The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden (38 page)

As we catch our breaths, I tell myself that it will be okay; that I can handle it and for an instant, it feels like I can.

I let out an uneven breath as I slip out of her and roll onto my back, tugging my hands through my hair. Rotating on her hip, her warm body follows mine. She rests her cheek against my chest, gliding her leg over my waist.

“Are you okay?” I finally dare ask her, fighting through my own racing thoughts.

She nods, sketching the lines of my stomach muscles with her pinkie. “I’m more than okay.”

I shut my eyes and put my chin on top of her head. “Callie, there’s something I need to tell you.”

She lifts her face away from my chest and peers up at me. “What’s wrong? Did I… did I do something wrong?”

I touch the tip of my finger to the bottom of her lip. “No, it’s not you. It’s me. There are things about me that you don’t know and I think I need to tell you.”

She sits up and my gaze drifts to her body, so fragile, just like her heart. “You’re making me nervous.”

“I’m sorry,” I back out as feelings of shame rush over me. “I’m just stuck in my own head.”

She frowns. “Kayden, you can tell me anything. There’s no judgment here.”

“I know that,” I say with honesty as my hands grip her waist possessively. Lifting her up, I set her down on top of me, so one of her legs is on each side of my hip. “We’ll talk about it, but a little bit later.”

Wetting my lips with my tongue, I cup the back of her head and bring her mouth toward mine, as I slide my other hand up the front of her, gripping at her breast, wanting to go back and relive the only peaceful moment I’ve had in my life.

#33 Lay With Someone, Motionless, Just Feeling Each Other.

Callie

“I think I have to go inside,” I say, checking the seventh message my mom has sent me. “Otherwise, she’s going to come out here and see this.”

“See what?” he questions innocently as he flips me over so he’s above me and he takes my breast into his mouth, tracing circles over my nipple with the tip of his tongue.

I gasp as my thighs ache for him to be inside me again. “You’re going to get me caught up again.”

He leans away with a smile on his face, but his cheek is red and puffy. “So?”

I fake a stern look. “I’m not kidding. She’ll come out here with her key and open the door to this.”

He laughs, still not fully believing me, but frees me from his arms. “Fine, you win. I’ll let you go, but we’re coming right back as soon as you deal with your mother.”

I laugh softly as I wrap the sheet around me and pad over to my bag to take some clothes out. I feel a little shy even after what we did. I manage to put my clothes on before I let the sheet go. He doesn’t question what I’m doing as he gets up and puts his jeans and shirt back on.

I glance out the window at the dark sky. Everything seems perfect, untouchable, like I’m holding my life in my own hands for once. “How late is it?”

He turns his arm and checks his watch. “Like seven thirty.”

“No wonder she’s freaking out. I missed dinner.”

He laces his fingers through mine as I open the door. “So how bad is this going to be?”

I lead him down the steps behind me. “She’s going to ask you a thousand questions and be super cheerful.”

“What about your dad?”

“He’ll yammer about football, I’m sure.”

My phone beeps and I pause at the bottom of the steps to check the message.

“Is it another one from your mom?” he wonders and I shake my head.

Seth: Hey, darling. How’s it going? Good I hope. Did you eat some delicious treats?

Me: Maybe…  But what kind of treats r u talking about?

Seth: OMFG!!! Did u? Because I had this really weird feeling that you did.

Me: Did what?”

Seth: U know what.

I glance up at Kayden, who laughs at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “It’s from Seth.”

He leans over to get a better look and I cover the screen with my hand. “Are you talking about me?”

I bite at my lip, feeling my cheeks warm. “No.”

“You are,” he says proudly. “Even after that, I can still make you blush. God, I’m good.”

I lower my head, allowing my hair to veil my face. “I’m not blushing.”

“You so are.” He hooks a finger under my chin and tips my face up. “And I’m glad.” He brushes his lips lightly across mine, giving me a soft kiss that I feel all the way to my toes.

I pull away, smiling, but pause when I catch sight of the extra car in the driveway. “Whose car is that?”

Kayden tracks my gaze and shrugs. “I’m not sure.”

Confused, I push open the back door. Seconds later, it all leaves me; every breath, every heartbeat, every kiss, every moment of my own. Black spots pop across my vision as I take in my brother, Jackson, sitting at the table, wolfing a piece of pie straight out of the tin. Across from him sits his best friend Caleb Miller. He’s flipping through a magazine, his dark hair scraggily and long, like he hasn’t had a haircut in years. When he glances up my gaze instinctively shoots to the floor.

“Well, if it isn’t little Miss Callie all grown up,” Caleb says and I stare at the pencil on the table in front of him, envisioning what it would be like to stab him in the eye multiple times and inflict as much pain as possible.

“Mom thought you ran away,” Jackson says, licking the whip cream off the fork. “She texted you a thousand times.”

“Good for her,” I snap. I’ve always had this bitter hatred toward my brother for bringing that asshole around. I know he didn’t know, but I can’t turn it off. “Can you tell her that we stopped by and that I’m okay so she can stop texting?"

“No,” Jackson says. “I’m not your messenger. She’s just in the living room. Go tell her yourself.”

