The Truth About Us (6 page)

She doesn’t look up, so I reach out and pull her chin up with two fingers. “It’s okay. It’s just a phone,” I continue as her cloudy eyes swirl with tears. I see her chest pumping wildly, and it reminds me of last night, just before she took off with Garett.

“This isn’t about the phone, is it?” I ask and wish she’d just answer me. I’m not feeling this one-sided conversation.

Out of nowhere she laughs. A shoulder shaking, manic kind of laugh as she reaches into her purse and pulls out a pile of plastic similar to my own. My eyebrows pull together, and I look from her to her hands. None of this is helping my confusion.

“I’m sorry, Corbin. God, how fucking embarrassing. I was just going to go get myself a new phone because I broke mine. Obviously. I thought I’d stop by here–” She stops stuttering and wipes at her eyes with the back of her forearm. I realize I’m grinning at her and shaking my head. She stands, and I slowly follow, taking the mess that is my cell phone from her hand.

A loud thumping noise sounds and Kayla’s little silver car pulls up in front of the bar. Both Sophia and I watch her get out, and her nose wrinkles in confusion as she sees us, Sophia’s hand in mine.

“What are you guys doing here?” She asks behind the fake smile that I know so very well, but she’s distracted. “Sophia, are you crying, sweetie?”

Sophia shakes her head. “I just came to get my schedule.”

Kayla’s eyes dart to me with this accusing glare. Fuck, she thinks I did something.

Luckily Kayla doesn’t care about other people’s feelings and continues talking like the last five seconds never happened. “Anyway, I’m glad I ran into you two. I’m here early to start planning for the Mills Bash, and I’ll need you both. The DJ backed out. Asshole. He knows all the good ones are booked out like a year in advance. And you’re fucking dad, Corbin, I swear to God. I wish I could just buy this place and kick him the hell out. Do you know how hard it is to find the money for all this shit when he drinks half the bar?”

Sophia stares blankly and I shift. For some reason, I feel really not okay with Kayla airing out all my family problems in front of Sophia, but she doesn’t seem fazed by it at all. Actually, she might not even be keeping up with Kayla’s rapid fire statements and hand gestures.

“I do know, Kayla. I am the one that balances his books. Which are never balanced,” I say and she glares at me.

“Well then I really need you to figure out where I’m getting this money from.”

“I’m good at math, Kay. I’m not a fucking magician.”

“Well become one.”

I groan. I don’t know why because I plan that stupid party every year and every year we don’t know where the money’s coming from. Every year something goes disastrously wrong and Kayla and Brenda freak out, and then everything works out in the end, and it’s the best party of the year. Every year. The Bash is a yearly fundraiser that started when I was a kid before Dad became useless. The only non-shitty and selfless thing my dad’s ever done. It was so successful the first year that the Mayor even foots most of the bill now because we always make a shit ton of money. Fuck Ferris wheels, this is our town fair.

“The what? I missed almost all of that.” Sophia asks.

“Only the most massive summer party that ever existed. Don’t worry, you’ll get caught up. I need you to come in an hour early for each of your shifts though. You get paid for it.” Kayla pushes her sunglasses on top of her straightened hair and reefs open the sticky door. She looks at me, then Sophia, then back to me and nods her head. “Corbin. A moment?”

Shit. Not now.

“Yeah, sure,” I say and turn to Sophia. “Are you buying me a new cell phone after this?”

Her lips pull into a guilty smile, but she doesn’t say anything, so I follow Kayla into the bar. As soon as the door closes Kayla’s on me.

“So what was that?” she asks, putting her hands on her hips. I look behind me at the door then back to her.

“What was what?” My brain fogs and fuzzes as I try and understand the scowl on her face and defensive stance.

“Are you buying me a new phone after this?” Kayla mimics me, and I can’t help but laugh. This one short burst that makes everyone in the bar look at me.

“Seriously?” I ask.

This is exactly why I don’t get involved. Why I don’t invest. Mine and Kayla’s relationship is never supposed to pass into this jealousy zone.

“Don’t play stupid, Corbin. I saw the way you looked at her.”

My face pulls even deeper into confusion. “Kayla, are you my girlfriend?”

She scoffs but doesn’t say anything.

“Kayla?” I grip her shoulders and force her to look at me. Her eyes burn with anger because she knows where this is going. It’s gone here before, just not for this reason.

“No.” She says flatly.

“Do you want to be?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“No.”

“I said I’d tell you if I was sleeping with other people and I promise you that I will. If you want me to yourself, fine, but you have to claim me.” I spread my arms out to make my point. I know she won’t. Kayla is more afraid of commitment than I am.

She crosses her arms this time and her face twists into a pout. Kayla wants what she wants, when she wants, and without any questions. She doesn’t give a shit about me. I know that. The fact that I say no to her is what keeps her interested. I’m not stupid. I just don’t care.

“Well then, if that’s done, I’m off to see a girl about a cell phone.” I turn and get the fuck out of there as fast as I can before she can say anything else.

Chapter Six

Sophia

I dig my toe into the crack in the sidewalk as I lean against the brick wall. The sun warms my face and dries my tears, but the embarrassment still lingers. I can’t believe I broke Corbin’s phone. And then cried about it.

I stifle a laugh and choke on it. God, I’m stupid. I can’t stop the smile when I think about the terrified look on his face. I would be terrified of me, too. I close my eyes and lean my head back, then the door opens with a loud groan. Corbin steps out, and the door bangs shut. Someone should seriously fix that thing.

“You ready to do this?” he says and gestures to my car.

“I guess so. I have no idea where I’m going. I haven’t really had a chance to get out since I’ve been here.” I climb in the driver side, and he somehow crams his long legs and broad shoulders into my tiny car.

