So Over It (13 page)

“I’m gonna take off,” I said, tossing my oversized bag over my shoulder. “I’ll see you on Friday for Curtis’s party.”

“Okay.” Amy glanced toward the field, where the players lined up and told each other, “Good game.” I thought they just did that in kiddie sports. “Well. I’m sure he—they—appreciate you coming.”

“Yeah,” I said. “See you later.”

I picked my way down the bleachers before Amy attempted to convince me to stay and say hi to Connor. It’s not like I didn’t
want
to see him, but I didn’t know what to say or do when I did. That had my stomach knotted so tight I thought I might throw up.

At the center of the sports complex, where the bathrooms and vending machines were, I heard Connor calling my name.

I turned. He jogged toward me, his cleats sounding hollow against the concrete. My breath caught as I took him in—his large, expressive eyes, his hair curling from the humidity. How could I have disliked him when we first met? How had I missed how special he was?

Connor slowed to a stop a few feet from me. “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“Why’d you leave without saying bye?” He panted a couple times. “Or hello?”

“I need to get home. Owen had shots this afternoon and is really cranky. I’m sure Abbie’s ready for a break.” I said it all so fast, it’d be a miracle if he understood half of it. “And I said hello. I waved, remember?”

Connor’s ears reddened. Or maybe they’d been that way from playing softball. “Right.”

“Good game, though,” I said, like an idiot. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“Yeah, anytime. We play every Wednesday.”

“Okay. Well, maybe I could come next week too.”

“Okay.”

I shifted my weight from foot to foot. “So, I’ll see you at Curtis’s party.”

“And at church,” Connor said. “Although, I guess that’s Sunday, isn’t it? So I’ll see you before. At Curtis’s party.”

“Right.”

His eyes skimmed my face, as if trying to determine what went on behind my mask of a calm exterior. He said something in a rush. I caught “invite” and “Jodi.”

“What?” I said.

He took a deep breath. “I said, I didn’t invite Jodi tonight. She came on her own.”

I swallowed. “You can invite Jodi anywhere you want, Connor.”

“Yeah, but I
didn’t
invite her tonight. And earlier, I was waving at you.”

My heart fluttered. “You don’t owe me explanations anymore.”

“I
want
to owe you explanations.” He blinked rapidly. “If that’s okay with you.”

“What about Jodi?”

“She’s just a friend. She was always just a friend.”

“But in the hospital, you said—”

“I know what I said, but my feelings for her weren’t like my feelings for you, and I figured that out pretty quickly.” He took a tentative step closer. “You were totally right, Skylar. That she was after me, that I had some weird thing about needing to help her. I’m so sorry for what I did to you.”

I’d known it already, but hearing it spoken helped to blow out those last flames of anger I’d harbored. I looked around us. “You know what? This is where we met.”

“No. We met”—he took several paces toward the men’s bathroom—“here. I could barely get words out of my mouth. You were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.”

This lured me closer. If nothing else, to keep our conversation as private as possible. Although the other people milling about seemed too preoccupied with their own lives to notice Connor and I having a majorly romantic moment going on. Outside the men’s bathroom.

“A lot’s changed since then,” I said.

His fingers trembled as he reached for me. He tucked my long hair behind my ears and studied my face. “But not everything.”

I think he meant he still thought I was beautiful, but I dwelled on the last few months. Of how easily I’d slipped into my old ways. The drinking, the parties. I swallowed—Eli.

“I’ve kinda had a rough couple months,” I said, looking at my sparkly toenails.

He wove his fingers through mine. They fit as perfectly as I remembered. “Yeah, I saw.”

My face heated at the memory of him knocking on the Land Rover’s door. Of me climbing out of the backseat with Eli.

“I don’t know how it happened, really. I never intended to go back to who I’d been. But then . . .” I shook my head. “A cigarette here, a drink or two there, and I somehow slipped back into it.”

“That’s how it happened,” Connor said. “Gradually.”

“Maybe . . .” I attempted to pull my fingers free. “Maybe we should wait until I’ve got my life back in order. Until I’ve figured some stuff out.”

