Revive Me (18 page)

I peeled her fingers off of me. People would probably call me an idiot for not taking her up on the offer, but it didn’t feel right. I was aching to get laid. I hadn’t touched a girl since Tanner’s death, but it felt like I was cheating on Tessa anytime I talked to another girl now. Tanner’s death had taught me that life was more than having meaningless sex with random girls.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m good,” I said.

She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Let me know if you change your mind.” She got up from her chair and sauntered away, shaking her ass seductively in the process.

“Dude, what the hell?” Cody asked.

I snapped back into reality and noticed Cody and Ollie were still sitting at the table. Shit, they’d heard everything. “If you want to turn her down that’s cool, but what about me?” He pointed to himself. “Bro code, you’ve always got to introduce the bros.”

“You were obviously listening, assholes,” I said. “Don’t you dare say shit to anyone about anything you heard.” The last thing Tessa needed was her getting a reputation for putting out before she even did put out. People were already making speculations about the two of them. That would make things worse.

“You know we’d never do that shit,” Ollie said. “Plus, I don’t think Cody heard a word that was said. He was too busy drooling to pay attention to anything.”

Cody threw an apple slice at him. “Screw you, asshole. I wasn’t the only one.” He looked at me. “You do need to say something to Tessa, though. You need to warn her the fuck away from him. I’d do it, but you’re closer to her than us.”

“You’ve also got the fact that she’s in love with you on your side,” Ollie added. “She’ll listen to you. Put it out there, and I’m sure she’ll listen.”

“Not so sure about that.” I could’ve stopped her before, but this new Tessa, I wasn’t so sure about. I had no idea what was going through her beautiful, but torn mind.

“Did you hear about her dad?” Ollie asked.

I nodded. “She’s the one who had to bond his ass out,” I said, repeating what Derrick had told me. “He’s lawyered up by someone in his firm, and they suspended his license. But because of his situation and role in the town, he’ll probably get off with probation and not face any jail time.”

Everyone knew about it because they’d posted it in the paper. Not much happened in our small town, so when an affluent lawyer gets arrested on a DUI charge, that shit made headlines. I was pissed about it, too. They’d put their family through the ringer by running numerous articles about the victim’s deaths, and now that. The media were fucking assholes.

“That sucks. Out of all of our parents, they’d be the last I would think something like that would happen to,” Cody said, at the same time the bell rang. The three of us jumped up from our seats, grabbed our trays, and tossed them on the conveyor belt.

“Now’s the time to do it,” Cody said, bumping my shoulder and jerking his head towards Tessa.

I nodded and walked away from them. Tessa was standing with Reese beside their table and gasped when I grabbed her hand and pulled her away from him. I heard him talking shit behind us, but ignored him.

I drug her into an empty hallway and pressed her against the wall of lockers. My arms went to each side of her head, and I caged her in. I’d had enough.

“What the hell are you doing with him?” I asked. “Your rebellious phase needs to end before you do something you’re going to regret.”

I had asked her the question so many times. At first, I’d tried to convince myself it was temporary, but I was wrong. I noticed Reese coming towards us from the corner of my eye. I had to act quickly, but he stopped a few steps away, giving us space, but eyeing me with his arms crossed against his chest. He was going to let us have our moment because he knew it’d end up in his favor. He knew I was about to piss her off and she’d run straight into his scheming arms.

She sighed heavily and her eyes looked everywhere but at me. “He’s helping me through things, Dawson. I enjoy spending time with him. He makes me feel better. He makes me forget to be sad. I really like him.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I think I’m falling in love with him.” I stumbled back, my hands falling to my side, as her words stabbed me straight into the heart. “I don’t understand what the big deal is. Don’t you want me to be happy?”

My pulse was running a marathon as I slammed my hand against a locker. “You think he’s going to help you? You think he loves you? Newsflash, he doesn’t,” I spat. “He’s going to break you even more and then step over your crushed body when he’s gotten what he wants. He’s fucking toxic. His shit will bleed into you and make you more screwed up than you already are.” I pointed a finger at a smirking Reese. “I swear to you, he’s not the answer.”

Her palms flew out, coming into connection with my chest, and I stumbled back at the force. “More screwed up than I already am?” She pounded a finger into my chest. “I’m glad you didn’t want to be with me,” she said angrily. “You led me straight into his arms.”

“That’s a goddamn lie,” I fired back.

“Reese doesn’t remind me every three seconds how broken I am. He tells me he understands. He doesn’t point out my flaws or make me feel bad about myself. He makes me feel good. How can you have a problem with that?”

“You know why,” I growled. “You fucking know why.”

She groaned in frustration and raised her hands in the air. “You’ve shot me down so many times, so many damn times, and now that I’ve found someone else you all of a sudden care about me. You all of a sudden want me to leave him so you can fix me?” She let out a harsh laugh. “I’ve moved on, so you need to move on, too.”

My head sunk down, but I kept my eyes on her. “Please, just please don’t have sex with him,” I begged, and her eyes widened. “Hang out with him, watch movies with him, do whatever, but please don’t give him that. He’s using you.”

She held up her palm. “Wow,” was all she said before turning around and stomping down the hallway right into his arms.

“Fuck,” I seethed, throwing my head back and kicking a locker forcefully.

