Fourteen (13 page)

I fidgeted.

“After everything I . . . you still . . .”

“I wanted to think the best of you because I saw something when you were with your family that I didn’t see in school.”

“And I just . . . I said . . . I did . . . all of that . . . all this time . . .”

“Full sentences, please,” I said.

He dropped his hands from my face, staring over my shoulder, and I was positive that I’d said and done something wrong. I closed my eyes tightly and was two seconds away from bolting up the stairs and locking myself in my room until graduation. I could do everything from home; there would be no logical reason for me to go back to school for more than getting my homework. Right?

“Why did you help me?” he whispered.

“What?”

“Why did you even bother helping me that day when I dropped my papers? Why did you? Anna, I don’t . . . I can’t believe that . . .”

His arms were around me again, pulling me back to his chest, and he rested his chin on my shoulder.

“I was sure there was still some of that little boy I used to play with hiding inside of you somewhere.”

“And there wasn’t until a few days ago.” His arms tightened around me, and he moved his legs in closer, keeping me nestled in tight against him. “Why did you ever give me another chance?”

“Because you gave me a flower.”

When he laughed, he sounded on the verge of being hysterical, and I was slightly worried.

“I gave you a flower and you . . .”—he buried his nose in my neck—“. . . a flower got me here.”

“More or less.”

“I have never been more thankful for my mother’s obsession with orchids than I am right now, let me tell you. Jesus Christ, Anna, I will spend . . . however long you want me to, making up for everything you’ve been through, everything I’ve put you through.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes, yes, I fucking do.”

“Evan, it’s not—”

“Anna, you’re beautiful”—I snapped my mouth shut and blinked rapidly at the television in front of me—“and everyone in that entire school is a fucking idiot.”

“Not . . . not everyone is . . .”

“Majority of them,” he said with his lips pressed against my neck. “You were right, and I was wrong about everything. We had no right. We had no reason.” He trailed his lips up to my ear and pressed a gentle kiss against it. “I’m so sorry.”

“Will you do me a favor?” I asked.

“Anything.”

“Stop apologizing for stuff that’s over and done with.”

“Anna, I feel like—”

“I know how you feel. You’ve told me, and you’ve apologized, which is something that no one else has ever bothered to do before.” I placed my hands on his forearms again, sucking in a deep breath. “That means a lot to me.”

“You really don’t ask for all that much, do you?”

“Just the world.” I grinned back at him.

He laughed, swaying us from side-to-side.

I relaxed against him and closed my eyes, squeezing his arm. Despite the conversation we’d just had, I felt content. For once, I didn’t feel stressed-out or worried about every little thing that I knew was right around the corner, and it was nice to relax.

At least, until my father opened the front door.

“Oh, no.” I opened my eyes.

Dad was staring at us, completely immobile with one hand on the doorknob and the other gripping his keys. Evan immediately moved away from me, and I groaned, leaning forward so that he could presumably back as far away from me as possible. I blushed and stood, Evan doing the same.

“Evan, I think it’s about time that you went home,” my dad said, his eyes trained on me.

“Yeah, I’m uh . . . I’m going.”

I turned to Evan, and he offered me a small smile and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He gathered his books and shoved them back into his bag before slinging it over his shoulder. He looked at me, his gaze flicking to my father once, and he leaned in and kissed my cheek. My dad cleared his throat, and I glared at him before following Evan to the front door as he bolted out of the house. He waved over his shoulder before practically diving into his car. I closed the door and crossed my arms over my chest, staring at my dad’s feet and waiting for whatever it was that he had to say.

“What was that, Arianna?”

I ground my teeth together. “That was me and Evan.”

“What’s going on with you two?”

“We’re—” I suddenly realized a little too late that I had no idea what was going on. We hadn’t put a label on whatever we were, and I wasn’t going to presume that he was my boyfriend because, really, that was almost laughable. Even after the kiss and the confession, I didn’t know. And I’d never asked because at that moment, it hadn’t really mattered. “We’re hanging out.”

“You hang out with all of your friends that way?”

“What other friends?” I asked through my teeth.

“That couple you hang out with.” I slowly ran my tongue along my bottom teeth, and he waved me off. “Doesn’t matter. You are not to be alone with him.”

“Oh, so
now
you want to be my protector?
Now
you’re concerned about what I do?”

“I’m always concerned about what you do, Anna, I’m your dad! It’s what I do!”

“Yeah? Well you sure as hell don’t act like it most of the time! This is the most you’ve said to me since mom died five years ago!”

“I can’t . . . don’t you—” he stuttered, obviously flustered.

“You’ve got more interest in that damn television than you do me! You don’t ask me how my day was, you didn’t even come to check on me last week. I didn’t know you were home until Evan said that you’d let him in. I’m just a pain in your ass, and I’m tired of it!”

“You know that’s not true. You’re my daughter and I love you. I’m doing the best I can right now, Anna! It’s not easy!”

I stared at him, at a complete loss for words and wanting to be anywhere but in the same room with him.

“I have to go,” I said, turning and pulling the door open.

“Where?” he called out as I stepped onto the porch.

“I don’t know. A run, I guess.”

“It’s dark out.”

Thank you for pointing out the obvious, father. Guess I’m just too damn stupid to see for myself.

“I hadn’t noticed. Thanks for the update,” I retorted.

