Pushing the Limits (19 page)

What the hell? Was the lady incapable of a coherent line of thought? Dresses, chaperoning dances, my brothers? Screw good impressions. She treaded on territory I wanted her far away from. “You don’t know anything about me and my brothers, so I suggest you butt out.”

“This is a hard way to live. Not trusting anyone,” she said in that annoying I’m-older-and-wiser-than-you voice. “It’s not you and your brothers against the world. Aren’t you tired of being miserable? Don’t you want to know what it feels like to be happy again?”

Yes, but the world didn’t work that way—not for me.

She picked up a drawing Tyler had done for her. “You’re not going to find happiness until you learn to trust. If you’re going to start somewhere, why not with me?”

I had a million reasons why not—with her.

Echo

I tugged at my gloves for possibly the millionth time this evening. When Luke brought up the idea of joining Lila, Grace, Natalie, a few other girls and all their dates for a limo ride, I’d jumped at the opportunity. I made the mistake of thinking that would keep Luke’s wandering hands from touching my body. Guess not.

The limo pulled in front of the school’s gym. Luke’s hand brushed the side of my breast and he whispered in my ear, “You’re so hot, Echo.”

I shifted away from him and his beer breath and peeked to see if anyone had noticed the inappropriate way he touched me. I whispered back, “Stop it. People are watching.”

He downed the rest of the beer, shoving his body against mine again. “Tell me it’ll be tonight. My parents will be gone until tomorrow afternoon and your dad told me you didn’t have a curfew. We’ll have all night.” His hand dropped to my butt.

Great—obviously Daddy wanted me to get laid. I smacked Luke’s hand away. “You told me you’d give me time to think.”

“You’ve had plenty of time to think. Come on, you look ssso beautiful.” How wonderful, he was slurring and we hadn’t even had our first dance yet.

The limo came to a stop and Stephen opened the door. “Ladies first.” He motioned for Lila to get out, but I bolted from the limo like my clothes were on fire.

Lila followed. Her breath also hinted of beer. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I lied. Luke had marked his territory over the past few weeks by performing the high school equivalent of a dog peeing on a fire hydrant (holding my hand, wrapping his arm around me, sitting with me at lunch) and made me, once again, acceptable. For Lila, Grace and Natalie life was finally back to normal.

For me, “normal” felt worse. Sure, people talked to me now, but dating Luke and having Grace back as a public friend didn’t stop the stares or the whispers. That big gaping wound inside of me hadn’t filled like I had expected. In fact, the hole grew wider and deeper.

“You’re not fine.” Lila stopped talking when Grace wrapped her arms around both of us.

“I love it!” Grace kissed my cheek, then Lila’s. “We are back.”

Luke offered me his hand. I took it and let him escort me into the dance. The decorating committee had attempted to transform the gym into an island paradise. Three glittering palm trees and an ocean backdrop for the photographer didn’t hide the basketball goals or bleachers, or mask the stench of smelly socks from the boys’ locker room.

Luke only slow danced, leaving me to dance to the faster songs with Lila, Grace and Natalie. As we did, Luke wandered in and
out of the boys’ locker room with his friends. Unfortunately, he came back to the dance a little more sloshed each time.

“I hear everyone is heading back to Luke’s when the dance is over,” Grace said as the two of us took a breather at our table. She leaned her head on my shoulder, and a portion of my heart lightened. I loved having Grace back as a public friend.

“He mentioned it.” Along with the idea I should sneak into the boys’ locker room with him and take a drink to loosen up. I watched Lila and Stephen grind, excuse me, dance, on the hardwood floor. School dances were the loophole to PDA rules.

“Are you ready?” Grace asked.

“Let’s wait for one more song and then I’ll be ready to dance again. These heels are pinching my toes.” Circulation returned to my aching feet the moment I kicked them off. I scanned the dark room and caught sight of Luke laughing with some guys from the basketball team. “I should probably dance with Luke.”

Grace laughed. “No, silly. For tonight. I overheard Luke asking you to do it.”

My blood and energy levels dropped to my feet, out my body and onto the floor. The dark shadows under my eyes, which I’d painstakingly hidden with makeup, dragged heavier. I rubbed my eyes, hoping to reenergize myself. No. I wasn’t ready.

“Hey, beautiful.”