He squeezed tighter, wouldn’t let me go. “Or maybe it’s something we can do together. You already know what you want. You know what you’re supposed to do. Now it’s just doing it.”

I looked at him. “You make it sound so easy.”

“It’s not easy doing it by yourself.” He moved closer. I didn’t stop him. “I won’t let you down again.”

“If you did, it’d be okay,” I said as his hand rested on my waist, tugged me against him. “I’m stronger now.”

He looked in my eyes. “I see that.”

I’d never been told anything nicer.

And the kiss wasn’t bad either.

The pocket door dividing Abbie’s room from our bathroom slid open. “You won’t believe who called the house looking for you.” She spoke in a normal volume, which meant Owen must have finally settled to sleep in his own room.

“Who?”

“Alexis. And you’re lucky I was the one who answered the phone because she was smashed.”

I frowned. “Why didn’t she call my cell?”

“I think she thought she did. She kept calling me Skylar. I could hardly understand anything else she said. It was super loud behind her.”

In my lovesick state, it took me a little bit, but then I remembered Jodi’s words at Sheridan’s—“You’ll never guess who she’s been hanging around with. I’m not even sure if you’ll remember him. Aaron Robinson?”

I abandoned brushing my hair and turned to Abbie. “You didn’t understand
anything
she said?”

She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure she was crying. And she maybe said ‘Eli,’ but the only thing I heard for sure was your name.”

My fingernails bit into my palms. “Was it like an ‘I’ve been abandoned at a party and I need someone to pick me up’ kind of call?”

Abbie shrugged.

I returned to my room to find my cell. Abbie followed. “What are you gonna do?”

“Call Alexis, I guess.”

“Will you go pick her up?”

My stomach twisted with memories of my one night with Aaron. No way could I abandon Alexis to that. “I don’t even know if that’s what she needs.” My screen glared that I’d missed eleven calls. “Ugh. How long has my ringer been turned off?”

Abbie considered this. “Since Owen’s appointment?”

“How is he, by the way?” I asked as I waited for the voice mail lady to prompt me for my password.

“Fine. I gave him some Tylenol. I guess it did the trick.” She glanced at my clock—10:30. “I need to wake him up for his last feeding, but I’m nervous.”

“About him not going back to sleep?” I asked, but held up my finger to silence her before she could confirm or correct this. Lisa’s voice exploded in my ear: “Skylar, you’ve got to get over to Nick Crawford’s, like, right away. Alexis is here with that guy—Adam or what’s-his-face from last summer. She’s totally wasted and—Madison, that’s my beer! No, yours is on the stereo.” Hysterical giggling, followed by dead air.

The next message was also from Lisa. She appeared to have called me by accident, because it was all muffled cackling and bass.

The last message was Eli. At the sound of his voice, I braced myself for hearing he’d beat up Aaron and now needed me to bail him out of jail. “Skylar, you’re never going to believe what happened tonight. Call me.”

What was with these people? Leave more info!

I punched my speed dial and paced the room while waiting for Eli to answer his cell.

“What’d they say?” Abbie asked.

“Nothing. Three messages and no one said anything even remotely useful.”

Then came Eli’s chipper, “Hey, girl.”

“What happened tonight?” I asked. In the background I heard John’s boisterous voice and lots of girly laughter. “Where are you?”

“Sheridan’s. You coming out? Lisa said she tried but couldn’t get you.”

“The ringer on my phone’s been off. So what happened at Nick’s?”

“You coming out?”

My teeth ground together. “What happened at Nick’s?” “It’s better in person. Trust me.”

“Well, I just got home and I don’t know if I can get back out.”

“You should. It’s totally worth it. And I haven’t seen you since you got back. What’s up with that? You avoiding me, girl?”

“She’s avoiding me too!” Lisa said in the background.

“Me too!” Madison added.

The entire group’s sobriety sounded questionable. Super.

I raked my hands through my hair. “I’m not avoiding anyone. I’ve been busy.”