I pulled the door closed and took off in the opposite direction of where I usually ran. My head was everywhere, and not one single thought made any sense to me. Before I realized it, I was standing at the end of the Drake’s driveway, breathing heavily and staring up at the big white house on the hill.

Why had I come here? I wasn’t sure how I got here. I knew where he lived; everyone knew where the Drakes lived, but still. He was probably going to think I was stalking him because hell, I just had to go and tell him that I liked him that entire time, didn’t I? Just because he hadn’t seemed upset about it, didn’t mean he wouldn’t be now. Maybe he’d changed his mind already. I found myself pacing up and down at the base of his driveway like a caged animal, trying to figure out what I was to him.

I scoffed to myself. I had told him to stick me in a cage at one point, hadn’t I?

Just turn around and go home, Anna. Why is he going to want to see you right now? Go home, deal with your father, and you’ll see Evan tomorrow, you over-dramatic pain in the butt.

“Anna?”

I jumped and stopped pacing. Evan was jogging down his driveway toward me. While I’d been lost in my head, the entire front lawn had lit up like a damn Christmas display, and I was amazed that I hadn’t seen it.

Well, there goes the idea of leaving.

“Everything okay? How’d you get here?” he asked as he reached me, looking over the top of my head.

“I, uh . . .” I licked my lips and looked down, finally noticing that my legs were tingling. “I ran.”

“You ran . . .”—I shrugged—“from your house.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Anna, that’s five miles.”

“Oh.” I laughed nervously before directing my gaze over his shoulder.

“What happened?”

“I don’t . . . I really don’t know.” I marveled at the realization that I really didn’t know what had happened after he’d left. My father and I had gotten into a fight, but how had it escalated to me leaving? “My dad and I had a fight and I left.”

“Okay,” he said, pulling me into his arms. “A bad fight?”

I snorted against his chest and buried my nose into his shirt.

“Are there any fights that could be classified as good, Evan?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” He tightened his arms around me and rubbed my back.

Something seemed to click, and I groaned, backing away from him. Not only was I a disgusting, sweaty mess, but I was also sure that I’d probably disrupted whatever he and his family might’ve been doing.

“You’re probably busy, aren’t you? Or eating dinner . . . or doing something else that I interrupted, and I just . . . I’m sorry. I’ll just go, okay?”

“Did I say I was busy?” he asked, grabbing my hand and pulling me back to him. “You’re fine.”

“How’d you even know I was here?”

“Mom went on this security kick about a year ago and insisted that we get a camera installed at the end of the driveway for some stupid reason. There’s such a high crime rate in Collins Point, you know?”

I snorted again and relaxed enough to wrap my arms around his waist, closing my eyes and burying my face in his chest again. He didn’t seem to mind my sweat, and I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I needed comfort, and if he was willing to provide it for me, I wasn’t turning him away.

“Do you want to come in and relax for a little while?” he asked after a few minutes.

“I don’t think . . . your family . . .”

“Knows all about you.” He grabbed my shoulders and gently pushed me back from him. “They want to meet you. Mom was even saying that we should have you over for dinner sometime next week.”

I blinked at him.

“I’m not a secret and I refuse to be yours,” he whispered.

I stared at him as my eyes watered before embracing him.

“Was that . . . did I . . . was that not something I should’ve said?”

“You remembered,” I cried, curling my hands into the back of his shirt.

“Well . . . yes.”

“I . . . I didn’t think . . . I . . .”

“Okay, come inside, Anna.”

“Not like this!” I cried. “I can’t meet your family like this.”

“All right,” he said, rubbing my back. “Well . . . let’s go sit down, okay? There’s a bench right over here.”

“Okay.” I moved away from him, sniffling and letting him lead me to a stone bench by the porch. I plopped down onto it and did my best to calm down, drying the last of my tears with my shirt. He sat next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him. I leaned against his body.

“I’m sorry,” I said after a few minutes.

He kissed the top of my head and placed one hand on my thigh, trailing his other hand through my hair. “Don’t be.”

“I didn’t mean to come here. I just . . . I just left, and I ended up here, and I’m sure I ruined your entire night with this and—”

“Stop,” he said, interrupting me. “It’s fine, Anna.”

“What are we, Evan?” I asked after a few moments of silence.

“I told my family that you were my girlfriend,” he said. “I thought that’s what the whole purpose of the conversation this afternoon was about.”

“I wasn’t sure. We never said . . .”

“Is that what you want with me?”

“Yeah.”

“All right then.” He kissed the top of my head again. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“I thought we just did.”

“You know what I mean.”

I sighed and closed my eyes.

“He hasn’t been the same since Mom died.” I opened my eyes and looked down at his lap. “He hasn’t been involved with anything I’ve done since then, and I kind of just exploded on him tonight about it. It just . . .” I chuckled halfheartedly.

“I’m anything but invisible at school, and I come home to . . . silence and disconnection, and then he tells me that I can’t be alone with you without giving me any real reason. I couldn’t . . .” I turned, burying my nose in his shoulder and squeezing my eyes shut. “I just couldn’t deal with it.”

“It’s been a rough week.”

I snorted, and he laughed and wrapped his arms around me.

“Understatement of the year.”

“Maybe even the century,” he agreed.

I sighed. “I should probably get home.”

“Come inside real quick,” he said. “Meet my family. I’ll drive you home.”

“You don’t have to—”

“You’re not running five miles back in the dark, Anna. That’s completely out of the question.”

I smiled against his shirt, sat up, and kissed his cheek.