3 Book High School Romance Bundle: A Kiss at Midnight & Prom King & Under My Skin

by Zara Rivas

  "I think that's really up to you. Everyone's situation is different," he said carefully. "I didn't immediately forgive my dad, but in the end, it was a lot easier than being upset about it. Everything was better… they didn't fight. Mom smiled more. It was easier if I looked at the positives."

  "I had no idea," I said slowly. "I didn't know my mom was unhappy. I thought she was fine. When she left, she didn't even say goodbye. She left a note. She sent divorce papers and it killed my dad. She just left. Why does he think that's okay?"

  "Maybe because it's familiar, in a sense. You guys leave all the time."

  "Not each other," I replied vehemently, my ice cream forgotten. "That's kinda the point. We were a family. We didn't have many people, but at least we had each other. She decided that it wasn't worth it. That I wasn't worth it. My mom abandoned me. I can't just forget that."

  "Never forget it," Casey said quietly. "That's not what your dad wants. He just wants you to give her a chance."

  "I don't know if I'm ready yet."

  "It doesn't have to be now," he said. "It won't go well if you're not ready for it. If anything, it might make things worse." He smiled at me. "I'm glad you ended up here."

  "In this ice cream parlor?" I looked around, playing dumb.

  "Well, yeah," he replied. "Here. With me."

  I beamed despite myself. "Are we being stupid?" I asked.

  "You maybe. I don't know how to be stupid," he responded arrogantly. I kicked him playfully under the booth.

  "I mean, are we being stupid by pretending that we won't get attached? We can ignore and defy as many labels as we want, but… how we feel is different. Are we just making it harder for each other by not… I don't know… making something of us?" I inquired slowly, not meeting his gaze.

  "Yes," he replied immediately. I raised an eyebrow at him and he smirked. "I thought so the entire time, but I was just letting you do what you want. Pressuring you into anything else would probably prove to be disastrous."

  "So you want to be together?"

  His face softened at the vulnerability in my voice. "Since I first saw you."

  I beamed, "Liar."

  He shrugged, "Maybe. I do now."

  "So…"

  "Be my girlfriend, Katie?" he asked, his blue eyes sparkling beautifully. He narrowed his eyes when I didn't immediately respond. "If you say 'we'll see,' I might have to hurt you."

  I broke into a grin. Instead of a response, I leaned across the booth and kissed him hard. The elderly couple at the counter scoffed loudly and I pulled away a few moments later. He pushed his forehead to mine and grinned. "I'll take that as a yes."

  I didn't get home until late. Casey had proven a distraction at best, and I found that I couldn't keep my lips off him. When he dropped me back at school to pick up my car, we spent a half hour under the stars. I had never felt so alive. He made every inch of me feel on fire. I realized how easily I could get used to it.

  I wasn't surprised to hear noise coming from the apartment. My dad was usually up late so I thought nothing of it.

  Until I opened the door.

  "Mom?"

  Chapter Thirteen

  I stayed up all night packing.

  I wasn't sure what they expected me to do. Forced with a decision like that, how could they expect me to choose anything different?

  --

  My initial reaction was to run. I probably would have had I not been rooted to the spot. I couldn't move. All I could do was stare at her, slack jawed and everything.

  How could she just sit there? How could she act like this was remotely normal? It wasn't. Not anymore.

  She looked nervous, and rightly so. Had I not been so surprised, I probably would have been yelling, since I seemed to have lost the ability to move.

  My dad guided me to the couch when he realized that I wasn't going to move on my own accord. My mother still hadn't said anything. She was watching me carefully, as if I was some kind of display. She was making me angry.

  "Your mom's back," my dad said stupidly, interrupting the silence. I shot him a glare and he shut up.

  "I'm living here now," she finally spoke up, her voice soft. She was twirling her new wedding ring, a huge diamond solitaire, around her finger nervously, though to me it seemed like she was trying to remind us what had changed since we were last together. "In Wisconsin," she added hastily, as if I would have thought for a moment she was living with us.

  "With your new family?" I spat. "Or did you leave them too?"

  "Kathryn!" my dad exclaimed, the anger in his tone unmistakable. I didn't care. I didn't have to forgive her.

  My mom held up her ringed hand. "Don't, Greg," she said, "I deserve it. I deserve worse." She turned back to me. "I'm here with my husband and his son."

  I didn't respond. I think it honestly made me feel worse that she was able to stay with her new family, but leave us behind. "What are you doing here?" I finally asked.

  "That's something we need to discuss, Katie," my dad spoke up when my mom faltered. "I made a promise to you… I told you'd be here for prom."

  "And I won't be," I replied. "I get it. I never really expected it. When are we leaving?"

