Finding Peace (Finding Series Book 1) (25 page)

That makes me wish he was here, even more. “Hmm, that sounds nice. You really didn’t have to call, I am really glad you did though.”

“I just had to hear your voice. Missing you is about all I’m getting done during the day. I want you with me more than I want my next breath. June can’t get here fast enough.”

The things he says to me always makes me feel special. He is all I can think about too. “I feel the same way Blake. I’m just holding out for this weekend. Four days Blake, just four more days.”

“That’s right baby. Four more days. However, right now four more days feels like an eternity.”

He’s right, it does. “I can’t wait either. Being in your arms is the only place I want to be. Watching the sunset from the dock and talking for hours, just spending time alone together sounds amazing to me.”

“Careful baby. I might just go get in the truck and drive there right now. And that sounds more than amazing to me. I want to hold you and kiss you until we both can’t stand it anymore.”

I laugh. “Down boy.”

He’s laughing as he says. “I thought we already discussed this boy thing.”

“We did. I just love getting you all riled up.” I left that statement wide open for him and I know it.

“I can think of a lot better ways to get me riled up.”

I shake my head even though I know he can’t see me.

“I knew you were going to say something like that. I am putting your letter in the mail today. Did you write mine?”

“Yes, I will be mailing mine today also. Listen baby, we better hang up. I’ve got to leave for work and you need to leave for school. I probably won’t call again this week, but I’ll be there Friday night. Okay?”

I look at my watch. Wow, I really do need to leave.

“Okay. I lov… I look forward to seeing you. Bye, Blake.”

“I’m looking forward to it too. Bye, baby.”

He hangs up and I just stand there with the receiver in my hand. Almost telling him I love him has put me into a state of shock. What was I thinking? I can’t tell him that yet. I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever be able to tell him. The thought of it scares me to death. I don’t want him to know that I may have already completely fallen for him and then have to move. The problem with this logic is that I’m pretty sure I’m head over heels for him.

“You ready?”

Tessa walks up and puts her hand on my back, startling me.

“What’s wrong now?”

She takes the receiver and places it on the phone base. I look at her with my eyes wide.

“I almost told him I loved him.”

Tessa is trying not to laugh. “It’s not funny, Tessa. I just hope he didn’t catch it.”

“Kayla, don’t worry. It’s obvious to everyone that you love him. We are all just waiting for you to say it out loud. Even if he did catch it, he’d never tell you that he did. Let’s go to school.”

She’s right. Blake is too much of a gentleman.

We turn up the music on the way to school, singing along to the very song I added to Blake’s letter I’m sending to him today. It’s
Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac…

Can you hear me calling

Out your name

You know that I'm falling

And I don't know what to say

I'll speak a little louder

I'll even shout

You know that I'm proud

And I can't get the words out

Oh I,

I want to be with you everywhere

Oh I,

I want to be with you everywhere

(Wanna be with you everywhere)

Something's happening

Happening to me

My friends say I'm acting peculiarly

As I leave out of my Honors English class, I head to the stairs to go to the main floor. The call I received from Blake this morning is still fresh in my mind. I go over every word we shared. I analyze every remark he made hoping to read more between the lines. Although I don’t think that’s even necessary with Blake, he pretty much tells you exactly what he is thinking, all the time.

“Hey, Kayla. You look happy today. Anything to do with that new guy in your life?”

It’s Megan. She is a good friend of mine; actually she hangs out with all of us. We don’t have a particular group of people we hang with. Not being into the clicks, we chose to talk to everyone and be friends with whoever talks to us. We don’t care what group you are from if you are friendly to us, we are friendly to you.

Megan is a little different, with her wild hair and funky style of clothing. She is a tremendous amount of fun. Never taking crap off of people, she will put you in your place in a heart beat. She isn’t much taller than I am. Her hair is platinum blonde, shoulder length, and she spikes it up in the front.

“Hey, Megan. How do you know about that?”

“Tessa, who else? We talked a lot while you were out last week and I saw her this morning. So, she told me about your quick trip this weekend.”

“Oh, I see. It’s true, I am beyond happy. Blake surprised me this morning by calling me before school. Besides that he will be here in just four days.”

I feel those familiar butterflies in my stomach. Just the thought of him gives me butterflies.

“That’s great. I’m so happy for you and I can’t wait to meet him. You want to walk with me to my locker and then we will meet Tessa for lunch in the quad?”

“Sure, I’ll walk with you.”

Our high school campus looks like a college. It consist of three major buildings and a football stadium, they all surround a circular grassy area that has shade trees, benches, and some tables. We normally eat our lunch under one of the shade trees every day as long as the weather permits it.

Our football stadium is not like any other schools I’ve ever seen. It sits low and is surrounded on all four sides by sloped hills. During the football games people sit on the hills with blankets to watch.

The main building houses the English, Math, Science, History, and vocational departments. The second building is the athletic building and the third is the Fine Arts building, that building is where I take my favorite class, Visual Arts.

In my Visual Arts class, I get to play with photography, screen printing, creating logos, along with numerous other things. Developing pictures in the darkroom is what I love doing the most. The creativity is what makes the class so interesting to me. I could spend all day there.

We walk down the hall of the main building; standard gray lockers line the walls.

“So, what do you and Blake plan to do this weekend?”