“You coming, or what?” Eli asked.

I sighed and looked at Abbie. She’d cover for me. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“What’s going on?” Abbie asked when I hung up.

I squeezed my phone in my palm. “I’m headed back to the dark side.”

14

I found Eli, John, Lisa, Madison, and several others I didn’t know crammed into the bed of John’s truck and parked in their normal spot. They were loud and obnoxious, making my head throb with each step closer.

“Skylar!” Lisa squealed as I approached. She clumsily jumped from the truck and ran toward me as best she could in her tall, awkward shoes. Her skinny arms wrapped around my neck—she smelled of sweat and Satsuma.

“Look at you!” She stumbled backward and held me by the shoulders as she assessed me. “Hawaii did you good. Where’d you get that dress? It’s so cute.” She didn’t wait for an answer, just spun and waved at the truckload of people. “Everyone say hi to Skylar!”

“Hi, Skylar!” they chorused.

Eli stood and picked his way around the tangle of legs. He looked good, even though he’d buzzed off his gorgeous blond hair since I’d left.

“Hey, beautiful.” He drew me into a too-familiar hug. He always got a little handsy when he’d been drinking.

“So what’s going on?” I asked, putting space between us. I noticed several split knuckles. “Oh my gosh, Eli.”

“You should’ve seen him, Skylar,” Lisa said. “He was all, ‘Do you have any idea what you did to my girlfriend?’ and then he just flattened him.”

I glared at Eli. “Explain. Now.”

“Aww, why you gotta be like that? I knew you’d get all bent out of shape. That’s why I wanted you to come down here, because—”

I turned on my heel and stalked toward my car.

“Skylar!” Lisa called after me.

Eli’s fingers curled around my wrist when he caught up to me. “Because I knew you’d hang up before I could explain.” He held me there beside him, looking down from his six-foot-two-inch frame. “I did it for you.”

I pulled away and crossed my arms over my chest. “Walk me through what happened.”

Eli sighed and ran his injured hand through his shorn hair. “Well, this afternoon I bumped into Nick Crawford and—”

“Fast-forward to the party. To—” I couldn’t say it. “Him.” Laughter rang out from the truck bed as Lisa rejoined the group. Fear struck me. “Do they know? Please tell me you didn’t—”

“No one knows anything. But so what if they did, Skylar? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

It’d been wrong of me to be at the party, to drink so much, to flirt with a stranger, but I didn’t split hairs with Eli.

“So he was at the party . . .” I prompted.

“Yeah. I don’t know how long they’d been there. Their whole group was pretty loaded, so I’d say awhile. Oh, and you should see Alexis. She looks so trashy. I used to think she was pretty hot, but not anymore.”

A lump formed in my throat as I thought of Abbie’s account of Alexis—drunk and crying. Not good.

“Did . . .” I forced myself to continue. “Did you see him do the same thing to Alexis that he did to me?”

“I don’t think he has to, if you catch my drift.” Eli at least had the decency to blush at this. Eli was a good enough guy—he’d tell you so if you asked about his inconsistencies between what he heard Sunday mornings at church and how he acted the remainder of the week. He just liked to have a little fun.

“Anyway, I know you told me to leave him alone, but I saw him standing there and just couldn’t help it. I walked up to them and Alexis said, ‘What do you want, Eli?’ but I ignored her. All I said was, ‘Do you have any idea what you did to my girlfriend?’ And Aaron said, ‘What?’ like he was totally confused. Then I punched him. It was a total sucker shot. He fell down, but I think it’s ’cause he’d been drinking, not because I’m such a man or anything.” He grinned. “Or maybe it was, I don’t know.”

“What happened then?” I asked.

“What do you think? We hightailed it out of there. He has some big friends. Plus I didn’t want to hang around and give the police time to show up.”

I suddenly felt too tired to stand and crouched on the cracked asphalt.

Eli sank beside me. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just . . .” My head spun. Why couldn’t Aaron have stayed in Florida for the summer? Why’d he have to reinsert himself in my life, a place he’d only briefly been welcome?