Left Together (14 page)

The
night starts out just fine. Kyle keeps looking around, waiting for Evan to show
up. I assure my friends there’s no reason to worry. Why would Evan care I am
here? He broke up with me and moved on. It’s time I do the same thing. We end
up in Ashley’s section. I don’t really know her all that well, except to say
hello. She’s still fairly new to Skyline, but everyone adores her like she’s
the baby of the family. When we first sit down, she seems nervous. I’m afraid
it’s because she knows Evan and I broke up, but that theory is quickly put to
rest.

“Serving
my boss’ girlfriend is a little stressful,” Ashley admits when she brings over
the first round.

“I’m
no longer his girlfriend, so the pressure’s off,” I clarify.

The
poor girl looks at my friends, then back at me. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“Ashley,
please don’t worry about it.” I smile at her and she visibly relaxes. “It’s no
big deal.”

“And,
if you don’t mind, please don’t go announcing to Evan that she’s here,” Kyle adds.
“We really don’t need to start a fucking war.” Jade backhands him at the same
time I do.

“No
problem,” she tells him as she goes off to her next table.

A
little while later, Ashley informs me that not only does Evan know I’m here, he
also made our drinks. Kyle sarcastically remarks about being grateful his is in
a bottle, which earns him another glare from Jade. I thank Ashley for the heads-up.
Shortly after hearing Evan’s aware of my presence, a guy comes up to me. Since
he’s cute, I let him stay. There’s no harm in a little drunk flirting, right?

Whether
it is because I don’t realize he has come over to our table or because it has
been a while, hearing the familiar sound of Evan’s voice hurts a lot more than
I imagined it would. I have missed it more than I thought possible. When Evan tells
the guy to take his hands off me, my body desperately wants to be pressed up
against his, despite how he hurt me. It’s like it knows that’s where it belongs.
I have to squeeze my fists tightly together to prevent myself from reaching out
for him. To keep from caving into the desire of running into his arms, I keep
my eyes away from his because I know it will undo me. Why the hell did I think
going to the club to face him would help? Ideally, I would have stuck to my
plan and ignored him or told him to fuck off. However, once he makes the
comment about my dress, I can’t help it. The bitch in me takes over and that is
when the night goes to hell. Against my better judgment, I allow some stranger
to dance with me. The next thing I know, Jake and Evan are screaming at each
other, and I’m afraid Jake will tell Evan he slept with me. Jade and Kyle are
on their feet and meet me at the dance floor.

“We’re
leaving,” Kyle commands without reminding me he predicted something like this
would occur. 

“I
can’t go out the front door. Joe won’t let me leave,” I holler as he begins to
make his way through the crowd. My best friend and her boyfriend both stop and
look at me, waiting for an explanation. “After the last time I ran out of here,
Evan told me he’d speak to Joe about not letting me leave unless he checked
with him first.”

“He’s
a fucking lunatic,” Kyle complains.

“You
can sneak out from the deck,” Ashley suggests. Where did she come from? “They
opened the entrance back that way for people who only come to hang out there.”

“Thanks,”
Jade replies, grabbing my hand. I glance back to see Evan’s uncle had joined the
guys.

“What
about Jake?” I ask.

“I’ll
come back for him,” Kyle tells me. “He looks like he has his hands full.”

The
ride home is quiet. Kyle doesn’t put music on, making it worse than it needs to
be. Jade sits next to him, holding his hand. I’m sure she’s silently
apologizing for dragging him out. Without uttering a word, I stare out of the
rear passenger window, desperately wishing I could go back to a week prior when
none of this was plausible. Evan and I were happily living the lives of a new
couple, and Jake was still my best friend. How quickly things have gone to
shit.

Jade
asks Kyle to pull in my driveway, telling him she’s staying at my house. I try
to refuse, but Jade isn’t having it. Kyle insists he has no problem with it because
he has to go back to get Jake anyway, plus he has to get some sleep before work
in the morning. While they say goodnight to each other, I walk inside and get
ready for bed. Jade is perched on the edge of my bed when I come out from
brushing my teeth.

