What's Left of Us (The Us Series Book 1)

by Michele Tucker

  Finally, I snapped out of my shock, as Sam landed a punch straight to Beck’s face. The sound of his fist connecting made a loud thump and caused his head to snap back harshly. Beck looked at Sam and stood back up straight. Not breaking eye contact with him, as if he was begging Sam to hit him again.

  Sam didn’t hesitate. He threw another bone crunching blow to Beck’s left cheek. Then picked him up with unimaginable strength and hurled him out of the screen door, causing it to tear and Beck to fall to the concrete below. He struggled to get up and by the time he was on his knees he stared dejectedly back at Sam, willing him to take another shot.

  I needed to stop this.

  To stop Sam from brutally attacking Beck who was doing nothing to defend himself, almost as if he welcomed each painful blow. I begged my feet to move but they were rooted to the ground. All I could do was watch in horror while Sam stormed up to Beck and grabbed both sides of his head preparing to thrust his knee ruthlessly up into Beck's face. Sam must have snapped, all the pent up feelings he had been harboring the last year taking centerfold in his mind.

  Finally, he was pulled back and restrained by two guys. They held onto him tightly as Sam was still rearing for a fight.

  “Let go of me,” he yelled, while his arms and legs flailed struggling to free himself from their grasps. “What, you’re not going to fight back?”

  “No, I’m not. I deserved all of that,” Beck told him honestly. He kept his hands down at his sides, and looked down at the ground.

  When Beck realized that there wasn’t going to be another attack, he dropped down to his knees and looked at Sam.

  I finally broke out of my daze and rushed through the torn screen door towards them. I didn’t know if I should check on Beck or try to calm Sam down more. I glanced at Beck, who was still kneeling, looking despondent. I took in the gash on his cheek and his eye that was already swelling shut, and felt sick.

  I stalked toward a still restrained Sam. It was almost like I was someone else, and he wasn’t Sam, my hand connected with his face hard. Now fully alert from the searing pain that radiated throughout my hand and up my arm, I saw that Sam had finally turned away from Beck and was staring directly back at me.

  He had a whole gamut of emotions that played across his face shock, horror, pain, anguish, despair, confusion, back to utter shock and then anger. The one that took me by surprise was the anger that seemed to be directed towards me. Was he really angry with me after what he just did to Beck? Not able to control the anger I felt after what he did to Beck, I shoved him hard and he stumbled backwards. “Are you out of your mind? What were you thinking?” I screamed at him.

  Sam just stood there with a shocked expression. In all the years, we had known each other, I had never yelled at him. He rubbed his cheek with his free hand.

  One of the guys holding Sam grabbed me around the waist, pulling me away from him. He let me go once we were a few feet away. I turned to check on Beck but he was gone. I glanced around to try to locate him, catching sight of a girl sitting in the grass.

  “Hey, where did he go?” I asked her while pointing to the spot that Beck was just at.

  The girl nodded her head toward the house. I ran into the hallway and knocked on the first door I came across. “Beck, are you in there?” I asked, trying to wiggle the doorknob until it came unlocked. I opened it slowly, and peeked inside. Beck was sitting on the edge of the tub with a washcloth held against his eye.

  “Cal, you need to leave. Sam’s right. I need to stay away from you,” he said as he looked down at the floor.

  “I don’t care what Sam thinks! I know you hate me, but...” I replied, trying to move closer to him but he stood up and brushed past me, out into the hall. I didn’t follow after him. I decided to give him a minute to calm down, and really for myself to calm down.

  I splashed some cold water on my face and then grabbed the hand towel that was sitting next to the sink to wipe my face.

  When I dried my face, I made my way back into the living room. I spotted the girl he was standing with earlier but I didn’t see Beck anywhere around.

  I walked over to her, and as her eyes took me in from head to toe, the faint smile that was on her lips disappeared.

  “Have you seen Beck?” I asked her as sweetly as I could muster despite the glare she was giving me.

  “Yeah, but I honestly don’t think he would want me to tell you right now,” she answered.

  “I understand,” I told her, and I did. What happened tonight was a lot to handle. “Can you at least give him something for me?” I asked her.

  I started to silently pray that God would help me reach Beck, but quickly stopped the prayer. It wasn’t like He was listening to me anyway.

  She gave me a hesitant nod.

  I rummaged through my purse, pulled out an old receipt, and quickly wrote a note to Beck, telling him to call me and gave him my cell number.

  I handed it to over to her, and gave her a half-hearted thanks, before walking off and searching for Liza again.

  As I walked around the house looking for her, I could feel people’s eyes following me. My head started pounding, and I was having a hard time breathing. This feeling was the one that I dealt with for the last year and tried hard to push out of my life.

  I started to have a hard time focusing my eyes, everything turned into one massive blur. I tried to run as quickly as I could to the front porch, hoping that the fresh air would bring things back to normal. I stumbled to the top step and sat down, resting my head between my knees.

  Breathe in… Breathe out.

  I repeated to myself over and over again.

  As I was calming down, I felt someone sit down next to me. I looked over to see who it was and noticed Beck’s friend.

