Chapter 125\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she slapped me, the crack of her palmi against my cheek had been like lightning bolt of clarity. I knew I\u2019d lost her forever. I knew that nothing I could say or do would ever make her forgive me again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I didn\u2019t try to explain. How could 17 How could I tell her that I\u2019d spent months confused about my own feelings, that I\u2019d been too much of a coward to face the truth about what she meant to me?\u00a0<\/p>\n
1 left her apartment that night and didn\u2019t go home. I couldn\u2019t face those empy rooms, couldn\u2019t bear to smell her lingering presence when I knew she\u2019d\u00a0<\/p>\n
never be there again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, I went back to the bar and kept drinking until everything went black\u00a0<\/p>\n
I woke up the next morning at Orion\u2019s house, sprawled on his couch with a hangover that felt like someone was taking a slee\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where I\u2019d been waking up every morning for the past few weeks sometimes on his couch, sometimes in his guest\u00a0<\/p>\n
crushing weight of shame and regret.\u00a0<\/p>\n
my skull.\u00a0<\/p>\n
that same\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion hadn\u2019t said anything about my constant presence in his house. I knew he was giving me time to grieve in my own way, probably thinking this was all about Jess and the anniversary of her death that just passed. He was being the kind of friend who gives you space to fall apart without judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Sarah, my ever\u2013perceptive sister, couldn\u2019t turn a blind eye. She\u2019d always been too smart for her own good, too willing to call people on their bullshit\u00a0<\/p>\n
when everyone else was being polite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hours\u00a0<\/p>\n
ago,\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\u00a0<\/p>\n
she\u2019d called and told me we needed to talk. Her voice had that no\u2013nonsense tone that meant I wasn\u2019t getting out of this conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019d met at my apartment, and she\u2019d taken one look around \u2013 at the empty bottles, the unmade bed, the general air of depression that clung to everything and cut straight to the heart of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s going on with you?\u201d she\u2019d asked, settling onto my couch like she was prepared to stay as long as it took.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d tried to play dumb, shrugging and mumbling something about being tired.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it because of her?\u201d she\u2019d asked, and my blood had turned to ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Her? Who? I\u2019d asked, though we both knew exactly who she meant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sarah had rolled her eyes at my pathetic attempt at deflection. \u201cYou\u2019re not stupid, Tristan. You know exactly who I\u2019m referring to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t said anything. What could I say? That I\u2019d been thinking about Athena every waking moment? That I missed her so much it felt like a physical\u00a0<\/p>\n
illness?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Let me say something, and you\u2019re going to listen,\u201d Sarah acting really stupid right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
ad continued, her voice taking on that authoritative tone she\u2019d perfected as a mother. \u201cYou\u2019re\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d raised my head sharply, meeting her gaze. Nobody talked\u00a0<\/p>\n
to\u00a0<\/p>\n
an Alpha that way, not even family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
what you\u2019re thinking, and I\u2019m sorry for speaking to you like that. But someone needs to talk\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Sarah had matched my stare without flinching. \u201cI\u00a0<\/p>\n
some sense into you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if Orion is trying not to lose your friendship by staying quiet, but whatever you\u2019re doing isn\u2019t just hurting you. It\u2019s hurting him, it\u2019s hurting me, and it\u2019s hurting Athena too. Can\u2019t you see that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
|||\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
F\u00a0<\/p>\n
20.33 Thu, Jan 8\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 125\u00a0<\/p>\n
The way with the fren\u00a0<\/p>\n
31%1\u00a0<\/p>\n
and there a\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\u00a0<\/p>\n
understand, Nanthing standing to pace, I wantinggitated, restless, and wanting to run from this b\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 125 Chapter 125\u00a0 \u00a0 When she slapped me, the crack of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}