“Jake
keeps calling. I have to answer the next time,” she warns.

I nod,
then consider something. “Just tell him we’re at your house. I don’t want any
company.”

“Kacie,
I know why you went there tonight. I’m sorry it got all fucked up.”

“It
was my own fault,” I say, climbing under the blankets. “I don’t know why I
thought it would make me feel better to show Evan I’m okay without him.”

“That’s
only natural. I’d do the same thing,” she says, getting up and grabbing the
clothes next to her. “I’ll be right back.”

I
watch my friend disappear into the bathroom. While waiting for her to come back
out, I feel the alcohol pulling me under. It doesn’t help that I haven’t been
sleeping very well. Darkness has almost completely consumed me when Jade yanks
me right back out.

“Kacie!
Kacie, wake up!” She’s shaking my arm so violently, it’s sort of frightening.

“What
the fuck?” I sit up too quickly and the room begins to spin.

“Evan’s
on his way. You have to get up.” She’s too excited and I don’t like it. Not one
bit.

“He
better not be coming here.”

“Well,
Jake is taking him to my house. We have to go. Come on.” She’s still wearing
the dress she wore to the club. I must have only dozed off for a few minutes.
Not budging from my comfortable bed, I tell her I’m not going. “You have to,”
she sighs. “Evan wasn’t on the boat that night.”

“You
woke me up to fuck with me?” I question.

“I’m
not fucking with you,” Jade laughs. “Evan really wasn’t on the boat. It was
Meg.”

“I saw
his truck.”

“Meg
borrowed it because Danny had her car or some shit. Who cares? It wasn’t Evan,
and now he’s on his way to fix this. Get the hell up!”

Vaguely
remembering Danny and Meg having a conversation about her car the day of the
barbecue causes my throat to close and my chest to tighten. “It wasn’t him,” I
repeat softly.

“Nope,”
she responds as if I asked her a question. I hadn’t realized I was crying until
Jade sits down and wraps her arms around me. “Why are you so upset? I thought
you’d be happy.”

“I
need to think about this. Can you stall him until tomorrow?”

“What
is there to think about?”

“Jade,
please do this for me. I can’t talk to him right now.”

“Why
not?” she asks cautiously. No doubt she has a hundred other questions.

“I
just can’t,” I mumble as I try to pull my shit together while she’s in front of
me.

“Promise
you’ll talk to him in the morning?” she says, studying me.

“I’m
not going anywhere, if that’s what you’re wondering. This is my home and I have
a job to do. I’m not leaving.”

“Okay.
I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee he’ll go for it. He loves you, Kacie. No
one will be able to keep him away from you for very long.”

Even
though it isn’t done on purpose, Jade makes the pain a whole lot worse. I hold
it in long enough to hear the front door close. The heartache I think I have is
nothing compared to realizing it wasn’t Evan who ruined what we had. It was me.

***

Once
Jade leaves, I spend the entire night sitting on the chair out on my balcony. I
watch as the stars glimmer across the late sky, then fade away with the morning
light. How could I have been so stupid? How did I not figure out it wasn’t him?
It wasn’t him… Fuck me! As the last star vanishes, I decide I’m not going to
tell Evan the truth. It’s one thing to tell him we’re over, but it’s something
else to destroy him with the fact that I slept with Jake. I have to live with
that knowledge for the rest of my life. There’s no need to put this on him, as
well. He can remain friends with Jake this way. I know Jake won’t tell Evan. He
promised.

I have
absolutely no idea what time it is because my phone is on the nightstand, but I
do know it’s entirely too early for someone to be ringing my doorbell. No
sooner does the ringing stop before it starts again. Evan must have realized
what’s going on. He hasn’t let up on the doorbell, but he also knows I can usually
sleep right through it. There will never be a good time to do this, so I march
downstairs and take a deep breath before opening the door.