“Why are you even here?” I ask and Kayden’s finger grazes the inside of my wrist. I blink at him. I’d almost forgotten he was there.

Kayden shakes his head, and his emerald eyes convey something I don’t like. He can see it—sense it—hidden deep beneath the surface of my skin.

Caleb rises up from the table and heads across the kitchen, his movements unhurried like he doesn’t have a care in the world. “So how’s college football?” he says to Kayden. “I’ve heard it’s a lot more intense at that level.”

Kayden doesn’t take his eyes off me. “It’s not that bad. You just have to be tough enough to make it.”

Caleb eyes Kayden’s inflamed cheek with a sadistic look in his expression as he opens the cupboard. “Yeah, you look pretty tough. Nice shiner by the way.”

Kayden gives him a cold, hard stare, his fingers wrapping inward into his palms. “Didn’t you get kicked out of college for selling pot on campus?”

“Hey, I had to make a living,” Caleb says, slamming the cupboard shut. “Not everyone has daddy’s money and a scholarship to live off of.”

Kayden’s jaw tenses and I jerk on his arm. “Can we go?”

He nods, backing toward the door with my hand in his and his eyes boring into Caleb, who’s growing uneasy.

“No way,” Jackson says to me. “You are not leaving me here to be smothered by mom.”

“Shouldn’t you be in Florida or whatever?” I ask with rage and unsteadiness in my voice. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”

He messes with his hair as he gets up from the kitchen table with the pie tin in his hand.  “We had a last minute change of heart.”

“Didn’t you have to work?” I ask derisively. “Or did you just quit another job?”

“I have a fucking job, Callie.” He tosses the tin into the kitchen sink and glares at me. “So quit being a cunt. I don’t know why you always have to talk to me like this.”

“Hey.” Kayden steps in on my behalf, moving in front of me. “Don’t fucking call her names.”

“I can call her whatever I want,” Jackson retorts, folding his arms over his chest. “You don’t know the shit she put this family through. Her little issues or whatever they are have made my mom basically crazy.”

Caleb watches me with interest, waiting for me to react. I can’t look away from him. I want to, but he’s overpowering me because he knows what my issues are—he put them there. I slowly start to die, wilt into pieces like I’m a Night-Blooming Cereus, the flowers that bloom only once a year at night and die before sunrise, their lives and happiness short lived.

“Leave her alone.” Caleb arches his eyebrows at me with a smile surfacing at his lips. “Maybe Callie has reasons for the way she acts.”

Take me out of here. Take me out of here. Save me. Save me. Save me.

Suddenly, my legs are moving and I’m being dragged somewhere. The back door swings open and I’m hauled down the stairs into the center of the driveway.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs and in the light of the porch, Kayden observes me with uncertainty in his eyes, his hands on my shoulders. “What’s wrong? You have this look in your eyes…”

I let out a strangled breath. “I don’t like my brother very much.”

The muscles in his neck move as he swallows hard. “Callie, I know what fear is. Trust me. I’ve seen it on my brothers’ faces, felt it many times. You’re afraid of him. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Afraid of my brother?” I play dumb, praying to God he won’t find out, fearing what will happen if he does.

“Don’t do that,” he says sternly, placing his hand on my cheek. “You’re afraid of Caleb. He was… he was the one who did it to you?”

“Yes.” I don’t even mean to say it, it just falls out into the world. I stare at him, listening to my heart thump inside my chest, to the wind sing, to the sound of someone breaking somewhere in the world.

He forces a lump down in his throat. “Callie… I… you need to tell someone. You can’t let him keep going around living his life.”

“It doesn’t matter. Too much time has gone by and even the cops can’t do anything about it anymore.”

“How do you know?”

I shrug, feeling detached from the world. “Because I looked into it once to see—to know that I no longer have any options. What’s done is done.”

He shakes his head, his jaw set tight. “This isn’t fair.”

“Neither is your life,” I say, wanting my moment back.
I want it back. Please, God, give me it back
. ”Nothing really is.”

Silence builds and it all crumbles out as I collapse into his chest, tears spilling out as the secret I’ve carried with me breaks into lighter pieces. He scoops me up against my protests and cradles me against him as he carries me up the stairs and into the room as I sob out every tear I’ve been holding inside me.

He lies down on the bed with me and I bury my face into his chest. Somehow, I stop crying and we lie, unmoving, feeling each other’s pain. Eventually I fall asleep in his arms.

Kayden

After she falls asleep, I watch her breathe in and out, trying to make sense of the world. Rage washes through me like a fucking wave crashing against the shore. I want to kill Caleb. Beat him to death in the most painful ways.

When I hear her brother and Caleb leave the house, laughing as they get in the car and drive away, talking about going to a party, something snaps inside me. All the rage I’ve channeled ruptures and suddenly I know what I have to do.

Callie saved me that night from a fight that would have probably left me dead, but she also saved me from myself. Before her, I was dying inside; there was nothing in my heart, but an empty hole.

Gently slipping my arm out from beneath her head, I grab my phone and sneak out the door, looking at her one last time before I leave. Trotting down the steps, I text Luke to come pick me up, then I start walking down the sidewalk away from her house toward the unknown.