by Amity Hope
“Yeah,” he said as he pulled up to the curb. He parked behind a new yellow mustang. It was the same ugly, mustard yellow as Reece’s locker.
It took him a few seconds to figure out what this meant.
“Colby’s here?” he asked. He glanced at the car and then up to the house.
“Looks like it,” Adam agreed. It was obvious he was keeping his expression impassive.
“Oh,” Reece said. He stared at the car for a minute.
“That’s it?”
Reece shrugged. “I think Mia and I broke up.”
“You think?”
“Yeah. I tried to break up with her Friday night. I’m sure she knew it. Now she’s been avoiding me. I thought maybe she was avoiding me so I couldn’t tell her we’re done.” He shrugged again. “But it looks like she got it. I mean, if she’s seeing Colby now.”
“She’s been seeing Colby for a while,” Adam corrected.
Was he surprised? Not particularly. It would explain why she never answered her phone. And did he blame her? He actually didn’t. He knew he and Mia were a disaster from the start. He was pretty sure they both knew it.
“Are you sure? That it’s been going on for a while?” How long? Reece wondered. The entire time we were together? Or just recently, since school started?
Adam nodded. “I’m sure it’s been going on for a while. I’ve heard him bragging about it a few times. Sounded like it was at least part of the summer. At first, I thought he was talking about Mia. But I wasn’t sure because when he realized I was listening, he always clammed up. Today I heard him talking to Justin. He said he was meeting her after practice.”
That’s why he’d kept Reece busy until now.
“Do you want to go in and talk to her?” Adam asked.
“No.” No way in hell did he want to go in there. Even though he thought maybe he should. If she’d been seeing Colby for a while anyway, then maybe she didn’t think they were over. Even though as far as he was concerned, they were.
“This is why you were going out with her, isn’t it?” Adam asked.
“Why?” Reece wondered, not following. “So I’d have a girlfriend that was cheating on me?”
“No,” Adam clarified, “because you knew it would never get serious.”
Reece shrugged. Maybe Adam was right. “Aren’t you… I don’t know…supposed to tell me about stuff like this?” he asked.
“I just did,” he said as he pulled away from the curb.
Chapter 15
“That was so amazing,” Cleo moaned. “You guys spoil me.”
“Yeah,” Emma said in a teasing tone, “we do.”
“You spent way too much, I’m sure,” she accused.
“Not really and birthdays only come once a year,” Emma said with a laugh. “Besides, I had an ulterior motive. I knew you would probably never use the gift certificate if I didn’t come with you. And you know how I love any excuse to go to a spa.”
Emma had been furious when her boss scheduled her to work on Cleo’s birthday, which she’d requested off. So when she’d handed Cleo her present a day early, she’d announced that she already had the appointment scheduled. Emma had also already let Luci know Cleo would be home late. The gift certificate was from the whole Donovan family. Cleo had given up trying to protest when they gave her gifts like this. Instead, she just smiled and gratefully accepted.
They’d just gotten massages. Cleo had worried that a massage would be just way too awkward, having some lady’s hands all over her. It hadn’t been. It had been unbelievably relaxing; despite the masseuse’s running commentary accusing her of carrying too much tension in her body for someone so young.
Now they were sitting, letting their facials do their thing for another fifteen minutes.
Emma plucked a chocolate covered strawberry off of the platter that rested on the table in between them.
“I can’t believe I have to work tomorrow. It’s not like I ask for that much time off,” she pouted and then took a bite.
Cleo knew she actually did ask for quite a bit of time off. But it wouldn’t be worth it to point that out.
“It’s fine,” Cleo said.
“No, it’s not. You only turn eighteen once. It should be a fun, exciting birthday. You should be spending it with your friends,” Emma pouted.
“And what fun, exciting thing would we be doing in Sheridan on a Wednesday night?” Cleo asked with a laugh.
Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. Getting massages?”
