far apart, and I don't know when we'll see each other again, and—"

"But we talked about this. We're gonna see each other over the break. I need you, Ember. I can't lose you. I'm so fucking sorry." Josh's voice trembled.

Fuck me. My heart squeezed at the pain in his voice, but what did I expect to happen?

"It's just easier this way, Josh," I whispered sadly.

"No, it's not. I love you, Em. I never told you because I was scared, but I do. I love you. I can't lose you. I need you." Josh's voice quivered as he held back tears. "You're all I think about."

My heart plummeted into my stomach. Josh loved me?

Lucy shook her head as she whispered. "Justin's downstairs."

Thank God for Lucy because I really wanted to cave.

"Joshy... I'm sorry, but we need to break up." I released a long breath, grateful that I was able to say it again.

"What? I can't believe you're doing this to me. We've been together for years. Don't you love me? I know you almost said it to me a few times." Josh whispered. "I love you, Em. Please don't do this."

"I don't love you, Josh." Okay. There I said it. I didn't love him, and I still felt like a big stinky piece of crap.

"You don't?" Josh sounded devastated as he sniffed. "I don't believe you. I know you love me, Em, or we wouldn't have stayed together this long. Don't do this. You're just upset about Katie. I promise it won't ever happen again. I'll make it up to you."

"I want you to be happy, Josh, but you have to let me go. I can't do this anymore." I pulled the phone away from my ear as he started pleading again. I stared at the big red end call button, but I couldn't find the strength to push it. Finally, I sighed and pressed it, hanging up on the guy I'd spent the last two years of my life with.

"You did it," Lucy whispered.

"Yeah," My voice was barely audible as tears filled my eyes. "I'm the worst person in the world. I can't believe I broke his heart like that."

"You had no choice." Lucy rubbed my knee. "If you're meant to be with Josh one day, it'll happen, but cheating on each other is so much worse."

"How do you know?" I wiped a tear as my phone buzzed. I declined Josh's call and silenced my phone.

"Someone cheated on me, and it sucks bad, Ember. There's no feeling like it. I always wish he would've just broken up with me before he cheated. At least then, I would've known it was over, but I was bending over backward, trying to make it work when we were already done. I just didn't realize that he was finished with me until I found out he'd been cheating for weeks. It was awful. I got super depressed, and I blamed myself." A tear ran down Lucy's freckled cheek.

"I'm sorry that happened to you." I sniffed, licking a tear off my lip.

"I'm not." A tiny laugh escaped her lips. "I learned a lot about how I want to be treated, and now I know the signs of when a guy is checking out."

"You're so strong." I pulled her in for a hug. "But you should know, I still hate you right now."

Lucy barked out a laugh. "I know, but I'm your best friend, and you'll love me again soon."

"Yeah." I gave her a sad grin as a knock came at the door.

Wiping my eyes and nose, I hurried to open it.

Justin stood there, his soft gaze scoured my face and landed on my red eyes. Instinctively, he reached out a hand but dropped it when I didn't move toward him. "Shit, Angel. Are you... okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I nodded and forced a smile before I started crying like a God damned baby. My hands shot to my face to cover my sobs.

Justin closed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, tugging me into his chest. "Hey, it's gonna be okay."

Unable to speak, I nodded, sobbing against his chest. I couldn't believe that Josh loved me all this time and never said anything about it. I could've explored those deeper feelings with Josh if I'd known the truth earlier, but now it wasn't an option.

Why had Josh kept it to himself all this time, and really, what did it matter now? It probably would've ended with me breaking up with him anyway. Honestly, it just would've made things harder.

"You're resilient, Angel. Everything's gonna be okay. I promise." Justin gently smoothed a hand over my back and rested his cheek on my head as I cried. His soft voice and touch gave me the strength to rein in my tears.

When I glanced around, I realized that at some point during my sobfest, Lucy had left my room.

Justin tugged me toward the bed and sat me down before he disappeared. I took the opportunity to wipe my nose. I was a mess, and I hated that Justin had to witness me crying like this.

When Justin returned, he handed me a warm, damp washcloth.

I grinned in gratitude. Taking the cloth, I cleaned my face while staring at my box of roses sitting on my dresser.

Justin knelt in front of me. "Maybe it would be better if you stay home tonight. I can hang out here, or if you need some time alone, I can leave. I just want you to be okay."

"I'm not sure what I want to do, but will you stay for a while?" I rubbed my swollen eyes.

"Yeah." Justin nodded and took the cloth. "Be right back."

Crawling across my bed, I pulled the flower box into my lap and opened it. I hadn't noticed this before, but there were two different roses inside. The top dozen roses were red and the bottom dozen roses were dyed black.

I sucked in a breath as I pulled one black rose out of the box. It was absolutely beautiful. The small white gift card had fallen between the multiple stems. Slowly, I fished it out and read the short message.

For my angel

The roses were from Justin.

Justin walked back in the room and released a jagged breath as his gaze whipped from me to the box to the black rose in my hand.

With tears in my eyes, I grinned at him. "Thank you, Justin."

