The Story of Us (21 page)

“How do I get out of here?” Craig asks
with wide eyes.

“We’re on the second floor, you
don’t.” I finish just before the door to my room opens.

My parents stand there, mouths agape,
eyes wide.

“Mom, dad. I thought you guys weren’t
coming back until…”

“Clearly,” is all my mother says, her
mouth still hanging open.

My father, on the other
hand, hasn’t looked at me once. His glare is set on Craig. When he
talks, it feels like the whole house booms.
“What is going on here?!”

“It’s not what you think, dad. He
didn’t want me to be alone on Christmas.”

He finally looks over at me and I wish
he didn’t. His eye burn a hole through my chest. The anger mixed
with disappointment is so clearly evident. I instantly start to
cry. I know I’m a wimp. I know Craig is going to think I’m an
emotional idiot. But I can’t help it. I feel the tears well up in
my eyes and my face turns red with humiliation. I try to open my
mouth and explain again, but the lump in my throat is too large to
break through.

Craig tries instead. “Sir, I know I
shouldn’t be here. But your daughter means a lot to me and I just
wanted to wake her up on Christmas morning and let her know that
she’s not alone. I got here just minutes before you
did.”

But even as he’s telling the lie, I
can see my father inspecting his bedhead.

“
Get out,”
my father barks at him.

Instead of obeying, Craig looks back
at me. He searches my face trying to figure out if I’ll be alright.
I nod to him, reassuring him that he can go, mostly because I’m
afraid that if he doesn’t leave right this instant, my father will,
physically and literally kill him.

Everything after that is a
blur.

I listen while my father hollers about
knowing that WSC would be no good for me. I hear him talk about the
white trash who attend there. I hear him put Craig into that white
trash category. I don’t even try to defend him. I know now’s not
the time. I sit and I listen… and listen… and listen. My mother
backs him up, of course, but doesn’t yell nearly as much. When they
finish, my father takes one last deep breath and asks, “What do you
have to say for yourself?”

“I’m sorry.” My voice sounds so
small.

That Christmas was equally the best
and worst of my life.

I spend the rest of my winter break
sucking up to my parents. I feel like a zombie in my own skin,
going through the motions, emotionless.

Craig shows up two days after the
incident of their surprise arrival home and tries to apologize to
my parents. He brings a bottle of whiskey and some chocolates. He
tries to tell them that it was a misunderstanding, but they dismiss
him quickly.

I spend New Year’s Eve texting Craig
from my bedroom and silently cursing my parents for ruining this
night for us. At midnight exactly, I have my cell in my hand
texting that I wish I could be kissing him, when I hear a soft
knock on my bedroom window. My heart jumps out of my chest until I
notice that it’s Craig. Then my heart starts racing for a
completely different reason. I lift open the window and stare at
him in amazement.

“How on Earth did you get up here?” I
whisper, looking out the window and noticing exactly how he managed
it. Unlike every other girls’ bedroom in America, mine has nothing
in front of or below it - no tree, no trellis, no shed, no smaller
roof – nothing that could possibly be used to help a boy sneak in
and out. So Craig, being Craig, brought a ladder. A full scale
ladder.

I turn to him with a wide smile, but
before I can say anything, his lips are on mine. He kisses me
urgently at first, but then gently, sweetly, sincerely. It’s a kiss
that melts my heart.

When he pulls away, he
finally addresses the ladder. “It was the only way. And I
couldn’t
not
kiss
you at midnight on New Year’s Eve.”

But the moment is bittersweet because
in a matter of minutes from him climbing into my bedroom window, I
hear footsteps coming down the hall. “You have to go,” I
whisper.

He kisses me one more time, quickly,
before turning to leave.

I hear my father outside my bedroom
door. I can tell they’re his because they’re the sound of a heavy
shoe, instead of my mother’s heels. His footsteps stop and I hold
my breath, waiting for him to open the door and see Craig climbing
back out the window. But then they resume walking and I’m able to
breathe again. I watch Craig get to the bottom of the ladder and
then quietly pull it back to him, tuck it under his arm sideways,
and then walk down the dark street. I’m just glad my bedroom is on
the opposite side of the house as the living room and kitchen,
where my mom would have, without a doubt, seen him.

I play the good girl until it’s time
to go back to school. The morning I’m scheduled to go back, my dad
sits me down for an hour long lecture, which pretty much consists
of threatening to pull me from WSC. So I make promises and I tell
him everything he wants to hear and nothing he doesn’t. I know he
wants what’s best for me. It’s not entirely his fault. He’s been
preprogrammed to think this way. He’s been taught that people who
have money are superior. He looks down on public schools and boys
from the wrong side of town. And for the first time, I can tell
with certainty that he looks down on me too.

My parents drive me back to campus,
which is beyond awkward. But luckily, they don’t even come in to my
dorm when we arrive. They just drop me at the front
entrance.

When I walk in, Hailey, Julie, and
Ashley are all there. I feel the warmth of home that I didn’t feel
walking back into my childhood home after being away for months.
It’s only been a few months here and already, it’s more my home
than my actual house is. I catch up with the girls for a few
minutes, but then ask to talk to Hailey alone. In the confines of
our little dorm, I spill about everything. About the kiss outside
after the party, about meeting Craig’s family, about losing my
virginity to him, and about my parents unexpected return home the
morning after. I watch her expressions change while I talk, but she
doesn’t say anything until I’m completely done.

“Wow,” she whispers. Then she sits in
silence, stunned.

We sit there for a minute, neither of
us talking. But it’s not awkward, it’s comforting, both of us
sorting through it all, together but separately.

“I can’t believe you took Craig Morgan
to the country club,” she says when she finally speaks again. She
looks over at me and we both laugh so hard that it takes effort to
stop.

