Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (14 page)

Derrick laughs. “I doubt you’d get as many chicks chasing after you as you do if you’d just let them see you in the mornings like this.”

I shoot him a dirty look, which only makes him laugh even louder. I pull out a breakfast sandwich from the bag and unwrap it. “What’s with all the special treatment this morning anyway? Breakfast and coffee?”

Derrick shrugs. “How else am I going to get you to play this game with me all day?”

I shake my head. “Not all day. I have a date with Bree tonight.”

“What?” he coughs, nearly choking on his coffee. “Dude. What the hell happened last night? Yesterday morning she was an untouchable lesbian.”

I shrug. “It’s not a date-date or anything. She just wants to get to know me better.”

Derrick’s eyes twinkle with excitement and I know what dirty thoughts are flying through his mind without him having to say them aloud. He smiles a mischievous grin.

“She’s just going to hang out with us at The Loft tonight. You and Kelsie. Me and Bree. It’s not like I’m going to sleep with her or anything.”

“You should. It’s time to get back on that horse, bud,” he says, reaching over and patting me on the back.

“Whatever. Listen, you can’t be talking shit like this tonight, all right? I like her, but I don’t want her to get the wrong idea about tonight. We’re just trying to be friends. She’s still with Skylar.”

“Ev, what the hell are you doing?” he asks, lines of worry visibly noticeable on his forehead. He takes a big bite out of his breakfast sandwich and follows it with a gulp of coffee.

“It’s messed up, I’m not going to lie. I don’t even know why I agreed to it except that I couldn’t say no when she asked me. She said Skylar wants us to get to know each other.”

“That makes no sense,” he says, shaking his head. He throws the sandwich wrapper in the trash can and reaches into the paper bag for another sandwich.

“I know. But if you had a lesbian tell you that she wanted to spend time with you because you make her second guess herself, wouldn’t you say yes?”

“Hell yeah! She said that? You’re shitting me!”

I laugh and nod. “She said it,” I say as I sit on the bed across from him. I take another bite out of my sandwich and realize suddenly that I’m surprisingly starving. I practically inhale the entire thing.

“So which is it, her girlfriend wants you to spend time with her, or she does?”

“Both I think. She told me that Skylar wants her to get to know me.”

“But Evan, think about that. It makes no sense!”

I swallow my food and take another swig of my coffee before replying. “Maybe not. But maybe it does,” I say, my voice trailing off. I’m unsure if I should mention the strange exchange I’d witnessed between Skylar and Parker yesterday during first period.

“Something you’re not telling me?” he asks, picking up on my hesitation.

“I saw Skylar in class yesterday looking at Parker Michelson. Like,
really
looking at him.”

“Parker Michelson,” he repeats in confusion. Parker is not a typical topic of conversation for me and he knows it.

“Yeah, she wasn’t checking him out, though, they were exchanging a look.”

“Exchanging a look, huh?” he repeats with a laugh.

“Shut up. I’m serious. There’s something going on between them.”

“Nah, you’re reaching. That’s wishful thinking.”

“Maybe,” I say, uncertainly.

“Parker is a loser.”

“What’s your point?”

“No point, just saying.”

“Anyway,” I say dismissively, realizing we’ve gotten completely off track with this conversation. “Just behave yourself tonight with Bree ok? And no talking about what I just told you about Parker and Skylar. Or about Bree questioning herself.”

“Dude. What do you take me for?”

“A big mouth,” I say, matter of fact.

“That hurts.”

“I bet.”

He chucks his sandwich wrapper at my face and I dodge out of the way just in time.

Skylar

“Skylar?” Spencer calls out to me as he walks in through the door of Cecelia’s apartment Saturday evening. I’m in my bed, curled up into a tiny little ball under the covers and I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to see anyone. “I’m not up for company, Spenc,” I mumble without taking my head out from under the covers.

I hear him approach the bed. “Come on babygirl, don’t do this to yourself,” he says quietly as he takes a seat on the bed next to me. Just knowing why he’s here makes me want to break into a million pieces and I begin to sob. My body is trembling with each tear that falls and I’m doing everything in my power not to let Spencer hear me crumbling in despair. But my heart literally aches. Broken and unfixable.

“I’m losing her,” I say through clenched teeth as I unveil my face from the covers. He immediately puts his hand to my cheek and hushes me gently. I try my best to calm myself as I focus on his hushing and soft touch.

He pulls the blankets away from me and slips under the covers, curling his tall body up against mine. He wraps his strong arms around me in a tight and loving embrace. I can feel his soft breath on the back of my neck and I immediately feel at ease.

We lie there together in comfortable silence for a long while as I listen to his breathing, and he combs his fingers through my hair. I think for a moment that I could stay this way forever and be happy, but it isn’t long before I remember why it is I was crying in the first place. Bree broke the news to me this morning that she’d be going out with Evan tonight to meet his friends. I’m not shocked. I mean, I told her to do it. But I guess I just wasn’t prepared. I thought she would fight it more.

“I love you,” I say eventually, breaking our silence.

I can hear the smile in his voice. “Right back at you. But you know I’m just paying it forward, right?”

