Letting My Brother's Best Friend Take My V-Card

My Husband 394

THAT'S WEIRD LAURA

One month.

That's how long it had been since I came home - well, Texas, anyway. Since I stepped foot into a house I didn't recognize, in a state I never imagined living in.

And now, here I was.

Standing in front of the mirror, steam curling around me as dragged a towel over my damp skin. I reached out, wiping the condensation off the glass, revealing my reflection-really looking at myself. My hair was still a little dull, the ends thinner than I

remembered. My cheeks weren't as hollow anymore, but they still weren't as full as they used to be. My ribs no longer jutted out as sharply, and the muscles in my arms and legs had started filling back in, thanks to the endless amounts of protein Josh had been feeding me.

I was getting stronger.

Every day, I felt more alive.

I dropped the towel to my shoulders, running my fingers through my hair before my gaze drifted lower. My fingertips brushed over the scar on my hairline, then over the faint, healing wound on my throat. Lower still, my ribs, still slightly too pronounced. Then the most prominent scar-the one on my stomach where

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THAT'S WEIRD

288 Vouchers

the feeding tube had been.

So many scars.

So many reminders of what I'd been through.

I let out a breath, shaking my head.

I needed sun.

I needed fresh air.

I needed to live.

for the first time, I was

driver to take me to Asha's

picking up my daughter

so small, so normal-and yet my stomach was twisted in

Nerves. Excitement. Fear.

steady beneath me. I no longer needed

yet, as I climbed into the car, I couldn't

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288 Vouchers

if I was really

could do

could be

fingers tightened around my bag. Parents gathered outside, chatting amongst themselves,

This was normal.

This was life.

my skin-another reminder that I'd spent too much

to look at me as I adjusted the strap of my bag over

Then they walked over.

must be Asha's mom," one of them

the

her head. "It's just incredible, really. Everything you've been through...

heard this a lot over the

knew people meant

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288 Nouchers

to make me feel

sat strangely

smiled politely.

I was. I nodded in all the right places, made small talk, but my eyes kept drifting toward the school

Asha.