The Crystal 3 by Jones M (best beach reads TXT) 📖

he and Harry began walking forwards. I followed them as I began memorizing the sights around me.

Logan started making small conversations.

"So, Emery, are you and Zane already dating?"

"What?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, thinking I had heard what he said by mistake. I looked at him, but Logan was facing forwards, not turning to see me.

"Am I the only person here who remembers him confessing his love for you when you were in the mental hospital?"

What is it with everyone talking to me about Zane?

"He didn't."

"That's what you think. Zane may not have said the right words, but you could see it in his face. Everyone could see it in his face." Logan stated. 

I sighed, realizing we were not going to drop the subject anytime soon.

"I don't want to raise my hopes over something that may not be true."

"What?" Logan stated, forcing Harry and me to stop as we all turned to face each other.

"Have you forgotten that he went to see a therapist? There might have been some issues that might have made him think he was in love with me. Maybe the doctor helped him overcome those issues, and so he might not love me anymore. That is if he loved me in the first place."

"Maybe," Logan said. "You said maybe."

"Maybe. But I don't want to confess my feelings to Zane and just end up with him turning me down."

Logan gave me a sad look.

"Okay. Oh! We are here!" he said, pointing to something on his right. I turned, noticing that we had indeed arrived at a grocery store. It wasn't the one I went to with Ashley. It looked big enough to be a mall.

"Let's go," Logan said as he entered. Harry followed, and so did I. A few minutes later, we had taken two shopping carts.

"I need this; I need that..." Logan trailed off in front of Harry and me with his own shopping cart, dropping some of the goods arranged on the shelves.

I smiled, turning to look at Harry. He was looking away from me as if he was also looking for something.

My smile turned down, and then I realized something.

I had hardly talked to Harry ever since he and Logan visited me earlier.

"Harry?" I called out, having him face me in shock.

"What's wrong?"

"You're talking to me?" he asked. Not in a rude way, but in a way that surprised him.

"Yes... is everything okay?"

"Yes," he lied through his teeth. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Okay, fine. There was an incident with Ashley."

My eyes widened as awful thoughts began to invade my mind.

"Oh no. Is she okay? Why did you wait so long to tell me?"

"Emery, she's okay. It's just..." Harry trailed off, scratching the back of his head in what I thought was discomfort.

"I slept with her last weekend," he said, earning a gasp of shock from me.

"No," I said, my eyes widening in disbelief.

"We were both drunk--"

"How the hell did the two of you get drunk?"

"We were in a club--"

"There's a club in Crystalia?"

"Yes. We got drunk, started making out with each other, and then we went to her home and... you know."

I said nothing for a while, blinking as I stared at Harry who refused to meet my eyes.

"Oh my goodness. This is juicier than her stories of her random hookups," I commented, watching as Harry blushed in embarrassment.

"I woke up the next day and found myself naked with her. I panicked and teleported away from her home."

"What?" I was shocked even more.

"I was afraid she would tell you and Selena. I even believed that the three of you would join forces and attack me with torches and pitchforks."

I laughed out loud at what Harry said, earning a small uneasy smile from him.

"You don't have to worry, Harry. Worry... Harry... Ooh! That rhymes!" I cleared my throat. "Anyway, Ashley has her random hookups. You were one of them, and so you do not have to overthink about it."

Harry's shoulder's sagged in relief.

"Unless," Harry stood straight, "she happens to have fallen for you. That is when Selena and I will come for your ass. Are we clear?"

I gave Harry a small smile, but he seemed scared. I laughed out loud.

"I'm kidding!" I said, watching him smile in relief. "Honestly, the things you do with Ashley are between the two of you."

I will only come after you if you break her heart, I added in my mind.

"Thanks, Emery," Harry said.

"No problem. So, what else are we looking for?"

Harry and I continued shopping for the next hour. When we had placed everything that they needed in the trolleys, we met up with Logan at the counter. Some minutes later, we were done. Logan and Harry teleported their groceries to their homes as we exited the grocery store and headed to Pizza Castle.

It was a nearby restaurant that specialized on pizza.

Logan, Harry and I entered it and were met with the aroma of pizza cooking somewhere in the building. My stomach grumbled as we made our way towards two leather seats that had a high-density plastic table in the middle. The three of us settled down before ordering a large pizza and drinks.

"So I had a chat with Zane," Harry spoke once the waiter left. "He told Ethan about the river incident, and Ethan told me."

"What river incident?" I asked at the same time as Logan. The gears in my head clicked, and my eyes widened as I realized what Harry meant.

Un-be-freaking-liveable!

"No..." I trailed off in disbelief. How could he? How could Ethan do that?