  "Katie, you don't have to go. You could go to prom. You could go to graduation here. You've finally made friends. You can stay."

  I narrowed my eyes at him, suspicious before I even fully understood what he was saying. When it finally connected, I exploded. "You mean I can stay with her?!" I yelled, standing up. "That's the catch? I can stay with the mother that abandoned me so you can abandon me?"

  Complete silence filled the room. My mother looked ashamed, but my dad looked like he finally understood.

  "I would never abandon you, Katie," he said quietly. "I'm just trying to give you a way to stay with the people you've met. With Casey."

  "Do you think any of them come close to meaning as much to me as you do?" I replied. "I can't… I need you."

  "No, you don't," he said. "That's what I'm trying to prove. You're an independent young woman. You don't need me around anymore."

  "Yes, I do," I said. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

  "What're you going to do next year then? Forget school? Katie, it'd be like practice for the real thing."

  "I'm going with you," I said, the finality in my voice clear. "I'm not staying here if my choice is to stay with her."

  I could see the rush of emotion pass through my dad, but I wasn't clear on which emotions were the strongest. He was relieved on some level that I was still his little girl, I could see that, but at the same time, I knew he wanted me to spend the time with my mother. I just wasn't ready for that yet. I wasn't sure if I ever would be.

  "What about Casey?" he asked.

  "He'll understand," I replied, though I wasn't completely sure that was the case. "He doesn't really have much of a choice."

  When I turned around, my mother was gone. I hadn't even heard her leave.

  "When do we leave?" I asked my dad.

  "Next week," he replied.

  "Where to?"

  He shrugged, "Classified."

  I nodded. "I'll be ready." I gave him a hug and retreated to my room. Once I started packing, I hadn't been able to stop.

  When it was time to head to school, I could feel the knots twisting in my stomach. I didn't want to leave Casey. I wasn't sure what we had, if it could ever work out, or if it was going to be worth it in the long run, but I really wanted to find out.

  He was waiting for me at my locker when I arrived. I probably would have run in the other direction had he not already seen me. I approached and offered a weak smile. He grinned in return and swept a piece of hair behind my ear. "You look tired."

  "Long night," I replied. I wasn't going to do this now. Not here, with all these people watching.

  He tipped my chin up and kissed me softly. As much as I tried, I couldn't help but succumb to his lips. He made me feel so amazing. I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to leave him. When he pulled a
way, he grinned and pushed his forehead to mine. "Figured I'd give them something to stare at, since they haven't been able to stop."

  "It's 'cause you're gorgeous. They always stare," I teased.

  He didn't respond. I felt his hand wrap around mine and we walked to English together.

  The day was absolutely perfect, except for Stephanie's absence. I didn't feel as bad now, knowing she would probably have him when I left. The thought made me feel a little sick to my stomach. Casey had been a complete gentleman the entire day. He walked me to class, even carried my books. He was being what I always expected the perfect boyfriend to be like. How was I going to be able to do it?

  We took a walk together after school, his fingers intertwined in mine as they had been all day. Neither of us did much talking, but it made things much easier for me. I was trying to formulate the inevitable conversation in my head—I had been all day—but no matter how I tried to say it, it would still mean the same thing. Casey and I would be over before we really had a chance to start.

  "So… for prom," Casey began, "Where did you want to go for dinner?" I took a glance at him, but he wasn't looking at me. "Everyone else is going out, but I thought it might be nice for us to go alone."

  "Casey…" I started, but wasn't able to continue once his big blue eyes met mine. He seemed to know already what I was going to say.

  "But…" he trailed off, "I thought you said you'd still be here."

  "My dad said we would be," I replied, "but stuff comes up. It's the military. There's not a whole lot that can be done about it."

  "When?" he asked, dropping onto a bench in the park we'd been strolling through. He looked as if I'd just hit him in the stomach.

  "We'll be gone by next weekend."

  "Next weekend?!" he exclaimed, "Where?"

  "Don't know yet. It happens every once in a while… they don't tell us until we're already in the air."

  "Can you please stop sounding so matter-of-fact about all of this?" he begged.

  "How else am I supposed to sound?"

  "I don't know!" he threw his hands up in frustration, "Like it matters to you. Like you don't want to leave me."

  "I don't," I replied. "God, I don't, Casey."

  "There's no way you could stay?" he asked quietly. "There's nothing we can do?"

  I shook my head. "My mom wants me to stay with her, but I can't."

  He raised his eyes to mine, a confused expression on his face. "Wait a minute, your mom's here?"

  I rolled my eyes, "Yeah. She moved here with the new family. Apparently she can remember one of the families she's had."

  "And you could stay with her?"

  "In theory," I replied slowly. "But I won't. I can't."