His light brown eyes flared to their golden glow as the corner of his mouth tugged up. "You like them?"

"Of course, I do. I can't believe you did this." I pulled out the black roses one by one. "How'd you know my favorite color?"

"We all know." Justin watched as I placed my flowers side by side.

"What?" I froze as I searched his face.

"Do you know why our vehicles are black?" Justin asked.

I shook my head. "Why?"

"Because we can't get that color out of our heads." Justin's eyes intensified, transforming into shimmering gold. "We've all dreamt about specific things over and over. One commonality always remains true. Everything we dream of is black. The dreams are demanding, and they don't stop until we do something about it. Now that you're here, we all figured out that we're dreaming about the things you desire."

"Really?" I squinted, trying to understand what he was saying. "So, wait. Let me get this straight. My desires haunt your dreams?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it haunting, but yeah, pretty much. From what we've learned, for us to feel peace, you have to be at peace."

I nodded, glad to be hearing a tiny piece of the mystery. "So, Tyler's car?"

Justin nodded. "He kept dreaming about it. He said that in his dream, it's drawn freehand in a notebook or journal. After he bought the car, he stopped having the dream."

I rushed to open my dresser drawer, pulling out my journal. Flipping through the pages like a crazy person, I finally found my drawing and handed it to Justin. "Is this it?"

Justin chuckled as he sat on the corner of my bed and examined my shitty sketch. "Yep. The dream was Tyler's, but this looks just the way he described it. You should show it to him."

"So, you guys have different dreams of what I want?" I asked.

"Yep. I dreamt of my bike, which I love, by the way." Justin smiled as he continued to analyze my sketch.

"I wanted a motorcycle like yours a few years ago, but I didn't put on paper." I chuckled as I crossed my arms.

"Well, that's probably a good thing because I customized it to look different from what you wanted." Justin closed my journal and handed it to me. "How're you feeling?"

"Better." I shrugged, setting my journal back in my drawer. "Um... where's Lucy?"

"She took off to check in at home. She told me to have you text her about your plans."

"I yelled at her." I crossed my arms, aggravated with myself.

"I heard you." Justin scanned my lips. "She seemed fine when she left. She's a good person, and I'm sure she understands."

"Why are you being so nice about this? From what I've put together, you must know why I was crying, don't you?" My gaze studied his.

Justin's jaw tightened as he glanced away. "I know you had a life before you moved here. I'm not gonna lie. I'm relieved your boyfriend is out of the picture, but I know saying goodbye is never easy."

"Why do you..." I took a step in his direction as my eyes wandered over him. He shifted uneasily under my analysis. "Care so much about me? You barely know me."

Justin licked his bottom lip. "I've cared about you all my life. We all have. It's just that we thought someone killed you when we were little."

Pinching my eyebrows, I examined him closer. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Like I said before, we have a lot to talk about." Justin's lips parted, and I took a step closer as my gaze settled on his mouth.

"So, that's why you guys were saying you didn't know I existed?" I asked, pressing my palms to his abs.

Justin trembled under my touch. He nodded slowly as he closed the distance between us. He wrapped his arms around my waist as my heart flip-flopped in my chest. "And fuck, Angel, I'm so glad you're here. You have no idea what I was going through. I was suffering without you, and now that I have you here in front of me, I won't ever let you go. I can't live without you. I don't know how I survived so long."

Without another thought, I wrapped my arms around him, pressing my cheek to his chest. "I'm here now, Justin. You'll never have to live without me again. I wanna go to the party. Will you take me?"

Justin pulled away, his gaze examining me. "We don't have to go. It's just some stupid party, and people always act like dumbasses."

I shrugged and gave him a small grin. "I know, but I still wanna go."

"You want to see Tyler and Lucas, don't you?" Justin's golden gaze scanned my face.

At the thought of Lucas and Tyler, a rush of excitement swept through me. Ashamed for missing them, my gaze fell to the floor.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not judging. You have every right to feel the way you do. I know this whole thing will take some getting used to. For all of us. None of us are used to this. Honestly, I'm not exactly excited to share you, but they're both connected to you like I am. Since I have no choice in the matter, I'm glad it's them, but it won't stop me from beating their asses if they piss me off." Justin smiled, bringing his dimples into full view.

Fidgeting, I considered his words. Justin didn't have a choice when it came to me. What did that mean for Tyler and Lucas? What did that mean for me? Did I have a choice? No, not at all.

My connection to them was tied to something much deeper than some simple crush. It was as if the hands of fate were at work, but that didn't change the fact that our situation was odd as hell.

"I feel bad, but I do wanna see them. I know it's strange, but a part of me misses them. Is that weird?" I asked.

"No." Justin shook his head as he rubbed my arms. "Pack a bag and text Lucy about your plans. Let's go to the party. Tomorrow we can all sit down and have a long talk. Sound good?"

Grinning, I nodded. Thank goodness I didn't need to explain my needy desire to spend time with Lucas and Tyler. Somehow, I knew they both needed me just as much as I needed them.

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