The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

by Sorensen, Jessica

  Luke: We were just talking. Gotta go. Class is starting.

  It drives me crazy, which makes no sense. I should be more upset about my girlfriend of three years dumping me, but it’s a glitch compared to the idea that Callie and Luke could be going out or something.

  Finally I shove up from the desk, making a scene as I storm out of class right in the middle of the poor girl’s speech. Bursting out the doors, the sunlight blinds me as I stomp toward the benches in the quad. Slumping down onto one, I lower my head into my hands and take a deep breath. I can’t react this way about anyone. Ever. It’s a rule of mine. Never drag anyone into my own shit. Callie is the last person who needs it on her shoulders.

  The longer I sit there, the more worked up I get, and I realize the only way to sort stuff out is to actually figure out what’s going on. I text Luke and ask him if I can borrow his truck. He says yes, but to be back by two because he needs to go somewhere, and he lets me know that the keys are on the dresser.

  I drive off toward The Tune Up Gym, where Callie said she kick boxes. She was dressed like she was going to work out so I assume that’s where she’s heading, however, when I arrive I can’t determine if I want to be right or wrong about my assumption.

  I climb out of the truck and stare at the small brick building. “What the hell am I doing here?” I mutter to myself, turning back to the truck. That’s when Seth hops out of the car a few rows down.

  He waves at me with a cigarette in his hand and a puzzled look on his face. “Hey.”

  I wind around the front of the truck toward him. “Are you working out?”

  He glances down at his jeans and button-down shirt. “Nah, I just come with Callie to keep her company.”

  I nod, feeling like a fucking idiot for coming down here. Since when do I chase down girls? “I see.”

  He flicks his cigarette to the asphalt and stomps on it with the tip of his boot. “Why are you here?” He eyes my dark jeans and plaid shirt.

  I shrug. “I have no idea. I really don’t.”

  He points a finger at the glass doors of the gym. “Callie’s inside. I’m sure she’d love to talk to you.”

  I pop my knuckles, even the ones that are taped up. It hurts, but it calms me down. “Okay, I’ll walk in with you for a second.”

  He grins and we weave around the cars toward the entrance of the building. There’s a big guy walking in with a bag over his shoulder and Seth moves up to hold the door open for him.

  “Can I ask what happened?” He nods his head at my hand as we step inside.

  I lift my taped hand up in front of me. “I hurt it during practice.”

  “That sucks.” He leads the way around the treadmills to the back area where mats are set up. The room stinks of salt and heat and is filled with clanking noises from the weight machines. There’s upbeat music blasting through the speakers to pump everyone up.

  Callie is near the back of the mats, kicking at a bag the dangles from the ceiling. I don’t like how happy I am to see her, or how happy my body is to see her. Emotions and want rip through me like a fucking wave.

  She’s bouncing around on her toes with her jacket off. She has a tank top on and her hair is pulled back. It’s the most skin I’ve seen her show and I enjoy the view; the freckles on her shoulders, the arch of her neck, her collarbone. The tight pants she has on give me a great view of her ass and her legs.

  “Don’t hurt her,” Seth says, leaning in my face. “I fucking mean that.”

  I blink at him. “What are you talking about?”

  He backs toward Callie. “Don’t hurt her,” he repeats, and then spins on his heels, putting his back to me. He whisks up to Callie, and says something to her.

  Emotions flood her face as her gaze darts to me. She timidly waves her hand and I walk over to her with my hands tucked in the pockets of my jeans.

  Her white bra is showing through her shirt and she crosses her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?” she asks, tracing the toe of her shoe back and forth across the mat.

  “I was just driving by and saw Seth’s car out front,” I lie. “So I thought I’d stop in and say hi.”

  “Hi.” She presses her lips together.

  I shake my head and chuckle under my breath. Circling around the punching bag, I give it a little shove, and then dodge to the side when it flings back at me. “You really weren’t kidding about the kick boxing thing.”

  She tightens the elastic around her ponytail. “Did you think I was saying it to try and impress you?” She flutters her eyelashes as she steps to the side. I question if she did it on purpose, to try and flirt with me. I doubt it. I’d be surprised if she knew how to flirt.

  “Well, I was hoping you were.” I punch the bag with my good hand.

  Her gaze flickers to Seth who’s messing around with small dumbbells, shaking his hips as he sings to the song on the radio. “Nope, this is what I do for fun.”

  “Are you any good?” I eye her tiny frame with doubt.

  Pieces of her damp hair frame her face as she places her hands on her hips, trying to look tough, but all I’m focused on is her bra showing through her shirt. “You want to find out?”

  “Oh, big words for a little girl.” I’m flirting with her and I know it’s wrong for so many reasons, but it’s the most alive I’ve felt in a long time. I pick up one of the gloves from the corner of the mat and put it on before positioning my hand out to the side. “Give it your best shot.”