  "You won't," he repeated. "You really hate your mom that much?"

  "I'm not ready yet," I replied. "Don't you remember the conversation we had yesterday? How hard it could be if I'm not ready?"

  "But I'm here," he said, "I could help you. You could practically live with me. God, please, Katie… you have the ability to stay here with me. Take it."

  "I can't."

  The silence was overwhelming. His eyes bored into mine, but I refused to look away, even though they gave away everything he was feeling. "No," he said quietly, "You won't."

  "What's the difference?"

  "That your grudge against your mother is more important than what we could have," he stood. "I get it. I just thought you liked me."

  "I do," I replied.

  "But not enough to stay."

  "Not with her," I said after some hesitation.

  It was a long time before he spoke again. When he did, I wished more than anything that he hadn't. He pushed his lips to mine softly, so painfully softly that I trembled slightly. He didn't deepen it and it didn't last long, but it spoke volumes to me. When he pulled back, the sadness in his eyes was distinctive. "Goodbye, Katie." He turned away from me and walked back to his house alone.

  I couldn't stop the tears from forming. I realized that I didn't want to.

  I spent the weekend trying to recover. I only spoke to Erin, unable to open up to anyone else. My dad tried to mend fences between my mother and me again, but I found that I was even more sure that I wanted nothing to do with her. She was the reason I had lost Casey.

  I replayed our conversation over and over. What if things happened differently? If I had never told him of my mom's move to Wisconsin, maybe we would have parted on a happy note. We could have made all those false promises I previously hated so much. Now—well, anything was a step up from where I was. False promises were better than nothing.

  I had never dreaded going back to school like I had that weekend. What was going to happen? How was he going to act? What would people say? We had been so happy on Friday—everyone would notice a change. I knew I didn't have it in me to explain. On top of all that, I was going to lose all the friends I had made so far. They would obviously stay on Casey's good side. As much as I told myself that it didn't matter, that I was leaving anyway, the reality of it still stung. They were the first real friends I had in a long time and in less than a week, they would be on their way to forgetting me.

  I tried to stick to my normal routine as much as possible. I went to school early and ran laps around the track. I pushed myself harder, ran faster, but anyone watching wouldn't have known the difference. I stayed a little longer so I wouldn't have to go to English early. I didn't have to face him yet.

  I was going to pretend that I was okay. If it was going to rip me apart, it wasn't going to be visible. I would not let everyone see me break. They didn't have that right.

  I was surprised that the whispered conversation hadn't escalated. No one was pointing or staring. It was honestly slightly unnerving. I hadn't expected this at all. I didn't want to be caught off guard.

  I held my breath as I entered my English classroom just a few seconds before the bell rang. I grabbed an empty seat in the back and pulled out my notebook just to busy myself. I couldn't bring myself to look at him—not yet.

  I twirled my pencil around my fingers, forcing my eyes down. I felt like a coward, unable to look at him, but I was suddenly very aware that I might cry if he did anything at all.

  Erica dropped in the seat next to me, causing me to look up. "He's going to prom with Stephanie now." There was no malice in her tone. She was just informing me.

  My eyes landed on him without thought. My heart jumped just a little as his gaze met mine. He held it only momentarily before looking away, and I was clear on how things would be. I wasn't important at all anymore.

  "Just let it be," Erica said. "It's hard. You're both hurting. You don't have enough time to make it right."

  I nodded, "I'm sorry."

  She smiled sadly, "So'm I." She gave me one last look before rejoining Casey and his friends.

  I spent the rest of my day alone.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I was miserable.

  School never got better. In fact, there was a strong possibility that it was worse. Absolutely everyone avoided me. I was under the impression that I had some sort of contagious disease, because no matter who it was, they seemed to have to stay a minimum of five feet away at all times.

  By the time Friday came around, I was so happy to be done finished with McCormack High that it didn't bother me when no one said goodbye. Everything was packed and ready to go, and the flight for our next destination left early the following morning.

  I went immediately home from school, counting down the hours until we would be able to leave. I was surprised yet again by my mother, who was sitting in the same place as before.

  "This isn't going to work," I said. "I'm not staying."

  "You don't have a choice," my dad said from behind me, closing the door that I had left open.

  I spun around. "The hell I don't. I chose you. We leave in the morning. Give it up."

  He shook his head, hating my attitude but not speaking up about it. "This has nothing to do with me trying to fix
the relationship between you two. It has to do with location. I told you that I would never take you to the Middle East. I'm being shipped to Iraq, Katie. Right in the middle of everything. I cannot risk having you there." There was something cold in the finality of his tone.

  I dropped down into a chair and rested my head in my hands. "Why Iraq? You could die over there."