We spoke about that this morning. I don’t care I just want to be with him. “Nothing really. I’d be happy just sitting on the dock with him.”

“You are so obviously in love. Your face is glowing. I don’t think I have ever seen you this happy?”

Why does everyone keep saying that? We stop at her locker; she throws her books in it. Just then a group of guys who are on the baseball team run into us and just about knock us down.

“Hey, Kayla, Megan. Sorry about that. We are just excited about the game. You girls coming to watch tonight?” Brandon asks.

Brandon Horton is expected to play baseball for the University of North Carolina after graduation. He is a really sweet guy and his long time girlfriend Sarah Diggins is beautiful. They make the perfect couple.

“I’m not. The lake house is just too far away from here for me to drive back to the game. Besides, I’m so far behind in my studies I really don’t have time for anything else if I’m going to have any free time this weekend.

“She has a hot guy coming to see her this weekend. Don’t let her kid you. That’s the only reason she is worried about finishing that work.”

I playfully shove Megan. “Shut up.”

“Hot guy? That’s the first I’ve heard of this. I’m sure I’ll be filled in by Sarah. Too bad that you can’t come to the game. What about you, Megan? I know Sarah would love it to have someone other than the usual baseball, girls to talk to.”

I laugh, because I know who he is talking about. Those girls will do anything to be with one of the athletes. Although the baseball team has many fan girls, the football team has it much worse.

“Yeah, I’ll be there.” Megan states.

Megan is single. I think she prefers it that way. Happily hanging out with friends and being able to do what she wants, is all she cares about.

“I’m gonna walk with y’all. Sarah is supposed to be waiting with Tessa for me.” Brandon says as he walks with us toward the main door.

As we walk out of the building we are met with a wall of students. Making our way through the crowd, finally breaking through, miraculously all three still together. It’s a beautiful spring day. The sun is shining with a gentle cool breeze. It feels delightful.

I look up, looking for Tessa under our tree. I freeze in my tracks when I see David standing a few feet from us with his arms crossed not looking pleased at all.

Kayla

This is the drawback to an open campus for a High School; anyone can just walk on and interact with the students. I grab Megan’s arm to stop her. She follows my line of sight.

“Shit.” She is now standing right beside me.

Brandon stops and looks back at us, before looking around trying to figure out what is wrong. He is now standing on the other side of me in a defensive mode.

“What is it? You both look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

He waits for one of us to answer his question. I, however, can’t speak. I see Tessa running towards us. She has obviously seen David. Asher is right behind her.

I told Blake a little about what has been going on last night. However, Troy said David was parked outside the Lake House for hours before he finally called the police on him. They made him leave and told him not to come back there.

All of this screams desperation. The Lake House is a good hour from his house and even after we got back Saturday morning he was back at it. Even resorting to borrowing cars so that we hopefully wouldn’t know it was him. I hope Troy can get that restraining order taken care of soon.

He, just like Blake, told Tessa and me to be careful and to not go anywhere alone. He instructed us to call the police if we saw him. Troy said he seemed very unstable and that he didn’t want to take any chances.

“It’s David. Kayla’s ex, who can’t take ‘Get lost loser’ as a hint to leave her the hell alone.” Megan finally answers Brandon.

“Are you okay, Kayla? You don’t look good.” Brandon says, looking down at me.

I now realize I’m surrounded by my friends. Brandon is standing on my left, Megan is on my right, Tessa is standing behind me, and Asher has taken a stance in front of me facing David. His arms are folded across his chest, looking like he is ready for a fight if need be.

David slowly approaches us. Brandon eases me behind him and steps up beside Asher. Both boys are average in size, but trust me when I say; no one wants to be the one to underestimate them. Each one can be a force to be reckoned with when pushed too far. Asher speaks first.

“You need to leave this campus before we call the cops. You are not a student and you have no business being here.” Asher is standing his ground.

“I just want to talk to Kayla.”

That feeling that everything is closing in on me is overtaking all of my senses. I can hear them talking, but it’s like I’m hearing them through a fog filled tunnel. I try to take myself back to that moment with Blake, when he sang to me, made me feel safe, and gently rocked me. It slows my breathing some, then I hear the anger that resonates in Brandon’s tone as he speaks to David.

“Kayla doesn’t want to talk to you. So you can leave on your own or we can make you leave.” Brandon states with a force that is undeniable.

David is bigger than both Brandon and Asher; however, they don’t seem to care. I love my protective friends.

Sarah walks up and puts her hand on Brandon’s back saying. “Calm down Brandon.” Brandon ignores her.

Asher speaks again. “What’s it gonna be?”

David takes another step toward them. Brandon and Asher stand a little taller and ready themselves to pounce.

“You little punks think you can stop me?”

Brandon steps up to David. “I know I can stop your damn crazy ass. All by myself. Asher’s just here to drag your sorry ass out of here when I’m done.”

He is right in David’s face now. Asher grabs him and pulls him back.

“Man, you’ve got your future to think about. You can’t get thrown off the team. Let me handle this, then you can clean up.”

After Asher gets Brandon back under control he turns and looks at us and winks at Tessa. Who I can tell is really worried that Asher is going to get himself in trouble. That look on her face is a dead giveaway. My panic has turned to fear for all of my friends who are trying to stand up for me.

“It’s okay Asher. I’ll talk to him, just so no one gets into trouble.”