  Her eyebrows dip together. “You want me to kick you? Really? What if I hurt you?”

  “I absolutely want you to kick me,” I say and then trying to get her riled up, add, “I’m not worried about getting hurt.”

  Her blue eyes turn cold, her expression serious as her fists rise in front of her. She angles her body sideways, stepping back on her foot. She’s got pretty good form, but she’s so little that I know it won’t hurt.

  She pivots her hips, springing up on her toes, and the bottom of her sneaker collides against the glove. My arm shoots back and my foot slides along the mat. Fuck. It stings. A lot.

  She grins as she returns her foot to the mat. “Did it hurt?”

  “Kind of,” I admit, shaking my hand. “You know, you’re as sweet as can be, but give you permission to kick me, and holy hell, you’re ruthless.”

  “I’m sorry.” The laughter in her voice says otherwise. “I didn’t mean to kick you so hard.”

  “I think you did.” I pick up another glove and wiggle my fingers into it. “Alright, let’s see what else you got.”

  She gapes at me with her hands out to her side. “Are you joking? You want me to fight you.”

  I punch one glove into the other. “I won’t fight back, but I’ll try to stay out of your wrath.”

  She laughs and it makes my heart jump alive inside my chest. “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  I grin at her as I move forward. “Give it your best shot.”

  She attempts to look dangerous, her lips a straight line, her eyes unblinking, but it’s more entertaining than anything. She steps to the side, and I think she’s going to pop her foot up and kick, but she keeps overlapping her feet as she circles me. I turn with her, curious what she’s doing and then out of nowhere, she springs up and slams her foot into my hand. I barely block it and she lowers her foot, giving me hardly any time as she twirls around on her toe and jabs her shoe into my other glove.

  She stations her foot onto the ground with a cocky look on her face. “Had enough yet?”

  I shake my head as I reposition my feet. “Okay, if you want to play dirty, then let’s play dirty.”

  She bounces up on her toes, getting ready to jump up and kick me. Before she finishes it, I dash forward, wrap my arms around her waist and flip her around, pressing her back against my chest.

  I freeze, wondering if she’s going to panic, but she swings her arm up toward me as she tries to squat down and slip out of my arms. I strengthen my hold on her and pin her a
gainst my chest.

  “This isn’t fair,” she says. “You’re breaking the rules.”

  “Come on,” I tease her as she tries to kick me in the shin and I jump back, keeping my grip on her. “You acted all tough when you were the one having all the fun.”

  Her body suddenly stills. Then she reaches up, grabs my arms and with no warning, flings them off her. Trying to keep a hold of her, because I was enjoying the feel of her warmth against me, I seize the bottom of her shirt. She stumbles back into me and our legs entangle together. Spinning around, we trip over each other’s feet and tumble to the mat on our sides. She quickly hitches her leg over my midsection and mounts on top of me, pinning my arms down with her small hands.

  Her ponytail has partially fallen out and her hair touches my cheeks as she hovers over me. Her chest heaves up and down, her skin damp, and her eyes stern.

  “I win,” she says, shifting her weight.

  The feel of her on top of me, the way she smells, the way her legs are spread around my hips is intoxicating. I’m starting to get turned on and she’s going to feel it pressed up against her.

  “You’re vicious when you fight,” I state. “I really didn’t think you had it in you.”

  Her forehead creases. “Me either.”

  I let a few more seconds pass, even though I should be moving out from under her. My gaze zones in on her lips and I almost glide my hand up her back, tangle it through her hair, and pull her down for a kiss.

  “Okay, as much as I hate to interrupt this beautiful moment here,” Seth says as his face appears over us. “I’m going to have to. Miss Callie here has somewhere to be.”

  She blinks, her cheeks turning pink, like she’s coming out of a daze, and she swiftly hops off me. “I’m sorry. I got a little carried away.”

  I prop up on my elbows. “Where are you heading?”

  “Umm….” She slips the elastic out from her hair and refastens it into a tight ponytail. “I’m meeting Luke somewhere.”

  “Luke, as in, Luke?”

  She nods, glancing at Seth. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  I push up from the ground and wiggle my hands out of the gloves. “Why?”

  She runs her arm across her forehead. “I can’t tell you why.”

  I toss the gloves onto the ground near the corner, irritated. “Okay.”

  “I want to tell you,” she hurries and adds, “but I can’t.”

  “It’s fine. I have to head out anyway. I have some stuff I need to do.” I walk away from her, knowing it’s for the best, but wishing I was the one she was going to see.

  Chapter 7

  #27 Offer to Help Someone Without Them Asking.

  Callie

  I feel weird going with Luke, for various reasons, one being that I barely know him. I have no idea how I got into the situation. Actually I do. I was walking around the back end of the campus, because I like how quiet it is there.

  As I was pouring some M&Ms into my mouth, I rounded the corner and nearly stepped on Luke. He was sitting down on the ground, in the dirt, with his head lowered and his legs bent up in front of him.

