Chapter 74
Chapter 74
Kaeleen’s POV
I didn’t show it but her words hung in the air between us, a confession so raw and hopeful it felt like I was holding my breath.
’ou make me feel like I can start all over. Be myself again.’ She’s been through so much.
There was a tightness in my chest I couldn’t place. I tried to run at it but it wouldn’t go away. I was pissed with the people who made her feel this way. The people who made her feel worthless. Who made feel unlike herself.
She was crying, but she was also chuckling through her tears, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. The combination was so purely Astrid, a mix of deep-seated pain and an unbreakable spirit, that I felt my heart ache with a feeling so fierce it was overwhelming.
The atmosphere was thick with emotion, heavy with the weight of everything we had just admitted to each other. I knew if we stayed here, we might spiral back into the intensity of it all. What she needed right now wasn’t a more heavy conversation. She needed normalcy. She needed to breathe.
An idea, simple and blessedly normal, sparked in my mind.
"Hey," I said, my voice softer than I intended. "I have an idea."
She looked up at me, her brown eyes still shimmering with unshed tears, a question on her face.
"How about we watch a movie?" I suggested, a small smile playing on my lips. "We can raid the kitchen, get all the popcorn and candy we can carry, and you can pick anything you want to watch."