If
there is anything worse than getting ready to tell Evan we’re over, it’s seeing
my mother on my doorstep. “Why the hell isn’t my key working?” she says,
barging past me. My father and Sean are right behind her. Isn’t this wonderful?
Sean winks at me as he follows my parents into my house. Smug bastard. The shock
of seeing them prevents me from slamming the door before they can get in. My
mother is still bitching about her key not working when I meet them at the
counter separating the kitchen from the living room.

“Maybe
if you had any common sense, you would’ve been able to figure out I had the
locks changed,” I say. Without offering anything to any of them, I get a bottle
of water out of the refrigerator and take a long drink. “Why are you here?”

“We’re
leaving for vacation,” she tells me. I can’t believe she let my rude comment
slide. “Go pack your things. We decided to take you with us. That way, you and
Sean have three whole weeks to get to know each other. Although, if you would’ve
returned my phone calls, you’d know this already.”

“How
many calls do I have to ignore and voicemails leave unanswered before you
understand I have no interest in talking to you?” I blurt out, annoyed.

“There’s
no reason to speak to me that way. I’ve had a rough few weeks recovering from a
surgery you didn’t even care to know I had,” Mom says.

Despite
how many cosmetic procedures my mother has had in her lifetime, she would never
admit to them in front of anyone, especially not an outsider. “I thought your
ass looked bigger.” I have no idea if it is or not, but I say it to piss her
off. She’s had every other body part enhanced, so my comment can’t be too far
off the mark. Her deep gasp is verification I succeeded in making her angry. I
leave the kitchen and head toward the front of the house. Maybe they’ll get the
hint that I’m showing them out. Her voice stops me.

“That’s
it! I’ve had it with you, young lady. Once you leave Tampa in the fall for
school, don’t come back. You will not have a home to return to.”

Ignoring
the sound of someone coming in the front door, I turn around and smile at her.
It’s about time my parents learn they can no longer hold the house over my
head. “First of all, you can’t touch the house. You can go to Spencer and
Spencer if you want legal proof. It’s been mine since September of last year.
There isn’t a fucking thing you can do about it, either. And second, sorry to
inform you, I won’t be leaving Tampa any time soon.”

“You
will
go back and finish school,” my father chimes in. “I don’t care what you and
Mary Spencer think you have going on behind our backs, but my attorney will get
to the bottom of it. I won’t allow you to stay in this house.”

“I
did
finish school,” I defend myself. “As a matter of fact, not only did I graduate last
month at the top of my class, but I already have a teaching job lined up for
August.”

“Teaching?”
My father’s face instantly becomes red. “Kacie, how could you ruin your life
like that? More importantly, how dare you ruin the reputation of our family
name?”

“How
the hell do I ruin anything by being a teacher? Gram was an excellent,
well-respected teacher, and she was a Foster.”

“Your
grandmother was a nobody!” my mom jumps back into the conversation.

“She
was more of a woman than you’ll ever be!” I spit out. “If it wasn’t for her, I
probably would have ended up as worthless as you.” My mother begins her
theatrics, putting her hand over her chest as if she’s been shot. Since her
face is fake, the woman couldn’t cry if she wanted to, but she pretends to
anyway. Sean goes over to comfort her and she eats that shit right up. “Get out
of my house. All of you.”

“I
will not stop until this house has been taken away from you,” my father
attempts to intimidate me.

After
all that’s been going on lately, I’m emotionally spent. Regardless of how awful
they are being, it’s not like me to think like this, let alone say it. “I wish
you died instead of Gram. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, but both of
you do.”

In all
the years my father has verbally assaulted me, he has never once raised a hand
to me…until this very moment. Before he moves to strike, someone is at my side
and stops his arm from leaving its current position.

“If
you so much as touch a hair on my sister’s head, I’ll break your arm so badly,
not even a surgeon as good as I am will be able to repair it.”