Fourteen (7 page)

It had been ages since I’d had anyone over after school. Christina and Vince would occasionally come over to hang out when we were at a loss for anything else to do around town, but they were the only ones. I didn’t know what to do with someone new.

I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, reaching for the remote on the coffee table and flicking on the television. I leaned back and changed the channel from the perpetual documentary programs.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt awkward. Sure, Evan had been over here to work on our project but never for anything else.

What was I doing? This would never work. This wouldn’t get us anywhere. Now that he’d decided to stop abusing me and treat me like a person, all we’d done is make smart-ass comments to each other, and that was it. We couldn’t build any sort of relationship on that. Friendship needed trust, and I most certainly did
not
trust him.

I groaned and threw the remote back onto the coffee table and rubbed my hands over my face.

This was insane. It wouldn’t prove anything. I was sure he was very much aware of that, and would have a grand ol’ time telling all of his little minions everything he thought he’d be able to get from me.

He probably didn’t even have a retainer. His teeth were gorgeous. Straightest teeth I think I’d ever seen. If the college thing didn’t work out for him—assuming he was going to college—he could star in one of those toothpaste commercials.

“Anna Weller, you are an idiot,” I declared and stood up.

I almost jumped through the roof when I heard a knock on the door and sat back down, my pulse racing. There was another knock and I stood up, slowly making my way to the door. Exhaling heavily, I turned the doorknob and yanked back on it. Evan stood in the doorway, shifting his weight and tapping his hands against his thighs.

“Hey,” he said, chuckling nervously.

“Hey.”

I moved out of the way, and he walked in, looking around the hallway as if he hadn’t already seen it plenty of times.

“So . . .” I stepped back to his side and pushed my hair behind my ear. “What did you . . . what’d you wanna do?”

“Well . . . I hadn’t really thought of that. I guess . . . we could talk, right?” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at me.

“Yeah, sure.” I motioned to the living room and waited as he walked ahead of me and plopped down into the spot on the couch I’d just been sitting in. I sat on the other end and turned to him. “How was the rest of your day?”

“It was school, you know? Sucked. Yours?”

“Sucked, too,” I said.

“Did anyone . . . you know, say anything to you? About me?”

“Just Christina.” I looked down at my lap. “Everyone else just gave me dirty looks.”

“Sorry.”

I looked up at him again, shrugging before looking down to my lap.

“It’s not your fault.”

“I was the one that dragged you into an empty classroom.”

“Why’d you lock the door?” I asked, looking up at him once again.

“It kept the conversation strictly between us, didn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, but everyone else is thinking that we . . . I don’t know what they’re thinking, but it wasn’t that we were just having an innocent conversation about our project.”

“Is that you what you told Christina?”

“No. I told her that we were going to hang out tonight.” He winced. “You don’t want anyone else to know.”

“Anna . . .”

“I knew this wasn’t going to work.” I pulled my legs up onto the couch. “Christina isn’t going to say anything.”

“It’s not that I didn’t want anyone else to know. I just don’t know how they’re going to take it.”

“Is it at all possible for you to think for yourself?” I asked, looking at him. “Forget about the idiots who cling to your every word for one second? Did you ever think that maybe I’m a pretty awesome person? That we’d get along well if you could just stop for one second to realize it?”

“They’re my friends, Arianna,” he said through his teeth.

“They’re idiots, Evan,” I shot back.

“You’re doing the same thing to them that you’re accusing me of. You’re aware of that, aren’t you?”

I stared at him and snapped my mouth shut.

“At least I have a legitimate reason to not like them,” I said. “There is no reason whatsoever that they couldn’t talk to me or get to know me.”

“Like I’m doing right now.”

“Why?”

“Why do you always have to—” He rubbed his forehead before glaring at me. “I feel guilty, Arianna.”

“Then get out,” I said, looking away from him and staring at the bottom of the television stand.

I should’ve been used to getting hurt by now, but every time he opened his mouth and said something like
that
, it just got ten times worse.

“You can’t just send me away every time I say something that you don’t want to hear!”

“You haven’t stopped to listen to
anything
I might’ve said to you in the past so why in hell should I listen to you?” I snapped.

“Because I’m here!” he shouted. “I’m here, trying to make it right with you! You have to give me some room to breathe!”

“Why should I?”

“Because we can’t make this work if you don’t give too! I know that you’re pissed and you have every right to be, but dammit, Arianna, I can’t do this completely on my own.”

I blew out a deep breath and closed my eyes, resting my chin on my knees and doing my best to clear my head.

“Anna . . .”

“Give me a minute,” I said, holding up my hand.

I could see his point. I wasn’t making it easy for him, and while he didn’t deserve easy, it wasn’t fair that I kept making him jump through hoops if I wasn’t really going to make an effort. I had years of anger stored up for him and his friends, but at least he finally had found the guts to make an effort with me.

“You need to understand that I don’t understand anything,” I said after a few moments of silence. “I don’t understand why I’m always the target, and I don’t understand why you’re trying to get to know me now.” I sucked in a deep breath. “No, wait. You feel guilty. Right.”

“I do,” he said, and I felt my heart shrink back just that much further in my chest. “But I wasn’t lying when I said that you were right and that you didn’t deserve anything we’d ever done to you. I do want to know you, Arianna.”

