Rival Hearts (Rival Love #2) (3 page)

“Caleb?”

“What? No. It’s Malcom. I got your number from your sister. What happened?”

I look around at the trees and sigh. “Nothing. Look, maybe it was a bad idea to ask for your help. I mean, it is only my first week. I’m sure if I read the material I’ll get it. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

“I have a feeling you’re hiding something but it’s cool. I get it. I’m so sexy you can’t be around this without wanting a piece, right?”

I make a face and groan. “Do you ever stop with the pick-up lines?”

“Nope. So, what are you doing tomorrow night? I know Lidia isn’t taking you to the mad party at Kyle’s penthouse, so I figured you can come with me.”

“Um … that’s nice and all, but I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve got … um … ” I’m trying to think of an event but my mind is blanking.

“That’s what I thought. I’m coming to get you at seven so be ready. And if you aren’t, well, you’ll see what will happen.” Then he hangs up before I can even argue.

Crap.

Chapter 5

Caleb

Saturday mornings after football season are usually awesome. I sleep in until noon, eat whatever, and play video games with my boys for most of the day, then we go hit the parties. So me being up before noon is rare and not on anyone’s schedule. I walk into the kitchen and immediately dodge Uncle Bri who almost scalds me with his morning cup of coffee.

He blinks a couple of times. “I’m sorry, Caleb. You’re up awfully early. Busy day?” He wipes up the spilled coffee on his shirt and grabs a rag to clean the mess on the floor.

Erin steps into the kitchen, house phone in hand, saying, “I know it’s a little harder sweetie, but do you feel like you’re learning more?” She drops her stare to my uncle and me standing around by the island. “Good morning, you two.” She covers her hand with the phone, and whispers, “Caleb, I’m glad you’re up. Would you mind helping me talk Liv down from the ledge? She got her first C ever and she’s really upset. But nothing I’m saying is helping.”

She hands the phone to me before I can even object. Skylar hasn’t talked to me for what feels like forever. In fact, as soon as I say hello I bet she’ll hang up. Or demand I put her mom back on the phone. But I’m selfish, and I want to talk to Sky more than anything. I need to hear her voice.

So I leave the kitchen, phone pressed to my ear, and head upstairs. Skylar’s sniffling, and my heart breaks a little more with each sob. I want to be on my flight to her right now so I can hold her and make this misery go away. But I’m not, so I have to do the next best thing, listen, and tell her how everything will be okay soon enough.

“I just … I never felt so stupid in my whole life.” She pauses. “Mom, are you listening to me?”

“Hey.”

“What the … are you kidding me? She gave the phone over to … wait, Caleb? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s not my uncle. I’m sorry. I didn’t catch the whole story, your mom just caught me off guard and said you were upset but nothing she said was helping. So she asked if I could give it a whirl.” Ugh! I can’t believe I just said that. Out of all the things I’ve been wanting to tell her, this is what comes out. Shoot me now.

She hiccups. “Well, I guess I could start from the beginning. I had two tests the other day and we got our grades back yesterday. I completely bombed both tests. I know it probably sounds like I’m being weird, but I got a B and then a C-. I’ve never got a B let alone a C- on anything, ever.” She sniffles a little. “And to top it off there’s this annoying know-it-all in my class named Malcom who’s friends with Lidia, go figure, and he got an A+ on both tests. And Mom told me maybe the material here is a little more advanced and all I really have to do is read. Maybe ask for a tutor to help catch myself up. And that things will be fine.”

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. Your break is coming up soon, right?”

“Yeah.” She sounds odd, like she’s not sure what I’m getting at.

“You’ll have plenty of time to catch up then. I’m sure you’ll have all those books memorized and be getting your perfect scores in no time. You know?” I don’t mention the fact I plan on coming up there and taking her back with me. But the more she talks about school, and how she feels like her education is lacking somehow, I feel a little guilty. What if she decides that school here isn’t challenging enough and refuses to come back? Or worse, that she doesn’t want to be around me so she’ll stay there?

“You’re right. Thanks. I feel a little better.” She pauses again. “Caleb, I’m um … ”

“It’s okay. You’ve been adjusting. I miss you. I wish I could—”

She cuts me off. “I don’t want to have a long-distance relationship. I don’t want you to go through that. That’s why I’ve been avoiding your calls. I’m sorry. I want you to be happy, and I know if you’re feeling like I am, you’re not. Feel free to hate me.”

