“There you are.” Daisy comes up from behind me and I’m overwhelmed by the smell of perfume and hairspray.
Suddenly I understand why Luke ran off like there was a fire. He doesn’t like Daisy for many reasons; one being that he thinks Daisy is a bitch. And she is, but it works for me because she allows me to stay detached from feeling anything, which is the only way I know how to live life.
“I sure hope you weren’t just talking about me.” Daisy wraps her arms around my mid-section and massages my stomach with her fingertips. “Unless it was something good.”
I turn around and kiss her forehead. She’s wearing a low-cut blue dress and the necklace that rests between her tits. “No one was talking about you. Luke just went to find his room.”
She bites down on her glossy lip and bats her eyelashes at me. “Good, because I’m already nervous about leaving my ridiculously hot boyfriend. Remember you can flirt, but you can’t touch.” Daisy gets bored easily and says things to start drama.
“No touching. Got it,” I say, holding back an eye roll. “And again, no one was talking about you.”
She twines a strand of her curly blond hair around her finger with a thoughtful expression on her face. “I don’t mind if you talk about me, just as long as it’s good.”
I met Daisy when I was in tenth grade and she moved to our school. She was the hot new freshman and was very aware that she was. I was pretty popular, but hadn’t really dated anyone, just messed around. I was more focused on football, like my dad wanted me to be. Daisy seemed interested, though, and a couple of weeks later, we were officially a couple. She’s self-involved and she never asks where all my bruises, cuts, and scars come from. She brought it up once, the first time we fucked, and I told her it was from a four-wheeling accident when I was a kid. She didn’t question the fresh ones.
“Look baby, I got to go.” I give her a quick kiss on the lips. “I have to check in and unpack and figure out where the hell everything is.”
“Oh, fine.” She pouts out her bottom lip and runs her fingers through my hair, guiding my lips back to hers for a deep kiss. When she pulls away, she smiles. “I guess I’ll go back home and try to fill up my time with boring old high school.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” I say to her as I back toward the doors, maneuvering between the people flooding the sidewalk. “I’ll be back for homecoming.”
She waves as she turns for the parking lot. I keep my eyes on her until she’s in her car and then I go into the school. The air is cooler inside, the lights are faint, and there’s a lot of shouting and disorganization.
“We don’t need a tour.” I walk up to Luke, who’s standing near the signup table, reading a pink flyer. “And weren’t you going to find your room or was that your excuse to escape Daisy?”
“The girl drives me fucking crazy.” He rakes his hand through his short, brown hair. “And I was headed there, but then I realized it’d be much easier if I went on a tour so I know where everything is.”
Luke is a very structured person when it comes to school and sports. It makes sense to me since I know about his past, but from an outsider’s point of view, he probably looks like a troublemaker, who failed out of school.
“Fine, we’ll do the tour.” I write our names down on the paper and the red head sitting behind the table smiles at me.
“You can go join the one starting now,” she says shamelessly pushing her cleavage up with her arms as she leans forward. “They just stepped into the hallway.”
“Thanks.” Grinning at her, I strut off with Luke toward where she directed us.
“Every time,” he says amusedly as he sidesteps around a smaller table with plates full of cookies on it. “You’re like a magnet.”
“I don’t ask for it,” I reply as we approach the back of the crowd. “In fact, I wish they’d stop.”
“No you don’t,” he states with a roll of his eyes. “You love it and you know it. And I wished you’d act on it, so you could ditch the bitch.”
“Daisy’s not that bad. She’s probably the only girl who doesn’t care if I flirt.” I cross my arms and stare at the nerdy tour guide with thick glasses, scraggily brown hair, and a clipboard in his hands. “Do we really need to do this? I’d rather go unpack.”
“I need to know where everything is,” he says. “You can go to the room if you want.”
“I’m fine here.” My eyes zone in on a girl across the crowd; the one I ran over. She’s smiling at a guy next to her who’s whispering something in her ear. I find myself entertained by the naturalness of it, no pretenses like the one’s I’m used to seeing.
“What are you looking at?” Luke tracks my gaze and his forehead creases. “You know what? I think that might be Callie Lawrence. Now that I think about it, I remember her dad mentioning something about her going to UW.”
“No way... it can't be… is it?” I take in her brown hair, her clothes that show her thin frame, and her blue eyes that sparkle as she laughs. The last time I saw her, those blue eyes were clouded and weighted. The Callie I knew held more darkness, wore baggy clothes, and always looked sad. She shied away from everyone, except for that one night when she saved my ass.
“No, it’s her,” Luke says with confidence as he flicks his finger against his temple. “Remember she had that small birthmark on her temple just like that girl does. It can't be a freakish coincidence.”
“Fuck me,” I say loudly and everyone looks at me.
“Can I help you?” the tour guide asks in an icy tone.