“Then you need to stop using my full name because I
will
hurt you.”

I opened my eyes and looked to find that he was staring at the palms of his hands.

“Steve is an asshole,” he said “There’s no excuse for him and what he said about you sitting—”

“I get it,” I interrupted and wrapped my arms tightly around my legs.

“You’re not that big, Anna.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, tightening my hold on my legs and staring at the remote on the coffee table.

“You seemed to agree with him a few days ago.”

“You ran out of the classroom before you could hear me tell him that he was being an ass.”

I slowly looked at him to find that he was still staring at his palms.

“What?”

“That was uncalled for.” He turned his hands over only to stare at the backs of them instead. “He wanted to get a rise out of you, and he got it.” He looked at me, staring directly into my eyes. “I told him that he was being an ass.”

“Why didn’t you say anything when he asked about me . . . molesting you?”

I nearly choked on the word.

“I was being an asshole too.” He conceded turning his hands back over and flexing his fingers.

“Why did you say that you thought I was beautiful as your lie?” I asked, chewing on the inside of my cheek.

“I copped his attitude for the rest of the day, and everyone else teased me about defending you. I was pissed, and I took it out on you because at the time, you were the one that caused all of it for me. I took a lot out on you, and I shouldn’t have.”

“I don’t want to be your scapegoat anymore.”

“And I’m going to try really hard to make sure that you aren’t.”

“Okay.” I went back to staring at the coffee table, still chewing on the inside of my cheek as I felt him shift around on the other end of the couch.

“Hey, can we start over?” he asked after a few silent moments.

I shrugged and picked at the hem of my worn-out jeans. “Yeah, whatever.”

I stared at him with my mouth open when he stood up and headed for the door. I rolled my eyes at his back and rested my chin on my upraised knee when he walked out. I guess his version of starting over and mine were very different. At least my version kept him in the same room.

“Jerk,” I said under my breath.

Once again, I heard a knock at the door. Snapping my teeth together, I unfolded myself from the couch and pulled open the door to find Evan standing on the other side.

“Anna!” he exclaimed with a smile on his face.

I blinked at him. He seriously walked outside and knocked on my door
again
.

“You are some kind of crazy.” I laughed.

He shrugged innocently, and I moved out of the way, letting him back into the house. I stared at the back of his head, not sure what I was supposed to do now that we were in the same position we’d been in a few minutes ago.

“Do you want something to drink?” I asked finally, tapping the balls of my hand against my thighs.

“Mountain Dew?”

I went to the fridge, grabbed the can and a bottle of tea for me. When I returned to the hallway, he was nowhere to be found, so I peeked around the stairs. He was sitting back on the couch and staring at the television. I shuffled over to him and handed him the can before taking my place back on the couch and twisting the top off my tea.

“What’s your favorite show?” he asked, turning to look at me as he popped the top of the can.

“
Grey’s Anatomy
, I guess.”

“What’s the obsession everyone has with doctor shows?” he asked, his face serious as he turned to me and cupped the can in his hands. “They’re all the same.”

“In a sense,” I agreed, and turned to him. “The storylines are different, though. So are the personal lives of the characters.”

“How many times can you watch a doctor go in for surgery, though, honestly? My mother loves that show too, and I just don’t understand the appeal.”

I laughed and shrugged, sipping from my bottle.

“The actors are pretty.”

“Oh!” He chuckled. “Pretty actors make all the difference.”

“Usually.”

“I see.”

“What’s yours?”

“
Ghost Hunters
.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, and he fidgeted, tapping against the sides of the can.

“Really?”

“It’s the only show I watch. Sherri has this thing with ghosts and all that.” He shrugged again. “It’s interesting.”

“My dad and I used to watch that all the time,” I said. “Now it’s all documentaries and history and poker.”

“Your father watches poker?”

I chuckled. “Sometimes he’ll get together with some of his buddies and have a poker night.”

“Here?”

“Oh, no.” I scoffed, waving at him. “He always goes to their place.”

“You and your dad don’t seem close.” I looked up at him and shrugged, picking at the green label on my bottle. “I figured that you would be. Since it’s just the two of you . . .” His voice trailed off.

“You figure things a lot for not knowing me that well.”

“Sorry.” He looked down and brought the can up to his mouth.

We sat in silence once again as he played with the top of his can, and I stared down at my lap in an attempt to think of something to talk about.

“You said that you cooked, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you make homemade macaroni and cheese?”

“Of course.”

“Will you show me?” he asked.

“You seriously want me to teach you how to make mac and cheese?”

He shifted uneasily.

“It’s my favorite and the only version I ever liked was my grandmother’s. She passed away three years ago, and my mom just can’t . . .” He took another sip. “She tries.”

“All right,” I said, standing up. “I’ll show you how to make it.”

He grinned—nearly stealing my breath—before he popped up. The way his face lit up and even the way his eyes seemed to brighten and widen a little, made him look like a kid on Christmas morning.

“You really have to wear a retainer?” I asked, tilting my head to the side as I looked at his teeth.

They were all pearly white, straight, and perfect.

“Yes, I really do. Makes me drool. Not a pretty picture.”