Luke gave me that loopy one-sided grin he only wore when he was drunk. Grace patted my knee and slunk away, leaving me alone with Luke. Not only was I not ready, but I had to inform him. Tonight stunk. I forced a smile on my face and stood. “Can we talk?”

His hand, sweaty from God knew what, touched my cheek. “Sure. In a sec. I’m going to get another drink.” His eyes brightened
like he’d found the cure for cancer. “You want to come? We smuggled Lila and Natalie in earlier.”

“No.” The third slow song for the night began to play. Grace waved at me, her eyes full of desperation. A reminder not to screw this up. “Dance with me, Luke. Then we’ll take a walk together and talk, okay?” A good talk. One of those where you tell each other how you really feel. One of those mind-blowing talks where you learn something so raw and real about the other person that you can’t help but fall in love.

I could tell him I wasn’t ready for sex and Luke would tell me that he was okay with that. He’d tell me that he loved me so much that he’d wait forever and then tell me something he’d never told anyone else. I could tell him how scared I was that I’d never know what happened to me and even more frightened to know the truth. He’d tell me that he didn’t care about my scars and that I could show them to the whole world and he’d still stand by me. And me? I would fall in love with him and, all of a sudden, I would be okay with doing “it.”

Like with Noah
. I slammed that door shut.

Touching his face, I let my gloved fingers trace his jaw, a move he loved. His lips twitched up. “See, beautiful, I told you we’d figure each other out again.”

And we could—maybe. “Yeah.”

He took my hand and began to pull me toward the dance floor. This was it. Normal. A boyfriend who loved and accepted me. Surely this would fill the gaping hole. I glanced over to my friends and flashed my real smile to Grace, Natalie and Lila. My heart sang when the three of them lit up like firecrackers, knowing, for the first time in ages, they were seeing me happy.

Happiness—it was so close I could taste it. Then I stopped. My feet, my heart, my happiness, all of me, stopped. We’d bypassed
the dance floor and entered the hallway leading to the bathrooms. “Where are you going?”

“I told you, the locker room,” Luke answered.

I yanked my hand away. “What happened to dancing and then talking?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Later. We’re getting to the bottom of the barrel with our supplies. If I don’t go in now, I’ll miss my chance.”

In more ways than he could ever imagine. “Yes, you will.”

His deranged male mind misunderstood and he kissed my cheek. “I knew you’d understand.” And Luke walked away.

I leaned against the door frame. Half of me in the shadowed gymnasium. The other half of me in the lighted hallway.

Idiot. I was an idiot. I blinked several times to keep any tears at bay and hugged myself. My heart should hurt, but it didn’t. Because I’d never invested my heart into this second chance with Luke. I’d poured in an ample amount of hope, but I’d never put my heart on the line. My soul ached from disappointment. I’d tried normal and I’d failed. Me … a failure.

Unlike the ACT, I couldn’t retake this part of my life and erase an unpleasant score. There was no blank canvas to start a new painting or sketch pad for a fresh drawing. My mother had failed me and my arms guaranteed I would always fail.

“I told you that you deserved better.”

My heart lifted at the sound of that deep, mischievous voice. “Noah?”

Like a thief, he drifted from the shadows in a white button-down shirt, black tie loosened to the third button, blue jeans and black army boots. His dark brown hair fell casually over his eyes. “Echo, you look …” He let his eyes wander down my
body and then slowly back up. A wicked grin spread across his face. “Appetizing.”

I laughed out loud, causing several lowerclassmen passing by to gawk. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t care. “Like chicken wing appetizing or succulent hamburger appetizing?”

His chuckle tickled my insides. Noah stepped closer, definitely invading my personal space. “Appetizing as in your boyfriend’s a moron to leave you alone.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” And never would be.

“Good. Because I was going to ask you to dance.”

As if on cue, another slow song started. Noah didn’t offer me his hand to take me to the dance floor. Instead, right there between the entrance of the gym and the locker room, he wrapped both of his arms around my waist and pulled me close. God, he felt good—warm, solid. I slid my arms to his neck, letting my gloved fingers skim his skin.

“I thought you didn’t do dances.”

Noah held me close enough to see those chocolate-brown eyes. “I don’t. And, this afternoon, I had no intention of coming here.” He swallowed. “This dance seemed so damn important to you. And you … you’re important to me.” He stopped swaying from side to side and looked away from me. My heart beat so loudly he had to hear it, if not feel it through my chest.

