Small Town Dirt: Perfectly Stated

By Mia Echo

Logan

For years we'd been best friends.

One day she was my best friend and only ally in the whole world, and the next everything changed. We were practically inseparable, and then everything changed because I began having feelings for her. Feelings that I couldn't control.

 

Riley

I don't know what happened. Why did everything change? What did I do wrong?

We were so close and then out of nowhere, he started treating me differently. Picking fights, ignoring me, even outright being mean to me. This isn't the boy I grew up with. Did he learn my secret?

Now that we're adults and alone in my parents' vacation home up in the mountains of Pennsylvania, can we work things out. Can we get past all the hurt and find a way to get along?

Or better yet, can we be more than friends?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kayla Galla
• Release date: Jan 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798201405496

Book preview

Prologue

Dear Logan,

I hope this finds you well and that you are safe and happy.

I bet you’re shocked to hear from me. Hopefully a little bit glad, but at the very least not upset about it. Over the years, I’ve probably started a thousand of these letters to you, but I could never work up the nerve to finish, let alone send any of them.

We used to be so close. I could talk to you about anything and everything. I don’t know what changed or what I did to earn your hatred but whatever it was, I am truly sorry.

I miss you. I miss my best friend and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make things right between us. Can we start over? Start fresh?

Maybe when you come home, we can sit down and talk? If you want to, I mean.

So yeah, this is my olive branch so to speak.

Love, Riley

P.S. Please be safe.

Chapter 1

Logan

When I was a baby, my mother passed away. I don’t have any memories of her, which I suppose is a good thing because it made things easier in the long run. My father remarried when I was ten years old. I was nervous about adding to our family. After all, it had been just my father and I for as long as I could remember, but my excitement at the prospect of having a mother outweighed my concern. My father’s new wife, Claire, had an adorable eight-year-old daughter who quickly became my best friend and my shadow. Claire was the mother I never had and Riley? Riley was my world.

Wherever I was, she was never far behind. It never bothered me that she would follow me to my friend’s houses or that she’d sneak into my room when she’d had a bad dream or was afraid of the thunder during one of our summer storms. No, it never bothered me at all because my mission in life was to see her smile and keep her safe. Everything was perfect.

Until things changed.

Until Riley changed.

The changes were subtle at first, so subtle that I didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. When we would wrestle or horse around, my chest would tighten as her soft skin brushed against my arm. My stomach filled with this odd fluttering sensation and my head buzzed with confusion when her body came into contact with mine as she hugged me good night.

I tried to ignore it, pretend it didn’t matter. Then one day, everything was different and I couldn’t deny my body’s reaction to her new womanly curves. Posters of kittens and puppies were replaced with ones of bands and her favorite movies. Bras suddenly appeared in her laundry, and there was a new look in her eyes when I’d catch her looking at me. It felt as if she could see into my deepest darkest secrets and knew just how dirty my thoughts about her had become. I was desperate to keep my feelings a secret and it devastated me, knowing I’d have to hurt her to keep them. I knew things could never be the same between us. Not with how tight the front of my pants became at the mere thought of her, and definitely not with the way my thoughts of her turned into a desperate yearning.

As much as it pained me to see the hurt and fear take root in her expressive eyes, as day by day I pushed her away, I knew it was the only way to protect her from myself. I could still watch over her from the shadows. I could pretend to be the step-brother I was supposed to be, not the lovesick young man I’d become.

Things got easier after I graduated and joined the service, but deep down that desire still burns. She’s mine, even if I can never truly have her. My heart says she’s mine.

I’ve had years to perfect the act of indifference. I’ve done well hiding the truth.

No one even suspects.

So why am I pushing my luck by coming here? I guess I’m desperate to see her after a long hard deployment. The letter she sent me, gutted me. She was always the strong one, and I guess I forced her to be when I pushed her away, but for her to plead with me for a fresh start? How could I not take her up on it? I may not be able to be with her the way I’ve always dreamed, but at least I can have her in my life in a small way- in the way we are supposed to be- siblings.

I’ll be around more now that I’ve taken a position on base that will keep me from being deployed, and I’d like to be able to spend time with my family more often...all of my family, Riley included. The deployments were tough, especially with so much unresolved at home, and how I kept leaving things with Riley. When she had been writing to me on my first deployment, I thought maybe, just maybe, things could go back to some semblance of normal, but then I went and messed things up again with all my feelings.  Now, I can only hope to take this olive branch and turn it into the fresh start we both seem to want, even if that means keeping my feelings on lockdown.

My father and Claire bought a summer home in the mountains of Pennsylvania, the year after they got married. It was a great place to relax and just recharge. It became our summer getaway. When I called my father to let him know I’d be home soon, he told me that Riley was spending the summer at the vacation home while he and Claire were taking a road trip across the country. He offered to cancel their trip but I insisted they go. They deserve to have fun on their own.

I felt guilty for feeling so relieved that he and Claire wouldn’t be around when I got home. I also felt guilty for leading him to believe that I’d be spending my time at home rather than the summer home, but with the discussion I have in mind, I’d prefer if Riley and I had privacy. The summer home is a perfect place to find that privacy.

My heart beat a little faster,