I Love You More Than I'm Afraid (Our Forevers #2), Rebel Hart [best adventure books to read .txt] 📗

“You are seriously the most incredible person I think I’ve ever met.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards the house. “Come on. Help me pick out a blueprint for the application.”

“Yes!” Aria said.

I dragged Aria through the door and my parents, upon hearing the door open and close, came back out to meet me. They were both red in the face, looking as if they wanted to start up with me again, but they saw Aria and stopped short.

“Aria,” my mother said and then she smiled. “Hello! We weren’t expecting you.”

“Hi Mrs. Namon, Mr. Namon. Sorry for the intrusion. I had to give Arden something and it couldn’t wait,” Aria explained.

“You are never an intrusion,” my father replied. “Are you going to stay for dinner?”

“Probably not,” she said. “I’m meeting my boyfriend later for dinner, but I’ll be here for an hour or two if that’s okay.”

My parents both lit up at the mention of a boyfriend. Not only did it mean that Aria wasn’t gay, but it meant that I was hanging around with someone who was straight, and they could only hope that she would rub off on me somehow.

“That’s perfectly, okay,” my mother said. “You two head up and I’ll bring you some snacks!” She fluttered off towards the kitchen as if she’d won the lottery.

My father nodded. “Stay as long as you’d like, Aria. You’re always welcome here.”

Aria smiled. “Thank you.”

He walked off and Aria and I continued up the stairs. “Snacks,” I murmured. “That woman hasn’t brought me a fucking snack since I was ten.”

Aria snickered behind me. “Well sure, she only has straight snacks, you see. She can’t feed ants on a log to a lesbian. Have you lost your mind?”

I laughed at Aria’s obvious sarcasm. “God, I love you.”

We turned to walk into my room, and both Willow and Whitney were sitting inside. Willow’s eyes were red and puffy and Whitney had her arms around her shoulder and was soothing her quietly. They both looked up when we walked in and Willow jumped up and ran over to me, throwing her arms around me.

“I’m sorry, Arden!” she sobbed. “I didn’t want to say that stuff.”

“Hey, I know it, kid. Don’t worry.” I petted her head. “You don’t owe me an apology. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I should have said no,” she whimpered. “Like you do.”

I pulled back and cupped her face in my hands. “Listen to me. My road is a rough one. I would never tell you to handle things how I handle them. I’m just too far gone.” I kissed her on the top of the head. “It’s okay. Don’t be sad.”

“Hi, Aria,” Whitney said in a muted tone.

Willow hopped back from me, her face turning bright red with embarrassment. “Aria! I didn’t see you there.”

“No worries,” Aria said. “I sniveled in front of Arden like a baby yesterday too. Maybe it’s her.” I laughed.

“I’m sorry. We’ll leave your room,” Willow said. “Come on, Whit.”

They both started for the door, but Willow stopped when she was next to me and looked over. “I’m not ever gonna let mom use me like a weapon against you again, okay? I promise.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Thanks.”

She walked out and Whitney threw me an awkward smile as she passed, and then they were gone.

“Did something happen?” Aria asked as we walked into my room. I hooked a finger into my binder of blueprints and pulled it with me over to the bed where Aria and I sat down. “She seemed pretty shaken up.”

“I got into it with my folks again,” I said. “You have killer timing actually. They were gonna tear into me again until they saw you. My mom goaded my sisters into trying to guilt trip me. Made Willow put on her best puppy dog eyes and say she was worried.”

Aria frowned. “Willow always texts me if she can’t get a hold of you.”

“I know. That’s how I knew it was my mom puppeteering them. I flipped out and was in the midst of storming out when you showed up.” I shook my head. “Whatever. It’s over now. I don’t wanna think about that. I wanna think about this. Can you go to the website on the brochure and see if you can find the application.”

“Yeah.” Aria pulled out her phone and grabbed the brochure and started doing what I asked as I flipped through my blueprints.

Most of what I had in my binder were things I’d either built before, but they didn’t pan out. I had created new blueprints with improvements, or were just ideas I’d always had in my head. Whenever I encountered a problem that there wasn’t an outright solution to, rather than trying to find some makeshift way to fill the void, I’d create my own solution. I believed that one day I would invent the next big thing that would change the world.

This internship was my first step forward.

“Okay,” Aria said. “It looks like you’ll have to submit a sample of your work, and it specifically says that if you’re inventing something new, you should plan to submit a prototype. It has all the mailing address information and says if you contact them about applying, they’ll send you a box and shipping label to get your prototype to them safely.”

“Okay…”

“It also says you’ll need to write a statement of intent, and get a few references. Though between Mr. Hansen and the other teachers at school, that shouldn’t be an issue. My mom would write one for you too, I’m sure,” she said.

“Anything else? What about an application fee?”

“A hundred bucks,” she replied with a downward tone. “But if you need, I can—”

“Nope,” I cut her off. “I’ll drive for it. It’ll be fine.”

Unlike Aria who already had a weekend job where she wanted to establish her career, I didn’t have a job. Mainly because most places in the area connected back to my parents somehow, making it