  “Oh my God.” I jumped back, pressing my hand to my heart. “What are you doing back here?”

  He had on shorts and a white t-shirt and his brown hair was damp. He lifted his face up and his skin was paler than snow. “Callie, what are you doing?”

  I balled up the candy wrapper in my hand. “I walk this way after my English class is over. I was actually getting ready to meet up with Seth to go to the gym.”

  He bobbed his head up and down and sweat was beading his forehead. “Oh.”

  I turned to leave, but decided I couldn’t leave him looking so terrible. “Are you okay?”

  He scratched at his arm. “Yeah, I was working out and started feeling like shit so I came back here to take a breather for a minute.”

  I crouched down in front of him, keeping enough distance to make me comfortable. “Are you sick or something? You look…”

  “Like shit,” he finished for me as he got to his feet and sighed.

  My gaze snapped down to his leg, swollen twice its size, blotchy and red. “What happened to your leg?”

  He released a slow exhale as he inclined against the brick wall of the school. “I may or may not have forgotten to take my insulin for the last few days.”

  “You’re a diabetic?”

  He put a finger to his lips and shook his head. “Don’t tell anyone. I don’t like to show weakness. It’s a weird thing with me.”

  “Why haven’t you been taking your shots?”

  “I ran out and never picked up more. It’s another weird thing with me… I sometimes can’t bring myself to stab a needle into my body.”

  I didn’t press as I eyed his leg, enflamed from the knee down. “Do you need me to take you to the doctor? Or go find Kayden?”

  He shook his head, stepping forward and then stumbled back, banging his elbow into the wall. “Don’t tell Kayden. When I say no one knows, I mean no one knows.”

  I adjusted the strap of my bag higher up on my shoulder. “I think you need to go to the doctor.”

  “I know I need to go to the doctor.” Putting some weight on his leg, he hobbled toward me. “Look, don’t you have stuff you don’t want people to know?”

  I nodded warily. “Yeah.”

  “Okay, well for me, this is one of those things,” he said. “So can you keep quiet about it?”

  I nodded again. “As long as you let me take you to the doctor.”

  He shut his eyes, breathed in through his nose, and his chest expanded out from underneath his shirt as he opened his eyelids. “Okay, we have a deal. Let me go change my clothes, make an appointment, and then I’ll meet you out front in like twenty minutes.”

  “Maybe you should just go to the ER,” I suggested. “You look terrible.”

  “ER trips cost a lot of money,” he replied, limping toward the metal doors. “Money I don’t have.”

  “Okay, I’ll meet you out front,” I told him and then he stepped inside, letting the door slam shut behind him.

  As I headed for my dorm to drop my stuff off, I had no idea how I’d gotten myself into the situation. I’d spent the last six years trying to stay away from guys, but it seems like that’s all I've been around lately, but I wasn’t going to bail out on him.

  When I met him out front twenty minutes later, it turned out he couldn’t get into the doctor for another two hours, so we exchanged numbers and I promised him I’d be back from the gym in time to take him.

  Two hours later, we’re sitting in the office. Luke jiggles his knee up and down as I read through a copy of People magazine while finishing off a piece of licorice. I changed out of my workout clothes into jeans and a t-shirt. I’m surprised how well I’m handling what I did at the gym with Kayden. Sitting on top of him like that was strange, but my body liked it. A lot. Seth teased me about it the entire drive home and I kept waiting for it to crash into me, yet I still feel fine.

  Luke’s skin looks almost yellow beneath the lighting of the waiting room. I flip the page and then tilt my head to the side to try and make out what I’m looking at.

  “Don’t you hate doctor’s offices?” Luke says abruptly.

  I glance up and his brown eyes are huge as he stares at a man across from us, hacking into his hand. “I guess so.”

  He scratches agitatedly at his temple until there are red streaks on his skin. “It’s so fucking unsanitary.”

  I close the magazine and drop it on the table. “Maybe if you didn’t think about it so much, then you’d relax a little.”

  He pauses and his foot quits tapping. “I just really hate needles.”

  It makes no sense, since he’s probably had to take insulin shots for a while. The fear in his eyes makes me wonder if there’s more to his phobia than just the needles, though.

  “Okay, think of something else.” I scoop up a copy of Sports Illustrated from off the table beside me. “Read this.
It’ll help take your mind off stuff.”

  His eyebrows furrow as he takes the magazine from me and studies the girl on the cover. “You know, I don’t remember you being this way in high school. You were really quiet and everyone…” He trails off, but I know what he was going to say; that everyone made fun of me, picked on me, teased and tortured me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bring that stuff up.”

  “It’s fine,” I assure him, but memories explode through my brain like shards of glass.

  “You know, you remind me of my sister, Amy,” he says. “I don’t know if you remember her. She was a couple of years older than us.”