47
Laurelyn Prescott
I feel Addison shake my arm. “Wake up, Laurelyn. You’re freaking me out.”
I feel myself snubbing. At least that’s what my mom calls it when you’re crying so hard that your chest forcefully heaves so you can catch your breath.
I open my eyes and she’s staring at me. “You were crying in your sleep. Hard.”
I sit up in the uncomfortable airplane seat and warm tears roll out of the corners of my eyes. I suck back the snot threatening to drip from my nose. Then I remember. I was dreaming of Jack Henry.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m good.”
She gives me her I know better than that look. “You’re a damn liar. I know you’re torn up about leaving him.”
I stare out the window. I don’t want this. I don’t want to talk about it. Him. I want to forget the whole thing ever happened.
“I thought f*cking Lachlan would get Blake out of your system. I wouldn’t have encouraged you to go for it if I’d known you were going to fall in love with him.” His name isn’t Lachlan. It’s Jack Henry.
“I didn’t fall in love with him.”
“You’re full of shit and it’s not an attractive look for you.”
“You’ve swallowed your vocal cords because you’re talking out of your ass.”
She sighs. “At least I can admit I love Zac and it’s killing me to leave him.”
I should be a friend and offer to talk to her about the man she loves, but I don’t. “This is a long flight and I’m not doing this with you.”
I get up from my seat and walk toward the back of the plane so I can get away from her. I go into the tiny bathroom and lock the door. I look like shit so I splash my face with water, but it doesn’t help. Water won’t wash this away.
I’ve known pain my whole life, but this is a new kind for me. It isn’t born of something wrong or ugly. This pain is conceived out of beauty—my love for Jack Henry McLachlan. I embrace it. I clutch it as tightly as I can with both fists because I never want to forget the love I have for him. Loving him will forever be my Beauty from Pain.