My biggest fear has come true, and I can’t stop it. So, I do the dumbest thing ever. “It’s okay. I mean, it was bound to happen, right? But now that we got that over with, you can stop avoiding my calls. Probably talk as friends, right?”

“Oh, uh … yeah, if you want that.” She sounds confused and if I were her, I’d be confused too. Because I sound like a complete asshole. Like I have no feelings for her whatsoever. And that’s not true at all. I want to tell her I love her. I want to tell her that she changed me. I actually want to challenge myself, started reading books from her collection that she left here. I’m playing music all for her, and I love her for pushing me. I love her for making me want to be a better person for her and her alone. But I can’t say any of this now. She doesn’t want me.

“How are things at school?” she asks.

I shrug as a reflex and realize she can’t see me. “Fine. We got cameras in the lunchroom. A lot of the winter programs are cut and so are the spring ones.”

“I’m sorry.” She sighs heavily into the phone.

“It’s not your fault. You know that, right?”

“I feel responsible for it. I was—”

I butt in. “Stop it! Just stop it right now. This isn’t your fault. And they shouldn’t have put it all on you to save the programs. Sky, they should have noticed the funds were missing a lot earlier, like two years earlier. Don’t blame yourself for something you had no control over. Let’s talk about something else, like, are you planning on playing any sports there?”

“There aren’t many sports here. It’s more of an educational school, so they have things like track, or archery, but not softball. They have baseball, but it’s whatever. I can always go to Columbia in the fall and possibly transfer somewhere else, I guess.”

“But … ” I’m about to tell her that’s not her dream. Her dream is to play sports and attend Duke. Not give up sports for the rest of her senior year and attend the university her father teaches at in the fall. But she already sounds so depressed, and it’s killing me. I want to make her pain leave, but saying the things I want to say won’t do that. It’ll make this so much worse. So I sigh. “But … that’s not a bad plan. I mean, it could be worse, right?”

“Could. I guess. I should probably get back to my homework. I’m sure you’ve got places to be anyway.”

I want to tell her I don’t have anywhere to be. I’ll spend my whole day and night on the phone with her, but again, she doesn’t want to hear this. “Yeah, I was going to go hang out with Kayla and Lance.”

“Tell them I said hi. And I’ll talk to Kayla tomorrow.”

“Sure. Bye, Sky.”

“Bye, Ca—”

I hang up so I don’t have to hear her finish my name. If I ever find out who fucked up the pool area and ran Skylar’s name in the mud, they’ll be sorry. Sorry they ever thought, let alone completed, the task of tagging our school.

Anger crashes into me like waves tumbling into cliffs. I know I need to control it, but it’s too late. My hand latches onto the nearest object, which happens to be the cordless phone, and I launch it across the room into the nearest wall. It hits, shattering into pieces.

My door springs open and my uncle looks at me. I move from my bed, debating whether to pick it up right away or just leave the broken phone there.

“Caleb, what’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit. I know something is wrong. What is it?”

I shrug. I’m not telling him the girl I’m in love with just told me she doesn’t want me. I’m not going to tell him that girl happens to be Erin’s daughter. And I sure as hell ain’t going to tell him she’s the reason I’m changing. She’s the reason everything feels pointless. Parties seem lame. Video games all seem the same. No matter what the levels are or what new challenges are there, it all seems like I’ve done them before. And sports, they don’t even feel challenging enough, and that there is crazy talk.

“It’s nothing. I just need a break.”

He nods but it doesn’t look as if he believes my lie. “All right. Well, Erin and I were thinking about going out for breakfast. Want to join us?”

“Yeah, sure.”

He glances over at the corner where the cordless now lays in pieces and eyes me. “Caleb, I’m not sure what’s got you like this, but I thought we fixed this.” He’s talking about my anger. I thought it was fixed, too. I haven’t had an issue with breaking stuff for years. I don’t have to ask him, I can see the worried look in his eyes. He totally thinks I’m going back to how I was for the first two years of living here after my parents’ death.

