Chapter 12

Stella

I'm warm, warmer than I normally am, and I hear a thudding in my ear. A steady rhythmic beating. As I start to come to awareness, I realize I'm in bed with Ransom. My head is laying on his chest. Below me, I can see the ink of his tattoos, the light sprinkling of hair he has there. His arms are wrapped tightly around me, and our legs are entwined with one another.

It's a huge surprise to me that I'm here. Before a few months ago, I never would have thought we'd be together. Truthfully, I saw him as nothing more than a friend, but something changed. There's a couple of moments that stick out, but really there are a group of memories in time. Where I started to look at Ransom differently, where he stopped being an annoying friend of Nick's, and a member of our group. Somewhere along the line, he started to become someone I looked at as if I'd like to get to know him better.

Before the day at my grandparent's pool, I always waved off his invitations to hang out. Even when he