Free Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) by Alycia Taylor Page A

great. I can talk to her about almost anything. I say almost, because
I haven’t told her about the cancer yet. It’s too soon for all that. But
everything else, we’ve talked about. But now we’re in this friend kind of place
and I still want to kiss her so flipping bad that sometimes it feels like
there’s this hot fire burning in my chest. The rules are pretty clear though.
When you are friends with a girl, and hanging out and not dating, kissing is
not completely acceptable.
    I held her hand tonight. That was nice. I took hers,
to help her down the dirt ramp, and I thought she’d pull it back right away.
She didn’t, so I didn’t let go either. We walked through most of the tree farm,
hand in hand. For some reason when we were in the pumpkin patch, talking about
carving jack o’ lanterns, the desire to kiss her became almost overwhelming.
I’m not sure why. She had this look on her face that made me wonder so much
what she was thinking, I almost asked. I didn’t though. I just enjoyed the
look. She’s so pretty and damn, I really want to kiss her.
    I considered giving it a shot on the train. We were
alone, except for the walking dead guys that kept popping out of the corn
field. It was dark and romantic and every time one of the guys popped out,
she’d grab on to my jacket. I envisioned being brave enough to throw my arm
around her protectively, and while I had her there I could cover her lips with
mine, and finally taste her kiss. I thought about it, but again I didn’t do it.
    It’s so strange, because I’ve always been able to tell
when a girl liked me and wanted me to kiss her. I think Molly likes me, maybe
just a little more than a friend. But she protests a lot about not wanting to
date, and not wanting a boyfriend, so I have to ask myself why would she be
receptive to a kiss?
    Last week we watched a movie together. It was one with
Johnny Depp that I had seen a bunch of times. I like Johnny Depp, and when I
was sick my dad used to buy me all of his movies and I’d watch them over and
over in the hospital when Dad wasn’t watching football.   I quoted this one part, before the girl on
the screen said it. This may sound weird, but at that moment I thought she was
going to actually kiss me. If I were smarter, I would have gone in for it right
there. I don’t claim to be all that bright though, so here I am looking at her
hair shine in the moonlight and her pretty dark eyes looking at me…still
wanting to kiss her, so very badly.
    We had done pretty much everything there was to do,
and it was getting colder and the wind looked like it was blowing in some dark
clouds. I asked her if she was ready to go. I wanted to get her home on the
bike without getting soaked. She said yes, and then I remembered the pumpkins.
    “Damn, I never saw Jake and Megan. Did they show up?”
I said. Molly looked at her phone and said, “It’s only nine-thirty; they’re
probably just on their way. We can get pumpkins anywhere though.” She was
always so...flexible.
    I smiled at her and said, “Okay, we better get going
then before that black cloud up there opens up and we drown on the way home.”
This was the sad part about having a Harley instead of a car. I can’t honestly
say I can think of many others.
    I took her hand again, feeling brave now and helped
her up the dirt ramp to the parking lot. Just as we got there I heard a roll of
thunder and then a clap of lightning. I looked up again and that black cloud
was moving fast. “Maybe we should wait and have you ride home with Jake and Molly.
I don’t want you to get sick or something from being soaked.”
    She laughed and said, “That’s nice of you to worry,
but I’m no wimp. I’ll be fine.”
    You already are…fine. I think I stared at her too long
after I thought that. What the hell were we talking about? Oh yeah, going home.
I felt a fat drop of rain on my head, and then another and another. Suddenly it
was like standing under a solid shower. We were a