I nod slightly. “I know,” I say, allowing myself to think back to the ninth grade when Mark Ambrose committed suicide. I took care of Spencer for months on end during his grief, cementing the friendship we now have. We need each other and love each other. He’s kept me afloat through so much, including what happened that night with Parker. Even though I wasn’t completely clear with him about what actually happened, he was there for me. And, no matter what, I will always do the same for him.

“Now get up,” he says, sitting up and reaching for my hand. “You’ve cried enough for one night. I’m taking you out on a fancy date.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he replies, taking ahold of my hand and yanking me into a sitting position.

I rub my eyes and then realize that I have smeared black makeup all over my face. “Look at me, Spenc! I can’t go anywhere like this.”

“You’re beautiful, wash it all off and let’s go,” he says, taking my face into his hands and rubbing the black under my eyes with his thumbs. He kisses me softly on the tip of my nose.

“Give me a minute,” I say reluctantly after a few moments.

He smiles from ear to ear.

Twenty minutes later Spencer and I are in his car and on our way out of town for the evening. The initial plan was a six-hour drive to Madigan City for dinner and drinks followed by an overnight stay at the Hilton, but as we are heading for the highway, we pass by Evan and Bree pulling into the parking lot of The Loft.

Once an old bar and grill that resembled the other ten bars we used to have in town, The Loft is now a billiard and eatery designed by town hall to keep the local teens out of ‘trouble’. Most notably, to keep them away from the rumored
Misfit Mansion
they apparently have never been able to find.

Personally, I think that’s a crock of shit, considering Markson Grove isn’t a large community and the whereabouts of the mansion isn’t much of a secret. My guess is that the police department has ties to the person who runs the mansion and are keeping their nose out of it for that very reason.

The Loft is an ideal place for Bree and Evan to go, it's casual and not too romantic. I let the location make me feel a bit better about their ‘date’, but only for a moment.

“Park over there,” I say, pointing to a second parking lot overlooking The Loft’s parking lot.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Spencer says with a great amount of concern. He shakes his head but pulls into the lot, nonetheless.

“We’ll just watch them go in. That’s it. Then it’s me and you off to Madigan, ok?”

He scrunches his eyebrows in disapproval but shuts off the engine like I had asked. “It’s a bad idea,” he tells me again, reaching into the dash and pulling out a joint. He lights it and inhales deeply, holding the smoke in for a number of seconds before exhaling.

“I just need to see it. I can’t explain why,” I say to him pleadingly, hoping that he understands.

He offers me the joint, but I shake my head no. I’m way too nervous to get high right now.

I watch Evan get out of his car and rush to open Bree’s door.

I cringe. I hate this.

Bree

Evan parks the car in the parking lot behind The Loft and tells me not to open my door.

“Ok,” I say, waiting awkwardly as he runs over to my door and opens it for me.

He smiles, showing off his beautiful dimples yet again, and my body unintentionally begins to heat up. What am I doing? I can’t do this, there is too much attraction; too much intensity.

He reaches for my hand in order to help me out of the car and before I even realize I am doing it, I take it into mine. The feeling I get when my skin touches his is chemical. It’s like my blood begins to boil throughout my entire body, making my cheeks blush profusely.

“You blush every time I touch you,” he says with a chuckle. I know he’s not trying to make me uncomfortable or make fun, but the knowledge of him noticing makes my smile fade. He quickly goes on, “I think it’s adorable.”

I look to the ground. “What are you doing, Evan?” I ask uneasily.

He sighs. “I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know what you want, this is really weird for me. Because I know what I want, and I know that you know what it is.”

“What is it you want?” I ask, even though he’s right, I already know the answer.

“To be with you, to kiss you, to touch you. All the time.”

I stand there in silence for a long while, knowing what I want to say but knowing that if I say it, everything will change and I won’t be able to take it back.

“I think I want those things too,” I whisper softly, still looking to the ground.

He takes a deep breath. My words have surprised him and it seems like he’s trying to decide something now. I peer into his eyes, attempting to read him, and the moment that they make contact, his lips are on mine in a breathtaking kiss.

He lets go of my hand in order to put both of his on either side of my face. His lips are hot and moist, and so soft. The minute he opens them slightly, I begin to kiss him back, slowly at first, and then with an urgency I can’t begin to describe.

Evan’s body responds to this urgency right away, and he picks me up off of the ground and sits me on the hood of his car. I wrap my legs around him and I can feel him pressed up against me in a way that makes everything down there tingle. He begins to kiss my neck while caressing my breasts; I throw my head back and let out a gasp.

And then I think of Skylar.

“We can’t do this,” I say as I break the connection and I push him off of me gently.

He’s breathing heavily and his cheeks are red. He wipes his lips with the back of his hand. “I know,” he says. “I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” I tell him. “Ever since you kissed me at work that night I’ve wanted you to do it again.”

“I’ve been trying to keep my feelings away. I really have been. But I can’t, Bree. You’re all I think about.”

I nod. “You’re all I think about too,” I confess with a hint of guilt in my voice. He shouldn’t be all I think about. I should be thinking about Skylar.

He looks hopeful for a moment but quickly hides it away. “I don’t want to get in the way of whatever it is you have with Skylar.”

“I don’t know what I have with Skylar,” I tell him honestly. “I love her. But you make me feel things that I’ve never felt with her. I don’t know what to do with that.”