I shake my head, noticing Callie is staring at me. “Sorry man, I thought a bee landed on me.”
Luke snorts a laugh and I suppress my laughter. The tour guide huffs in frustration and continues his speech about where all the offices are as he points at each door.
“What was that about?” Luke asks in a low voice as he folds a paper neatly in half.
“Nothing.” I skim the crowd, but Callie’s nowhere. “Did you see where she went?”
Luke shakes his head. “Nope."
My eyes travel across the hallway, but there’s no sign of her anywhere. I need to find her, so I can thank her for saving my life, like I should have done four months ago.
Chapter 2
#27 Invite Someone You Don’t Know to Dinner.
Callie
“What are our plans for tonight?” I fold up a shirt and place it into the laundry basket on top of the dryer. “Are we going out or staying in?”
Seth hops onto one of the washing machines with his legs dangling over the edge as he pops a piece of gum into his mouth. “I’m conflicted. On one hand, I want to stay in and catch up on The Vampire Diaries, but there’s this really awesome restaurant I’ve been wanting to try out.”
“Ew, not that one with the Sushi Bar.” I frown, pulling a flimsy sheet of fabric softener off one of my shirts. “I don’t like Sushi and I don’t really feel like eating out tonight.”
“No, you’ve never had Sushi,” he corrects. “And just because you haven’t tried something doesn’t mean you don’t like it.” He stifles a laugh by sealing his lips together. “I know this from my own factual evidence.”
“I’m sure you do.” My phone vibrates as it lights up from on top of the stack of shirts. “Dang it, it’s my mom. Give me a second.”
“Hi Mom,” I answer, shuffling to the corner to get away from the rattle of the washing machines.
“Hi, baby girl,” she says. “How’s your first day of classes?”
“First day of class is on Monday,” I remind her, pushing my fingertip against my ear to block out the rattle of the machines. “Today’s just the day when everyone’s checking in.”
“Well, how’s that going?”
“I already know where everything is, so I’m catching up on my laundry with Seth.”
“Hi, Mrs. Lawrence,” Seth shouts, cupping his hands around his mouth.
“Tell him hi for me, honey, okay?” she replies. “And that I can’t wait to mee
t him.”
I cover the receiver with my hand. “She can’t wait to meet you,” I whisper to Seth and he rolls his eyes.
“Tell her she can’t handle me.” The washing machine stops and he jumps off to open the lid.
“He says he can’t wait to meet you either,” I tell my mom. “In fact, he’s really excited.”
Seth shakes his head, tugging a jacket out of the machine. “Moms are not my thing. You know that.”
“What did he say?” my mom wonders.
“Nothing mom.” The dryer beeps. “I have to go. I’ll call you later.”
“Hold on sweetie. I just want to say that you sound really happy.”
“I am happy,” I lie through a thick throat, because I know that’s what she wants to hear.
Seth drops his hang-dry only shirt on the edge of the basket, puts his hands on his hips, and narrows his eyes at me. “Don’t lie to your mother, Callie.”
“What’s going on?” my mother asks. “I can hear a bunch of noises.”
“I have to go.” I press the end button before she can say anything else.
“My mom is not like your mom.” I open the dryer door and scoop the rest of my clothes out with my arms. “For the most part, she’s nice. Well, at least when I’m behaving.”
“But you can’t tell her things—really important things.” He flexes his arm that was in a cast when I met him. “Just like my mom.”
“You told your mom.” I bump the dryer door shut with my hip. “It just didn’t go well and I don’t tell my mom, because it will crush her. She’s such a happy person there’s no use cursing her with dark thoughts.” I drop the clothes into the basket as one of the washing machines chugs and bangs against the cement wall. “We can try that new restaurant, if you really, really want.” Picking up the basket, I prop it against my hip. “I’ll add it to my list of new things I’m going to try.”
He grins from ear to ear. “I love that list.”
“I do too… sometimes,” I agree as he gathers a stack of clothes. “And you were brilliant for thinking of it.”
The list was made in the shadows of my dorm room when he admitted to me how he broke his arm and where the scars on his hands came from. He’d been walking home from his last day of school and a bunch of football players had drove up in a truck. They jumped him, beat him, and tried to break him into a thousand pieces that they could dust under the rug. But Seth is strong, which is why I told him my secret, because he knows what it’s like to have something ripped away from you. Although I omitted the gory details because I couldn’t say them aloud.
“I’m a very brilliant man.” He steps aside to let me through the doorway first. “And as long as you hold onto that notion, you’ll be okay.”
We laugh and it’s real, but a dark cloud hovers over us once the sound is stolen by the wind.
Kayden
“This room is the size of a box,” I remark, taking in the very small dorm room. We’re in the Downey residence hall, one of the four buildings they stuff the freshmen into. There are two twin size beds and a desk in the far corner. I can cover the space between the beds in two strides and the closet on the far wall barely holds three boxes. “Are you sure you don’t want to get an apartment? I saw some that are really close to campus on my way in.”