“Exactly, so it’s not a big deal to do it a day early,” Cleo assured her. “I’ll just hang out with Luci tomorrow. It’s fine. In fact, she’s expecting me to spend my birthday with her. She’d be disappointed if I didn’t.”
“That reminds me, Mom was wondering if you two wanted to come over tomorrow night. I obviously won’t be there. But she’d like to make you a birthday dinner. Anything you want,” Emma told her. Mrs. Donovan had done the same thing last year. Cleo’s first birthday without her mom. She’d invited Luci, Reece and of course Emma, Elli and Ethan had been there, too. It had felt like a real family birthday party.
It had been just what she’d needed at the time; a distraction from the reality of her mom being gone. But this year, reality had a firm grip on her. She appreciated Patty’s thoughtfulness, but a quiet night with Luci this year would be just fine with her.
“Tell her thanks for the offer, but I think we’ll just stay home,” Cleo said. “You’ve all done enough already.”
“Alright,” Emma said. Cleo could see that mentally, she was already moving on. “Then we should do something Friday night. I can see if Lauren is free—,” she cut herself off. “Ugh. That’s not going to work. Elli has a dance recital that night. Mom’s decided we need to make a family night out of it. Dinner first, then Elli’s recital,” she said, speaking of her younger sister. Elli was a freshman and she’d been in dance for as long as Cleo could remember. “Maybe Saturday?”
“That would work,” Cleo agreed. “Luci was invited to go with Jill’s family to a waterpark this weekend. She’ll be gone until Sunday morning.”
“Will Paul be gone?” Emma asked.
Cleo didn’t know why she bothered asking. It wasn’t like he actually ever told her his plans. “I would guess he’ll probably be gone. He usually is.”
She grinned. “So maybe we should make it a girls’ night? We could invite Lauren and Mel?” She shook her head. “Maybe not Mel.”
Cleo used to get along with Melanie just fine. She wasn’t a close friend like Emma, or even Lauren. But now, because she was good friends with Natalie, who was friends with Mia, it had all turned into an uncomfortable mess. But still, Cleo missed her a little bit. And really, Melanie had no idea what had happened between her and Reece. So Cleo didn’t blame her for any remarks she made. She was very much aware of how the situation looked to most people.
“I think we should invite her,” Cleo decided.
“Okay then,” Emma agreed with a nod. “I don’t think there’s anything going on this weekend. Well, other than the football game on Friday night. So maybe if we’re getting together Saturday we could just get some movies or something?”
“Sure,” Cleo agreed. And she hoped Paul stayed away. She’d had Luci let him know she’d be with Jill’s family for the weekend. Cleo liked to at least pretend that he cared where she was, for Luci’s sake. If he knew Luci was gone and it was just Cleo at home, she was sure he’d make it a point to stay away.
“It’ll have to be this Saturday. I have plans next weekend,” she said nonchalantly. She picked off the stem from another strawberry.
“Oh, really?” Cleo asked suspiciously. She knew her friend well enough that she thought she had a pretty good idea about why she was unavailable. “Does this, by any chance, have to do with Gavin?”
“Maybe,” Emma admitted as she tossed the stem onto the pink paper plate. She placed the strawberry in her mouth, giving her a reason not to talk.
“Come on! Sp
ill!” Cleo said excitedly.
“Yes, I have plans with Gavin,” she finally admitted. She kept her tone light but Cleo could tell by her expression just how excited she was.
“Since when?” Cleo wanted to know. Her grin was so big she felt her facemask crackle.
“This morning.”
“And you’re just telling me now?”
“Well, you know…” Emma said with a shrug as she continued to smile.
“Because you didn’t want me to say ‘told you so’?” Cleo laughed. “Too bad. ‘Told you so’. So tell me, how did it go?”
Now Emma laughed. “Well, for a minute, he just stood there blinking at me. I think maybe he thought I was kidding? But then he just shrugged and said ‘okay’. Not the exuberant response I had been hoping for from him, but it’ll suffice,” she joked.