“Out of everything I just told you,
that’s what you can’t believe?” I ask, still smiling.

“Just be glad your parents
didn’t catch a glimpse of your tattoo,” she reminds me. And for
some reason, this causes us to burst into hysterics again. The idea
of my parents finding out that I got a tattoo would result in a
fate worse than death, especially my father catching sight of the
WSC mascot, of all things, permanently affixed to me. But the looks
on their faces
would
be pretty funny.

“So you and Craig,” Hailey says,
quietly.

“Yepp. Me and Craig.”

We sit there for a minute
and then, even though I know Hailey understands, I still feel the
need to explain. “You know how there are people who bring out the
worst in you? And then there are people who bring out the best in
you? Well, Craig just brings out the
most
in me. The most of everything.
He makes me feel alive.”

She nods in understanding. “I know he
loves you, Val. I’ve known for a while. But instead of saying ‘I
told you so,’ I’m just going to say I’m really happy for you
both.”

Finally, I ask her about Michigan. She
tells me about her family there and I can’t help but be a little
resentful that she hasn’t asked me to go with her to meet them yet.
She took Drew with her when she went for the first time, and every
time after that, except for this last time when she went alone.
I’ve heard about her brothers and sisters from the stories she
tells me, but I haven’t actually had the chance to meet them yet.
Maybe I’ll suggest a summer road trip… God knows it’ll be better
than staying at my parent’s.

“How about Drew?” I ask
hesitantly.

“I barely talked to him the whole
break,” she says, in almost a whisper.

“Seriously?”

Silence.

“Hailey, call him.”

She shrugs her shoulders.

“Hailey. Call him. Right now. Or
better yet, go to his dorm.”

“Val, if he wanted to talk to me, he
would have. Did you see him at all during the break?”

“No. I didn’t see him at all other
than that first night. But then again, my parents held me captive
after Christmas, so I really didn’t see anyone.”

As if on cue, Ashley yells through our
dorm room door that Drew is here.

Hailey’s eye bug out and she looks
really nervous as she walks past me and opens the door.

I watch as Drew looks at her, not
moving forward to embrace her, and I wonder what the hell is wrong
with him. He’s damn lucky to have her and he knows it. Or at least
he used to know it. I can’t hide the dirty look on my face towards
him and I know he sees it. Good. He deserves it. He deserves so
much worse.

“Can we talk?” he asks
Hailey.

I feel the pit in my stomach
immediately. The talk. It’s never a good thing. My heart breaks for
Hailey as I watch her go with Drew. I’m left wondering about them
for the next two hours, until Craig comes in and takes my mind off
of it.

Chapter 16

Seeing Craig after everything that’s
happened feels a little awkward at first. But Craig, being Craig,
breaks the tension immediately.

“So, how was the rest of
your break?” I ask, twisting my hands in front of me, a nervous
habit I’ve somehow managed to acquire in the last two
seconds.
Why am I so nervous all of a
sudden?

“Princess, come here.”

“Why?” I ask skeptically.

“Because I haven’t kissed you in what
feels like forever and I’m literally dying over here. Come
here.”

I glance over at Ashley and Julie
before walking over to Craig. They look pretty shocked and for a
brief moment I’m a little embarrassed. Then I realize how
ridiculous that is and then I’m embarrassed that I was just
embarrassed about my boyfriend. And even though I know Craig didn’t
realize my brief moment of discomfort, I make up for it anyway. I
throw my arms around him and kiss him hard, showing him how much
I’ve missed him. I only realize how deep the absence of him
impacted me when I feel him wrap his arms tightly around me,
embracing me with a warmth that comforts me beyond flesh and skin,
but rather deep down into my soul. Then, not because I’m
embarrassed anymore, but because I simply want to move away from
the girls’ scrutinizing eyes, I grab his hand and lead him into my
dorm room.

“God, I missed you.” I tell
him.

He gives me his all-too-famous
sideways smirk before he replies, “Likewise princess,
likewise.”

I finally tell him all about Hailey
and Drew and that I’m truly nervous for them. I feel like I’m
betraying Hailey’s trust, but I’m hoping maybe Craig knows
something about what’s going on with Drew. Or at the least, maybe
he can talk some sense into him.

“They’ll be fine,” he assures
me.

“How can you be sure?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” I respond without hesitation,
which actually frightens me. When did I begin to put an unyielding
amount of trust in him? In Craig Morgan. Haven’t I always thought
he would break my heart? I never felt myself starting to slowly
trust him. It’s like it just happened overnight. He was the person
I had the least amount of trust in and then suddenly, just like
that, I trust him wholeheartedly. I trust him with my
life.

“Then trust me when I say
that Drew and Hailey will be just fine. I’m not saying this because
I
think
they’ll
be fine. I’m saying this because I
know
they’ll be fine.”

“How could you possibly know that?
Unless you know what’s going on?” I ask, hoping that if he does
know something, he’ll tell me.

“No. I have no idea what’s going on
with Drew. But I know they’ll be fine the same way I know that
we’ll be fine. Because when you love someone, you can’t just walk
away. They love each other. It’s clear to anyone who has ever met
them. They’ll have rough times, sure. But they’ll get through
them.”

“Craig Morgan, my hopeless romantic,”
I tease.

He grabs me, causing me to scream in
surprise, and throws me onto my bed. As I lean up to kiss him, I
hear his phone ring. He ignores it, so I take it out of his pocket
myself. He doesn’t stop me.

“It says ‘home,’ shouldn’t you
answer?”

“Ugh,” he groans in frustration before
answering. But he shows no sign of frustration in his voice when he
greets, “Hey Lex.”