“You want me to leave you alone?” I yelled, a sour taste in my mouth, as they started down the hallway. She turned around in his arms and looked directly at me. Her face was void of any emotion. It was like she wasn’t even in there anymore. Her body was within reach, but her heart had been sucked out of it. “Fine, have it your way. I’m done, you hear me. You walk away with him, and we’re done. I’m done with you.”

“Then we’re done,” she said, her voice strong. Reese grabbed her waist, and they walked away. She walked away, and my heart shattered into pieces, stabbing into my rib cage, and killing me. I slammed my fist into a locker, feeling skin break when it connected with the rough metal, before darting out the doors jumping into my truck. She didn’t even try to stop me. She did nothing. If she didn’t want me, why was I fighting to keep her?

Tessa

I
was running late, and the sky was dim when I punched in the address to Reese’s house. I turned down the music, needing silence, as I put my car in drive and took off down my street. Anticipation was eating at my nerves. I wondered what he’d planned for us tonight while I was showering. I prayed it wasn’t another party as I blow-dried my hair, and I hoped I’d feel comfortable as I got dressed.

My phone beeped, breaking me away from my thoughts, and I grabbed it from the passenger seat to read the text on the screen.

CODY:
You really need to talk to Dawson. He only wants what’s best for you. Don’t be mad at him.

I pushed my foot down harder on the gas pedal, and my car accelerated. None of them had a right to meddle in my personal life. I kept my eyes on the road, and the episode with Dawson flashed through my mind. I had felt like all of the air in my lungs released when he’d told me he was done with me. He was giving up. I had Reese now, but I’d never thought of a life without Dawson. I’d loved him for as long as I’d known him, but he didn’t want me until Tanner died. He’d turned me down, over and over again, and now that he was alone he wanted me. That stung. It stung badly. My inner voice insisted he didn’t want to lose the only family he’d ever had, and I was the perfect pawn for him to keep that.

Reese wasn’t constantly telling me I needed a babysitter or making my decisions for me. He allowed me to be me … the new me. Dawson was trying to save the girl who’d once been full of life, bubbly, and ready for anything. I wasn’t that girl anymore. Reese knew and accepted the lost Tessa. I didn’t care what anyone else had to say about him. I knew Reese wasn’t perfect, but he understood me and being understood when you’re in a dark place is one of the best feelings in the world.

I braked in front of a small, white, one-story house and eyed it from my street. The paint on the siding was chipping around the windows, exposing some of the dingy brown wood, and I noticed one shutter was broken and falling onto its side. The front door was slid open, but a thin screen was pulled into its place. I grabbed my bag, got out, and wrapped the sweater on my shoulders around my body tightly. The closer I got, the louder the music got. I walked through a chain-link fence that was open and into a narrow walkway that was surrounded by overgrown grass, weeds, and dandelions. I lifted my leg, nearly tripping on a cracked step, and jumped up onto the porch.

“Hello!” I shouted through the screen. I pulled at the handle, noticing it was unlocked, but I hesitated on whether or not to just walk in. I knew I’d been invited, but I didn’t want to just barge in.

“He ain’t goin’ to hear ya over that garbage music, darlin’, a struggling voice called out. I looked over to find an elderly man sitting down in a chair on the porch of the house next door. An oxygen tube was coming from a large tank connecting to his nose as he rocked back and forth. “I’d be careful. Boys who listen to loud music are always trouble,” he warned, looking at me through the thick lenses in his glasses.

“Uh, thanks,” I said, giving him a polite wave because I wasn’t sure what else to do. I yelled Reese’s name through the screen, but still got no answer.

I clutched the handle in my hand again, ignoring the neighbor’s penetrating stare, and walked in. I was immediately hit with the pungent smell of cigarettes and dust balls. A brown curtain was blocking the sunlight from beaming into the room. A suede couch was positioned in the middle of the room with a big screen TV perched onto a black, dusty stand. A blue and yellow plaid chair was sitting on each side of the couch beside black tables. Other than those few pieces of furniture, numerous bottles of alcohol scattered with a few lamps on the tables, the room was empty.

“Hello?” I yelled again, taking a few steps. The music pierced through my ears when I landed in the kitchen and spotted an iPod plugged into into a docking station…. still no Reese.

“Oh hey, I didn’t hear you come in,” a gravelly voice said, causing me to jump and bump into a cabinet. I turned around and found Reese standing at the back door with a plate in one hand and a beer in the other.

I rubbed my side and shuffled my feet against the floor. “Yeah, I knocked a few times,” I replied, pointing at the player.

“Oh shit, yeah,” he muttered, walking around me and turning down the volume with his free hand. He set the plate down on the small table, and I noticed it was filled to the rim with cheeseburgers.

“Are you having a party?” I asked, counting twelve burgers on the plate and waiting for his answer with dread.

He looked down at the tray and back at me. “Nope, just figured you might be extra hungry,” he joked.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’m eating all of that.”

He laughed, grabbed my waist, and brought me into his tight hold. “When I actually take the time to cook, I usually make a shit ton of food and save it for the rest of the week.”

We ate the cheeseburgers and sucked down a few beers as Reese talked about a few parties coming up and his friend’s band. I stayed quiet, nodding my head, and sipping on the beers he was handing my way. He finally stood up from his chair and shot his arm out for me to grab.