I Stand Before You

Maybe we aren't so very different after all. There's good and bad in both of us, and that's what binds us together, for better or worse.

If Chase's wings are broken, then mine are shattered.

Kay is a sandcastle on the beach, and I'm a fucking hurricane. I'd not only wash her away, I'd fucking destroy her.

Tell me, Chase. Tell me what I think I already know. Tell me what you’re feeling. I feel it too, I do.' My slaughtered heart stitches back together, more solid than ever. `I love you,' I whisper. `I love you so fucking much.

You're not broken.' I touch the angel between the wings on his back for emphasis. 'You're putting your life back together. Building isn't breaking, Chase.

We both still, lips touching, breaths shared. This is what we are, two broken people who when connected are made whole, made right. I feel this everywhere, my body, my heart, my soul.

My tats were but temporal attempts to heal my soul, as my heart remained an open wound.

I knew the things happening in my life would eventually define my future, and I guess I hoped no matter what occurred those things wouldn't ultimately define me.

As I stand before you, judge me not.

He kisses me hard, tells me between frenzied kisses, `You feel so good, beautiful, beautiful, sweet girl. Feel how much I want you.' He circles his hips against mine. `I want you like this all the fucking time.

For Chase, I accept dares, I'm learning to take chances. He makes me feel unafraid.

I decide this day with Chase Gartner--my friend, my maybe-possibility--is the best one yet.

As we held tightly to one another, like two lost ships on a sea of confusion, I breathed in the guy I've grown to care for so very much.

This is what Kay needs right now, soft touching and caring. When we're together, I want to love her just like this.

It’s at that exact second I realize—in a rush, like a wave crashing all around me—I have fallen in love. I am head over heels in love with Chase Gartner.

Chase has made me feel a lot of things today, things I thought I’d never feel again—excitement, giddiness, lust, possibility. But the most important one—the one I want to cling to like a girl who’s been stumbling around for too long in the dark and has just spotted a sliver of light—is hope.

Hi,' Kay says all shy-like, as if she's suddenly not sure if she should be here. To me, she looks like she's belonged here all along.

Chase and I are in this for the long haul. I've stood before him and he's stood before me. And this is what it's all come down to: Chase Gartner is my future, my forever. And I, I am his.

I like this dirty Chase, this crude and irreverent man. I want to go where he's taking me. I need to be dragged down to where he is so we can build ourselves back up, together, stronger.