Luke rummages through a large box labeled “Junk.” “I can’t afford an apartment. I need to find a job just so I can buy my books and stuff.”
“The scholarship didn’t pay for that?” I grab a heavy box and drop it onto the mattress of my bed.
He balls up some tape and throws it on the floor. “That only covered tuition.”
I peel the tape off the top of the box. “I can help out… if you need some extra cash.”
He shakes his head quickly with his attention immersed in a box. “I’m not a charity case. If you want an apartment, then go get one. You don’t have to stay in the dorms just because I am.” He pulls out a headless bronze statue and his face reddens. “What the hell is this?”
I shrug. “I didn’t pack your boxes man.”
“Well, I did and I didn’t put this in there.” He chucks it across the room and it dents the wall. “God fucking dammit, she’s trying to mess with my mind.”
“Don’t let your mom get to you. You know she’s just trying to get you to come home so she doesn’t have to deal with things on her own.” I pick up the broken statue and step out into the hall to toss it in the garbage just outside the room.
On my way back, I spot Callie walking in my direction with the guy she was with earlier and she’s smiling again. I pause in the middle of the hallway and wait for her to reach me, forcing the traffic of people to move around me. She doesn’t notice me, but her friend sees me and he whispers something in her ear.
Her head whips in my direction and she stumbles back like she’s afraid I’m going to attack her. Her friend puts his hand on the small of her back in a comforting gesture.
“Hi,” I start off awkwardly, thrown off by her skittishness toward me. “I don’t know if you remember me—”
“I remember you,” she interrupts, her blue eyes flickering to the scar on my cheekbone. “How could I not remember you? We’ve known each other since we were kids.”
“Right,” I say, unsure how to respond to her offish attitude. She didn’t act this way that night. “That was just my way of starting the conversation.”
Her lips form an ‘O,’ then she stands silently, fidgeting with the strap on her oversized jacket.
Her friend glances at her and then extends his hand toward me. “I’m Seth.”
I shake his hand with my gaze still on Callie. “Kayden.”
“You’ll have to forgive Callie.” Seth gently pats her shoulder and she winces. “She’s feeling a little off today.”
Callie’s eyelids descend as she narrows her eyes at him. “No, I’m not. I feel fine.”
Seth presses her with a relenting look and grits through his teeth, “Then maybe you should say something. Perhaps something nice.”
“Oh.” She focuses her attention back to me. “I’m sorry… I mean…” she trails off, cursing under her breath, “Oh my God, what is wrong with me?”
Seth sighs, like he’s used to her awkward behavior. “You’re just starting school today?” he asks me.
“Yeah, I’m here on a football scholarship.” I eye him up, questioning if he’s ever touched a football.
He arches his eyebrows, rocking back on his heels, feigning interest. “Aw, I see.”
Callie’s bangs flutter away from her forehead as she lets out a slow exhale. “We have to go. We have dinner plans. It was nice talking to you, Kayden.”
“You could come with us,” Seth offers, ignoring the glare Callie targets at him. “If you want. It’s just this new place we’re going to check out.”
“It’s Sushi.” Callie meets my gaze for the first time. Sadness and diffidence possess her pupils and I almost reach out to hug her pain away. It’s an odd feeling, since I’ve never hugged anyone, other than Daisy and I only hug her when I have to. “I’m not sure it’ll be good.”
“I like Sushi.” I look over my shoulder at the open door to my dorm. “But I’d have to bring Luke, if that’s okay? Luke was the running back for the Broncos.”
“I know who he is.” She swallows hard. “He can come, I guess.”
“Just a second. Let me see if he’s up for it.” I duck back into the room where Luke is sitting on his unmade bed, sifting through a stack of papers. I brace my hands on the doorframe as I stick my head in. “Are you down for some Sushi?”
His eyes elevate from the papers to me. “Sushi? Why?”
“Because Callie Lawrence just invited us,” I say. “Or well, her friend did… do you remember her being offish?”
He tucks the papers away into a dresser drawer, but crumples up a small one and throws it into the trash. “Yeah, she got that way around sixth grade. It was like one minute she was normal and then the next minut
e she was fucking weird.”
My hands fall to my side and I lean back, glancing out into the hall at Callie who’s whispering something to Seth. “I don’t remember that. I mean, I remember her being kind of normal and then not really remembering her at all. She didn’t really hang out with anyone, did she?”
“Not really.” He shrugs. “What’s with the obsession with her now?”
“It’s not an obsession.” He pisses me off with the accusation. “I don’t ever get obsessed with anyone. They just offered and I accepted to be polite. If you don’t want to go, then we don’t have to.”
The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden Page 3