  “Hey, is there someone here with you?” she asked me. “Here I brought you some water.” She handed me a bottle and I took a few drinks before answering her.

  “Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked her.

  She shrugged, “It’s what Beck would want me to do. Is someone here with you?” she asked again.

  “Yeah my roommate Liza,” I told her studying her a little. When I saw her for the first time with Beck, she appeared to be snooty. But with her sitting here, helping me, I saw a kindness about her.

  The screen door opening pulled my attention away from her.

  “There you are!” I heard Liza say. “I’ve literally looked for you all over the place. And then there was that fight…” she went on, oblivious that I had the front row seat to it.

  “Are you ready?” I asked, interrupting her re-telling of the fight.

  “Well, I guess…” she replied a little disappointed. Honestly, I spent the whole time looking for you. I haven’t had a chance to look for coffee shop guy.”

  “I’m sorry. I can just go on, you don’t need to leave.” I told her.

  “No... It’s okay,” she answered. “I’ll just text him and see if we can meet up some time this week.”

  I stood up, my legs still a little shaky and leaned against the railing. Liza ran back inside to grab her purse. When she returned I gave Beck’s friend a small wave and followed Liza.

  When we got to the end of the walkway, I noticed that Sam was sitting out front watching me. I quickly grabbed Liza’s hand, and pulled her past him, not making eye contact with him and hoping he would leave me alone.

  My hopes were dashed when, I heard Sam yell my name as we walked down the sidewalk. Ignoring him, I continued to pull Liza in the direction of our dorm.

  “Calla, there’s a cute guy yelling for you, you know?” Liza informed me, a look of confusion etched all over her face.

  “I know Liza, but I can’t talk to him right now,” I poorly explained. I knew that that answer wasn’t going to appease her, so I explained further, “He’s my best friend’s older brother. I haven’t talked to him in over a year and I’m not really ready to do it now.”

  “Okay, but I want more details when we get back to our
room. What happened to make you want to leave that quickly? I’m so sorry that I lost you, one minute you were right behind me and then the next you were gone. I tried looking for you, but there were so many people there.”

  Knowing that she deserved an explanation, I sighed. “Sam wasn’t the only person from home that I ran into tonight, and well... we all didn’t part on the best of terms.”

  “The fight? You knew those guys?”

  I nodded my answer and she must have sensed my reluctance to talk about it, so she dropped it. We walked the rest of the way in complete silence.

  I had a hard time falling asleep after we got back to our room. The events from tonight kept swirling through my mind, replaying over and over again. Before I realized what I was doing, I picked my phone up and dialed Asher’s number.

  It rang several times then went to voicemail. I hung up without saying anything to him. I finally fell asleep a few hours later.

  Chapter Three

  Asher

  Middle of freshman year

  “WHERE IS she? That’s it… from now on you’re in charge of bringing the food,” Beck told me as he rubbed his stomach. She was late for our Friday night hangout that we popularly dubbed “Friday Fright Night” because Beck would pick out scary movies to watch.

  “She’ll be here,” I replied.

  About five minutes later, my phone rang. I picked it up when I noticed it was Cal calling. “Hey, we’re starving. What’s taking so long?”

  Cal sighed. “Please don’t be mad and just know I love you guys so much. But I have a date tonight, well it was actually for tomorrow night but he called and needed to reschedule. So tonight was the only night that worked. Can I rain-check Fright Night to tomorrow?”

  “So Saturday Fright Night? Sure, I’ll check and make sure that’s okay with Beck and text you back,” I said before hanging up, I glanced over at Beck who was still watching the TV. “Cal has a date tonight, so she’s not going to make it.”

  Beck jumped up from the couch. “What date? With who?”

  “I don’t know. She didn’t say, and I didn’t think it mattered so I didn’t ask,” I said as I flipped through the channels on the TV.

  “Well, call her back,” he said, throwing the phone in my lap. “Find out.”

  I looked over to where he was pacing the floor, his eyebrows pinched in a frown. “Hey, what’s up Beck?”

  “Don’t go all girl-talk on me. Can you just please call her and see who she’s with?” he said, running his hands through his hair and resting them at the back of his head.

  I decided to give it a rest. Poking his head about this would only make him shut down. I started noticing certain things about the way he acted around her. Like how he always seemed to be following her, wherever she went. He would almost track her through a room. This was the first time he really let his feelings show this obviously. It may have even been the first time he realized it.

  I picked up the phone and dialed her number. Beck was looking at it like his life depended on it, so I figured I’d turn the speakerphone on to let him listen to what she said, put him out of his misery.

  “Am I forgiven?” Cal’s voice came through the speaker when she answered.

  “Yep. We’re just wondering who you’re ditching us for.” I looked at Beck to see if he approved of my question. He nodded.

  “I don’t wanna tell you yet,” she answered. I could hear the hesitancy in her voice as we talked. She was nervous about how we’d react towards her date.

  “Give us something here. We’re bored without you screaming at all the blood and gore we’re watching,” I lied, but she didn’t need to know that we were actually watching an infomercial.

  “It’s Parker Campbell,” she said, a trace of shyness in her voice.

  “Parker Campbell?” I repeated a little surprised.