"I'll give you the tour. It's not long, trust me." He shrugs as I pull out from in front of the bar. The sun glares through the windshield, flickering shadows pass across the dash as we pull onto the main road. There's silence inside the car. It's weird now that Corbin and I are alone. Awkward and tense but not uncomfortable. It feels good to sit next to him. I just don’t know what to say. He taps his fingers on the dash, and I drive.

"Have you lived here your whole life?" I ask, trying to cut into some of this strange tension. Corbin rolls down the window and I wonder if he feels it too.

"Yep. Turn left here." His voice is tighter than before. Not as flirtatious and friendly as he was at the bar.

"And your roommates?" I push him to talk for some unknown reason. Now that he spoke, I want him to keep talking about him. Maybe because I'm terrified he might start asking questions about me. Maybe because every time he’s around things I don’t mean to say fall out of my mouth.

"Riley came here two years ago to teach. The rest of us are from here. Garett and I have been best friends since we were kids." The corner of his mouth pulls into a playful smile, and my cheeks burn.

"I didn't mean-" I blurt out unintentionally but slam my mouth shut. Like I said, things I don’t mean to say.

Corbin nods but doesn't look at me. "I don't care, Sophia. What Garett does is his business." Corbin looks at me this time, his smile wider. "Or
who
Garett does. Don’t worry, he doesn’t kiss and tell."

My cheeks flush, which pisses me off. I have no clue why I brought that up.

"I know. I don’t care about that... I just, I'm fucked up." I grip the steering wheel tighter as I turn into a little strip mall.

Stop opening your mouth, Sophia,
I think as Corbin laughs.

"You'd have to be to hook up with Garett's skinny ass." His voice is teasing, but he shifts in his seat as if anxious to get out. I park the car, but before I can respond he pushes open the door stepping out into the afternoon heat. He stretches his shoulders out and kicks out his long legs before bending to look through the window. "Next time we take my truck."

I just sit there like an idiot, my heart pounding and wonder why. Why he said next time. Why it causes the wave of excitement to pass through me even though I just made an ass of myself. Why, every time I open my mouth around him, my inner most thoughts come bubbling out.

Corbin watches me with intense dark eyes, walking backwards with arms out as if asking me what's taking so long. His light t-shirt is fitted across his chest, his shorts low on his hips. His skin is tanned and smooth, and when I look at him I can't help but wonder what it'd be like to be with him. To have him slide his hand between my thighs under a table. My physical attraction to him is painfully obvious, and I have to shake the desire from my body and push him to the back of my mind. Maybe that’s why I felt tension. It’s just sexual. So much more intense than with Garett. That guilt stabs at me again. I shouldn’t have done that. The last thing I need to do is to involve other people in my mess.

As I approach, I can tell he's about to ask me something, so I cut him off. "Sorry. Zoned out. So what kind of phone did you have?"

Corbin stops and I turn to face him. He's a lot taller than me, and I notice that if I stepped into him he'd be able to swallow me in his arms. Looking up to his face again, I notice he's smirking at me with a wrinkled nose. "You didn't think I'd really make you buy me a phone, did you?"

"But I broke it?" It comes out as a confused question, more than a statement. Money’s never really been a thing for me. A new phone is nothing, but I forget not everyone’s parents are my parents.

"No, you didn't. You hit me with a door. It was an accident, Sophia." He squeezes my shoulder.

It was an accident, Sophia.
The words bulldoze me, and a wave of fresh panic makes me clutch at my purse. I hate how fast it happens. The pounding heart, and fast breath. I hate how it blindsides me and for something as stupid as a meaningless few words.

Corbin's teasing expression turns to concern as he steadies my shaking body. His dark features all scrunched up like this make him look older, more mature than that lopsided smile.

"Are you okay?" he asks, and I nod.

"I hate those words," I say, angry with myself for saying it.

"You hate the words,
it was an accident, Sophia
?" Now he's back to being confused, and I can see the curiosity in his eyes.

"Just in that order."
Seriously, stop talking, Sophia.

Corbin laughs and slides his arm over my shoulders and guides me to the door of a tiny electronics store. I don't pull away because it's the best feeling I've had in a long time and I want to live in it for just a little while.

"You’re the strangest girl I've ever met." He squeezes me tighter to his side as we pass into the air conditioned store.

"You have no idea," I mutter and he lets me go to wander the small aisles, looking at phones.

"Alright then, I'll rephrase. Sophia, in an act of happenstance, you hit me with a door, and it resulted in a broken phone. No big deal. It was a work phone anyway." He winks at me, and I reach across the display to smack his arm.

"You ass! I felt so bad." I look away and pick up a glossy smart phone, distracted. I cringe at the thought of one of these tiny computers and knowing that my mother could reach me in forty-two ways on one device. Corbin moves to my side and watches me place the phone in its’ holder.

“Nah, I just had to get the fuck outta there.” He shrugs and picks up a touch screen phone with a blue-grey case. My gut drops as I remember Kayla’s face when she saw us together. “How about this one, it matches your eyes.” Corbin continues, reaching out and running his thumb over my cheekbone. I know he’s teasing me, but the way he jumps back tells me he didn’t mean to touch me like that. A small bubble of panic bursts in my chest and I shake my head, taking the phone from his hand and putting it back.

I may be the new Sophia now, but simple is still better for me. Small, easy, manageable. That’s what the doc told me.

Don’t over complicate your life, Sophia. One thing at a time. You deserve time. No one can determine the length but you.

Now I can’t remember if I’m thinking the phone is too complicated, or Corbin and Garett and Kayla and all these things I’m feeling about someone I don’t know.

Maybe all of it. I don’t know anymore. Not with the tingle that still runs across my cheek from where Corbin touched me.