“Echo, I can’t tell you what’s going to happen because I don’t know. I don’t hold hands in the hallway or sit at anyone else’s lunch table. But I swear … on my brothers that you’ll never be a joke to me and you’ll be much more than a girl in the backseat of my car.”

The proximity of his body to mine made voicing the thousands of emotions raging inside of me impossible. My fingers
drifted from his neck to his head. I clutched his hair and guided his head to mine. I couldn’t tell him, but I could show him.

“Get away from my girl, Hutchins.”

In lion-fast movements, Noah maneuvered us into the hallway and placed me behind him. He stood between me and Luke. “She’s not yours.”

Luke’s face reddened and he fisted his hands. Stephen, Chad and a few other guys stumbled out of the locker room. Their laughter faded the moment they noticed Luke, Noah and then me. Crap.

My now-ex stared straight at me. “Come here, Echo.”

“We should talk. In the gym. ” And get the heck out of here. Back where lots and lots of teachers hovered to prevent scenes like this. I inched toward the gym, but neither Noah nor Luke moved.

Stephen stepped beside Luke. “It’s not cool to be up on another man’s girl.”

Hello? Did anyone hear me? Recap—I needed to talk to Luke and we were all going to go into the gym so we could be monitored by adults. I wrapped my fingers around Noah’s hand and tugged gently. “Noah.”

He squeezed back before pulling away. “Why don’t you go on in? I’ll be there in a few.”

“Um, no. Not without everyone else.”

Luke took a drunken step toward Noah. “Yeah, go, Echo.”

This was not happening. Luke didn’t stop his advance. In fact, he picked up speed and slammed into Noah. The two of them crashed into the wall. “No!”

Luke punched Noah in the jaw. Blood trickled from Noah’s lip as he drove his fist into Luke’s stomach and pushed him away.

“Come on, man,” Noah said, wiping the blood from his lip. “You don’t want to do this.”

“I warned you to stay away from her,” Luke yelled as he rammed into Noah again.

Prepared this time, Noah punched Luke in the gut and pushed him to the ground.

“Stay down, Manning,” he hissed.

Luke staggered up, staring at Noah. I raced toward them. This had to stop. Only I was a little too late. Luke launched himself at Noah at the same exact moment I stepped between them. Cement hit my stomach. I lost the ability to breathe, followed by massive amounts of pain.

“Echo!” multiple voices yelled from various parts of the hallway.

My stomach hurt way too much to move, open my eyes or speak. Oh, God. Absolutely no air entered my body. I forced my mouth open and fought to suck in oxygen. Nope, nothing. One more time …
yes
. Not much, just a little, but it was air … regardless of how much it hurt. The cold floor touched one of my cheeks and my hair touched the other. Crap. It had taken me an hour to get all of my hair in that clip. Dear Lord, I think I broke something, like my liver.

“Jesus … Jesus, I hurt her,” Luke mumbled from close by.

“Get away from her, asshole,” Noah barked. Warm fingers touched my face, brushing back my hair. He lowered his voice. “Echo? Are you okay?”

Those warm fingers left my face and then covered my hand. I focused all of my energy on exerting pressure onto Noah’s. He applied pressure back. “I’ve got you. I promise.”

“What’s going on out here?”

I moaned, not from the pain, but due to the person who entered
the hallway—Mrs. Collins. “Echo? Echo!” Heels clicked rapidly toward me. Another hand, colder and delicate, touched my face. I forced my eyes open and blinked the double vision away.

“Are you okay?”

No. “Yes.” Against the scream of every muscle in my body, I picked my head off the floor. Noah placed his hands on my back and helped me sit up, hovering centimeters behind me.

Mrs. Collins’s kind eyes softened. “What happened?” She checked out the hallway, taking stock of the situation. Funny thing, Luke’s friends had disappeared. “Noah, you’re bleeding.”

Noah wiped his mouth. “Yes, ma’am.”

“You’re Luke, correct?”

Luke sat at my feet, eyes wide. “Yes.”

Mrs. Collins sighed heavily, shaking her head. “I’m not going to like this at all, am I?”

“Nope,” answered Noah.

“I tripped,” I said.

Mrs. Collins’s lips tightened into a thin line. “And Noah’s mouth?”

“Me, too.”

She stared at Luke. “And the nice bruise forming on your jaw is from?”