For both of our sakes, I hope I’m not. Everything in my room will be boxed up or replaced with plastic items. He might take it a step further and pad my walls.

“It was an accident. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

He nods. “Better not.”

Chapter 6

Skylar

Twenty minutes until seven and I’m in sweats and a t-shirt. I have no doubt that Malcom will show up and drag me out of the house, but I’m not changing. I don’t plan on looking like I’m available or cute because my chest still hurts from the conversation I had with Caleb this morning. I thought breaking up with someone wouldn’t hurt the person doing the breaking. Whoever said that was so wrong.

Lidia skips around the kitchen in a skimpy skirt designed for a hooker. Her top is no better. She coughs when her stare lands on me. “Oh, please tell me you aren’t wearing that?”

“I am.” I shrug and ignore her eye roll. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on telling anyone I know you.”

“Everyone knows you’re living with me. I can’t have you going to a place where people know me, looking like that!”

I won’t even dignify her complaint with a response. Looking for a non-diet soda in the fridge, I grumble, “Do you all seriously not drink or eat anything real in this house?”

Lidia makes a noise which is a cross between a snort and a hacky cough. “Mother says that’s how people get fat.” She lowers her tone and mumbles, “Just look at your mom.”

“Excuse me?” So her mother, who resembles a sick-looking pencil, makes comments about my mom, who is healthy. She’s not thick, but she doesn’t have a six-pack either. My mom is a size five; since when is that fat?

I continue to glare at Lidia. She flips back a piece of hair. “Whatever, you know what I mean.” For some reason, I let her walk out of the room. A part of me doesn’t want to. The doorbell chimes.

Lidia calls out, “I got it!” Not a full second passes before she’s squealing. “Sarah!”

I can hear the two of them heading down the hallway toward Lidia’s room, which is near the kitchen. Sarah, a short blond with a bob haircut, sneers at me. Lidia giggles. “I know, right? She’s so embarrassing.” She looks back at me with a smirk before entering her room. “The hottest guy in our school is about to pick you up in less than five minutes. Go do yourself a favor and change your clothes.” She casts her narrow stare up and down my body. “God knows he won’t want to be seen with you looking like that.”

I grit my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut. This is temporary. In six months, I will graduate from this hellish place and be able to move back into Brian and mom’s place. Screw Columbia. I’ll go to community college in Ohio if I have to. I won’t have to subject myself to my visits with Dad. If we must see each other and his love child, then fine, it’ll be on my terms.

The doorbell is going off again. I ignore it, hoping whoever’s there will go away. My wish isn’t granted. Malcom is soon laughing and stalking his way into the kitchen. “Well, this won’t do.”

I study him. He’s dressed in a dark, long-sleeved, button-down shirt and khakis. He looks overly dressed for a stupid school party, but I guess that’s how these functions are. I mean, whatever is the matter with t-shirts and jeans? With a scowl, I respond, “Well, that’s too bad ’cause this is what you’re getting.”

He shrugs. “Okay. But I thought my date was going to be a little hotter.”

“Oh, did you not get the memo? I don’t dress like I’m working a corner. And last time I checked, this was not a date.” I smile in spite of my aching insides.

He shakes his head and grabs my hand, pulling me out of the kitchen. “I guess we’ll be on our way then.”

If I had any sense, I wouldn’t let him take me to this party. But I don’t stop him. He and I are walking out the front door and to a black town car. I look over at him and laugh. “What is this?”

“This would be our ride.”

This reminds me of
Sex and the City
and Mr. Big is picking me up. Suddenly this feels too much like a date, and I start to feel jittery and a need to leave again. But Malcom has a good grip on my arm and pulls me toward the open door of the sedan. He tips his head at the tall guy dressed in a butler getup in the front seat.

I feel queasy as Malcom coaxes me into the car and then motions for me to scoot over. I should scoot out the other passenger door and run. But I agreed to this. Sort of. And maybe this will help my chest quit aching, or at least keep me from calling Caleb back and telling him my mind wasn’t right earlier. Because I’ve been debating with myself all morning whether or not to do just that, and I even went so far as to hide my cell. That probably wasn’t my brightest idea, ’cause the damn thing will probably be dead when I get back. Or I might end up needing it in order to bail on this so-called awesome party.