  A very grim expression crossed over Beck’s face. He looked around him, locating a pen and a paper and scribbled something frantically on it and then held it up. “Where?” it said.

  I shook my head at him. His plan was written all over his face. He gave me a death glare and nodded so seriously, he looked at least ten years older. I sighed dramatically.

  “You there, Ash?” Cal asked.

  “Yeah. Where’s Parker taking you?” I tried to sound nonchalant about it.

  “Why?” she asked, drawing the y out suspiciously.

  “We want to make sure he’s treating you the way you deserve. No Micky D’s for our Cal, you’re better than that. And maybe you want a ride back home?” I said. Man, I sounded so lame right now. Knowing Parker would probably take her home, because he wasn’t a jerk. He wouldn’t leave her alone, but I needed an excuse for asking these questions.

  “The new steakhouse, then mini-golf, and no. If I need a ride, I’ll call you?”

  “Of course, any time. Well, have fun.” I said and waited for her goodbye, then hung up. I turned to Beck.

  “Parker,” he said, he had a confused look on his face. “Did you know she liked him?”

  I shook my head no, “So, now do you want to talk about it?”

  “No. We need a plan,” he said simply.

  “You need a plan,” I said, even though we both knew I’d probably end up going along with any of his plans.

  “No, you’re coming too. Remember you owe me for taking the blame for your neighbor’s broken window? I told your mom that I was the one that hit the ball, saving your rear from getting into trouble,” he reminded me.

  We were ten, and he’s finally claiming his payback.

  “Fine, what’s our plan?” I asked him.

  I sat and listened to him for the next fifteen minutes going over what we should do. Everything he mentioned he questioned, and finally I stopped him from second-guessing himself.

  “Let’s just go to the mini-golf place. We’ll act like we’re there to play, but during that time you can make sure everything is okay,” I told him.

  “Yeah-yeah, that'll work,” Beck answered excitedly.

  We quickly walked to his truck and jumped inside.

  The ride to the course was quiet; I hated quiet so I tried to lighten the mood by talking to him about other stuff.

  “So, do you think you’re ready for the game tomorrow?” I asked him, knowing that he was. We had practiced all week and finally got down a new pitch.

  “Yep,” Beck answered. One word that was it.

  “Do you want to go see the new X-Men movie next weekend?” I asked him, attempting one more time to get a conversation going.

  “Sure,” one word answer again.

  I gave up trying to talk to him since he seemed lost in his thoughts.

  We sat there in silence for the remainder of the drive and I sighed in relief when I saw the bright sign indicating we were there.

  We went straight to the office and paid for the eighteen holes, after getting our clubs and a ball we walked out and started looking for Cal. We finally spotted her and Parker at the fourth hole.

  I half expected Beck to walk right up to them and invite himself on their date, but he just walked up to the first hole and started playing. Every once in a while he’d look over to them.

  Parker and Cal seemed to be having a good time. On occasion, her laugh would carry over to us and Beck would look over at them again.

  “I like her,” he said, breaking the silence, not looking at me, “have for a while.” I wanted to tell him that I already knew but decided against it.

  “Why don’t you tell her?” I asked him.

  “I want to; I just haven’t had the courage to. What if she laughs in my face or worse, it doesn’t work out? Where does that leave us?” he said. There was a cloud of seriousness over him. This was so unlike Beck. I knew that he was worried about never getting the chance to tell her.

  Parker was a walking contradiction. At first look, it was hard to take him seriously. He had a faux hawk that was always styled in a spike. In reality, honestly he was actually one of the coolest guys i
n school. He was on the Honor Roll with one of the highest grades in his class.

  If the girl I liked was on a date with Parker Campbell, I’d have been worried, too.

  As the night progressed, they seemed to be getting more comfortable around each other. I noticed they’d hold hands while walking to the next hole and occasionally Parker would wrap his arm around her as they walked.

  We kept playing but the mood was very sour. Beck couldn’t focus on the game, and stopped even trying to play. He’d hit the ball once and then pick it up and wait for me to finish.

  Cal and Parker finished their game, and turned in their clubs. We watched them as they walked to his Jeep. He opened the door for her. She climbed in and buckled up. Then, Parker leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on her lips. I heard a gasp coming from Beck, and looked over at him. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Cal yet; just kept watching her.

  When they pulled out of the parking lot, I knew that it was time to leave. So I grabbed Beck’s club and returned them to the office.

  Beck was already sitting in his truck when I stepped out. I quickly made my way over to it, and hopped inside.

  “Maybe it won’t last,” I said as he turned onto the street to go home.

  ***

  Calla

  Now

  THE CONSTANT knocking on our door woke me up from a dreamless sleep the morning after the party.

  “Liza, wake up... someone is at the door for you,” I said, my words muffled by the pillow. Her friends were always coming by and dropping something off or borrowing some piece of clothing.

  The knocking continued, persistent and loud.

  “Liiizzzaa,” I whined. Nothing.

  Finally, I lifted my head up and glanced over at her. She was completely comatose and perfectly unaware that someone was knocking. I reluctantly got out of bed, and threw my hair up in a high ponytail as I unlocked the door.