Promise of Forever Read Online Free Page A

pain he’d feel if he knew the truth . 
    His words were also painful to hear. It was a reminder of everything that was possible between us if things had been different—if we weren’t who we were. But I was Chloe and he was Jackson. That wasn’t something either one of us could ever change.
    I drew in a deep breath and walked back to the doorway of the empty, windowless room.
    I turned back and took one last look over my shoulder.
    Let me go, Jax, I wished I could say. You deserve a chance to live a happy life—even if I can’t be a part of it. Maybe someday you’ll be able to forget me. And maybe in another lifetime, we’ll find each other again under different circumstances, and fall in love with each other again. But until then, please just let me go.
    I stepped back into the stark, white hallway and closed the door behind me. As I stared down the endless corridor before me, I made myself a promise: I would not open any more doors.

CHAPTER THREE
    Jackson
    “Tell me a story, Jax,” she said in a soft voice. I could tell she was starting to get tired.
    “What kind of story?” I chuckled, picturing how cute she probably looked right now lying on her bed with her cellphone to her ear. We’d been talking on the phone for several hours now, and at some point, we’d both moved from our respective couches to our beds, unwilling to be the one to end our call.
    “Mmm, any story...maybe something with a happy ending.” Her voice drifted in and out and I could hear the pull of sleep overcoming her.
    I looked over at the alarm clock sitting on my bedside table and realized it was almost two o’clock in the morning. I groaned to myself, wondering why I’d thought an eight a.m. class this semester was going to be a good idea. It was the start of our second semester of our junior year of college. I was starting to get into the slacker mode as my senior year and graduation loomed ahead. I wondered how often I was going to skip this eight a.m. class.
    I yawned and realized I was also getting tired. But I didn’t care. Sleep deprivation and some missed classes were worth the trade off—being able to talk to Chloe for hours on end and knowing our friendship was as strong as it’d been in high school. It’d been about a year since our huge fight that morning when she had showed up unexpectedly at my frat house and walked in on me having sex with Amber. After she had driven back to Philadelphia looking upset and hurt, I’d felt guilty about what had happened afterward. But I wasn’t sure why. Chloe and I hadn’t been in a relationship and she’d made it clear to me that she wasn’t interested in me. I wasn’t sure why she was upset and why I’d felt guilty about being with Amber. But, nevertheless, the guilt had stayed with me, and had been made worse by the fact that we hardly talked for the rest of that semester. It wasn’t until summer break when we were both back home in West Chester that we finally made up.
    “Okay, you want a story with a happy ending?” I paused and grinned to myself. “Hmmm, what kind of happy ending?” I tried to stifle a snicker.
    “Jax, get your head out of the gutter,” she pouted. But she didn’t sound upset. She seemed too tired to even bother faking it. “You’re such a guy sometimes.”
    “Well, that’s probably because I am a guy, all the time—I mean, in case you forgot,” I said with amusement.
    “Smart-ass,” she shot back. “Fine, I don’t want to hear a story anymore. So no happy endings for either of us.”
    “Aww, really? Breaking a guy’s heart here.” My sentence broke into a fit of laughter.
    “Sometimes you’re impossible.”
    “It’s a part of my charm that you find irresistible.” I couldn’t help but want to flirt with her. Sometimes I found myself forgetting that we were just best friends and nothing else. Sometimes I found myself talking to her like she was my girlfriend. I knew I had to be careful though and not cross the line. I knew