Okay, I was also mad at Zane. Maybe he was confused on what to do and sought out help from Ethan. That was not a great plan. Zane was going to hear from me.

"What?" Logan asked, still confused.

"Well, Emery and Zane were--"

"STOP!" I ceased Harry from continuing, placing my palm on his mouth. He bit it, and I flinched.

"You bit me!"

"You had your hand on my mouth. What else was I supposed to do?" Harry defended himself, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Anyway--"

"Harry, if you dare tell Logan what you're going to tell him, I will make sure to chop you up into pieces of meat and use them as my homemade pizza meat."

Harry looked shocked, and he immediately stopped.

"I want to know!" Logan whined.

"By the way, Zane said he likes your boobs," Harry added, and I gasped in shock.

"Harry!"

"What boobs? Why does Zane like your boobs?"

"You know that I now have to tell Logan what happened, right?" Harry said. Logan looked at me with pleading eyes, and I sighed in agreement.

"As long as no one else finds out about this," I warned just as Logan grinned in excitement. I covered my ears for a while as I watched Harry's mouth move and Logan' expression change.

"Are you done?" I asked once I saw Harry keep quiet.

"Yep," he said.

"You were swimming in a river with Zane?" Logan asked me, and I nodded my head.

"Why didn't you jump on him?" he asked, making me drop my jaw in shock. 

At that moment, I realized the guys didn't know everything that had happened in the river. It brought a slight sense of relief to my form.

"I mean, he got a boner over what happened," Logan added.

"I know that," I stated before shaking my head in disbelief over what we were talking about. "If you must know, we didn't have sex, but we did do some stuff."

"Oh. So you'll jump Zane's bones the next time you see him?"

Logan had no idea that I had already done that. In fact, Zane and I had done it again and again during the times we spent together.

I narrowed my eyes at Logan who was smirking at me.

"Aw, true love's fuck," Harry commented, and he and Logan laughed. I rolled my eyes at them. Our food came, and I was glad that I had some time left before I was ridiculed again.

Logan and Harry did not bring up the river incident again. Instead, they bought me two boxes of large pizzas. We exited the restaurant and made our way towards their parked car. Luckily, Logan and Harry did not bring up the river incident again. We kept the conversations around small topics.

Logan and Harry dropped me off at my house. I bid them goodbye as I took my two pizza boxes, entering the house. Harry yelled that we would talk later before the car drove off as I closed the door.

I moved towards the kitchen with the pizza boxes, thinking of where to put them.

Jumping Zane's bones... what the hell?

The image came to mind. I remembered the river incident and the first time we made love. His kisses, his caresses, his touch...

Oh, the feel of him. 

I was reminded of the pleasure that I felt when my bare torso was pressed against his. I also pictured him touching my breast, dragging the nipple into his mouth as he —

An image of Zane pistoning his hips into mine appeared in my thoughts.

I felt heat shoot towards my core. I almost collapsed onto the floor, and so I held fast on the dining table. It almost toppled over when I steadied myself on my feet, my heart beating fast.

Oh no.

I needed to get my mind away from Zane. More importantly, I needed to see what my feelings for him were. Maybe it was only lust. If I did love him, I would have to find out how he felt about me. We couldn't continue our affair if he didn't feel the same intense feelings I had for him.

The thought made me sad and had me almost tearing up. I gasped, surprised by my emotions. I never thought I would feel such strong feelings over someone else.

Could it be possible I had already fallen in love with him?

 

 

Chapter 21

Emery's P.O.V

It was that time of the month. It was the moment everyone was expecting, and it was the moment everyone was dreading.

Yes.

Selena's coronation was happening.

The whole of Crystalia had been in a buzz, especially during the last seven days. People were excited. Others were nervous as they thought the day would be a disaster. I even heard from Logan that some witches gossiped about Selena ruining her coronation. That was not something the future Queen of Crystalia wanted to hear. In fact, she couldn't afford to or it would mess with her nerves. Similarly to the previous week, she had locked herself up in the castle, preparing for the day she dreaded.

And the said day had finally arrived.

In my mind, I pictured a screaming Selena as she crazed around the castle because, in a few minutes, the coronation would begin. It was funny at first, but I started to worry about her and how people would react if she made a mess of herself.

There were ways of that happening. That included not showing up or doing anything else that would make her seem unfit for the intended title.

"Do you think she will be calm?" Ashley asked me as we made our way towards the entrance of the castle.

"I hope so," I replied as I glanced at other people walking towards the castle. Noon was approaching, and so was the hour when the coronation would begin. The area around the castle was filled up with a large crowd of people waiting to enter the