“Well, I’m glad,” Cleo said as she reached for a strawberry of her own.
“But back to this weekend. Is a movie night okay? Or should I try to come up with something else?”
“I really don’t care,” Cleo honestly told her.
To her, turning eighteen wasn’t about the party. It was about her freedom. It was one huge obstacle out of her way. Too bad for her, she faced several more.
“Okay, I’ll talk to Lauren and Mel. Maybe we can come up with something,” Emma decided. “In the meantime, I’ve been thinking.”
Cleo could tell by her tone that she was up to something.
“Uh, oh,” she said.
“I think you should start dating again. Maybe someone Gavin is friends with? We could make it a double date?” Her voice had a pleading quality to it. “We could have so much fun!”
Cleo shook her head.
“Cleo, come on. You can’t mope over Reece all year,” she said gently.
“That’s not why. It’s just…it’s hard with Luci. And really, I feel like I’m already spread too thin. Between school, work, homework, Luci’s homework…” And everything else she had to do around their house. But she didn’t say that out loud because she felt like she was complaining too much already. “It’s just that I don’t have time. And it was different with Reece. He didn’t seem to mind hanging out at my house.”
She began playing with the buttons on her chair in an effort to avoid conversation. She had no idea what they were for. A motor started to hum as it started doing some crazy things to her backside. It pounded, vibrated and thudded along her body from her neck to her ankles. She jumped and then grimaced.
“It’s a massage chair,” Emma said with a laugh. “It’s supposed to be relaxing.”
She poked the button to turn it off.
“It wasn’t. I kind of feel violated,” she said as she squirmed in her seat. It had stilled again. The chair felt nothing like a real massage. That had been relaxing. The bizarre motions of the chair just felt wrong.
She was still fretting about the chair when she realized Emma was looking at her with a frown.
“What?” she asked resignedly.
“I don’t know. I just wish there was something I could do. Something to change things,” she admitted.
“You know,” Cleo said with a sigh as she leaned her head back, “I’ve had a lot of time to think things over. I think in some ironic way, this was for the best.”
“How so?” Emma demanded, her tone clearly stating that she thought that Cleo was wrong.
“Well, I meant what I said to Reece in class the other day. I always felt like I was holding him back. Keeping him from things, you know? And sometimes,” she closed her eyes, forcing herself to admit to her best friend something she’d never voiced out loud before, “sometimes I wondered if he stayed with me because he felt obligated.”
“Cleo!”
“No, hear me out,” she said quietly. “I was a mess when we met. Sometimes I wondered if he still saw me as that same, weak girl. The one he had to hold together a lot of the time. Sometimes I wondered if maybe he was just staying with me because he was afraid I’d break into pieces if he left me. I wondered if he was just staying with me because he felt responsible for me. For Luci.”
“I really don’t think so,” Emma firmly replied.
“What guy his age wants to spend all of his time with someone in my situation? Shouldn’t he be out with his friends?”
“He did that, too,” Emma pointed out. “You made sure of it.”
“He’s just too young to be so tied down,” Cleo argued.
“So are you.”
“It’s different, though. It’s my life. That’s just how it is. I mean, really, I don’t have a choice.”
“Exactly,” Emma said. “You don’t have a choice. But Reece does. Did, anyway. You asked what kind of guy wants to spend time with a girl in your situation? Reece. That’s the kind of guy. Because he’s totally head over heels in love with the girl in the situation. I don’t think it really mattered too much to him where you guys were or what you were doing. He just wanted to be with you.”
“Maybe,” she muttered.
Thoughts of him sneaking up behind her and putting his arms around her last week drifted into her head. She didn’t mention it to Emma. She wasn’t sure what to say because she had no idea what that had been about. But it was easily the most wonderful thing that had happened to her in months. She could’ve just stayed there all morning, all day. She had wanted to. But she’d seen Janna. The last thing either she or Reece needed was for rumors to spread. Not that they were doing much. But rumors like that tend to spiral out of control.
The hot chocolate with a shot of espresso was a drink he used to bring her when he knew she was having a streak of not sleeping well. Just another little gesture to let her know he was worried.
“Definitely,” Emma argued, cutting into her mental ramblings. “Did you ever talk to him about it?”
She shook her head.
“You should. You’ll see that I’m right,” Emma said confidently.
“Too late now,” Cleo said as she forced a smile.
“I think you’re wrong about that, too,” Emma declared. “What’s that silly saying? ‘If you love someone set them free. If they come back to you, they love you, too’?” Emma shook her head. “Something like that, anyway. You set him free. He didn’t go too far. He ended up right back on your doorstep Friday night. So yeah, if you look at it that way, maybe it was for the best.”
She finally turned back to face her, confused. Friday night, she was sure he just wanted answers. As for him asking to stay the night, there’s where that sense of obligation came in again. He didn’t want her to be home alone. And while she got that he thought he wanted to be with her, she wanted it to be for the right reasons.
Maybe it was. But she also thought there was a possibility that maybe it wasn’t.
And unless she could find a way to get out of this mess, none of that even mattered.
“It’s not a feeling of obligation that has him tied to you. It’s love,” Emma said. Cleo had to wonder if her thoughts had been written all over her face.
The door opened, saving her from having to come up with a response. The two chipper women from earlier popped into the room.
“How are we doing girls?” one of them asked.
Emma answered and started making small talk, which Cleo was more or less oblivious to.
The next hour was spent finishing their facials followed by manicures and pedicures. Because they weren’t alone in the room, it kept her from having to delve any deeper into the conversation with Emma.
But it didn’t stop her from thinking about it.
Or how Reece had said he’d worry. How he would always worry.
Chapter 16
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Luci demanded. She had her arms folded across her chest and she had her Little Miss Grumpy face on.
“Making dinner,” Cleo told her. Though it should have been obvious. She didn’t really feel like cooking but she was starving. Luckily she had found a jar of alfredo sauce in the cupboard. Ch
icken alfredo, even if the sauce was out of a jar, was a perfectly acceptable birthday meal.
Or at least she tried to convince herself it was.
Luci shook her head. “Put that away.”
“Sweet Pea! I’m starving!” Cleo told her as she pulled a kettle out of the cupboard.
Her face broke into a huge grin. “But it’s your birthday.”
Luci swiped the sauce off the countertop and put it away herself.
“What are you doing?” Cleo asked.
“Pizza’s on the way,” she told her.
“Pizza? You ordered pizza?” Cleo asked in surprise.
Luci nodded. “Your favorite. Veggie Delight.”
“You hate Veggie Delight,” she reminded her.
“I know. But it’s your birthday.” Proud of herself, she continued to grin.
Cleo pulled her into a hug. “I love you. You know that, right?”
“I love you, too,” she said. She giggled as she smacked Cleo on the butt. “Turn around,” she ordered, “seventeen more to go.”
“Birthday spankings? You think you’re going to give me birthday spankings?” Cleo demanded. She grabbed her around the middle and started to tickle her. “I don’t think so!” she informed her. Luci was shrieking and giggling when the doorbell rang.
“Pizza!” she shouted as she broke away from Cleo’s grip. “I’ll get it!”
Cleo grabbed her purse. While the thought was super sweet, she wasn’t so sure Luci realized you have to actually pay for the pizza. She had a moment of panic because she only had a five in her wallet. She pulled out the ancient hot chocolate canister from the cupboard, where she kept some emergency cash. She was pretty sure Paul had never made hot chocolate in his life. She figured it was a safe place. She was grateful to find she still had a twenty stashed in there.
“Pizza delivery,” Cleo heard someone say. Her heart began to rattle around in her chest because the voice sounded way too familiar. She found herself wondering when he’d gotten himself a job. Because he’d never had to work a day in his life.
“You can put it in the kitchen,” she heard Luci order. Cleo rushed out to tell her that you’re supposed to just take it at the door.