Chapter 20
They would make their move tonight. I was absolutely sure that whoever this random future changer was, they’d attack during the Valentine Triple Feature.
“We don’t have to go,” I said to Andrew, moving reluctantly toward his mom’s car.
“You’ve gone on about this thing for the last month. How can you suddenly not want to go?”
“I do. It’s just I have a feeling something bad is going to happen.”
“You said the same thing about the basketball game last week. Nothing happened then and nothing’s going to happen tonight either.” He pulled me to a stop beside the car and I turned to face him. Our fingers laced together and he lowered his head just enough to press his lips to mine.
It was a sweet kiss, one that seemed to represent the state of our relationship. Things between us were nice. Sometime over the past two months, the excitement of being with Andrew faded. In its place was this feeling of waiting, as if I was simply biding my time until something changed.
“You’re thinking really hard again,” he whispered against my lips. My eyes fluttered open and found him staring at me. “Your head is tilted to the left. You only do that when you’re thinking.”
“Or kissing,” I responded with a smile.
“No, when you’re focused on kissing you tilt to the right.” He stepped back, letting go of my hands and opened the car door. “So are you gonna tell me what you’re worried about?”
I slid into the seat and closed the door. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
He gave me a strange look. “Are you sure?”
“What are the movies tonight?”
The Triple Feature consisted of three films, typically rom-coms that managed to be clean enough to pacify concerned school officials and parents, while still appealing to us ‘kids’.
Andrew rattled off the movie titles and launched into some detailed trivia about the actress who stars in each of the films. By the time we reached the drive-in, I knew every movie this actress had been in including some obscure horror flicks from the early nineties.
The drive-in was packed and our late arrival meant that not only were we situated in the back, we also missed the first few previews. Andrew set up the old-fashioned radio speaker as the first movie started on the massive whitewashed plywood screen.
When he wrapped an arm around my shoulder, I snuggled close. I tried to lose myself in the plot, forcing myself to laugh at the same points he laughed, yet it was only a surface level awareness. Inside my mind raced, picking up every little sound and movement, trying to catch a glimpse of anything familiar from Bastian’s future.
Near the end of the first movie, I realized I was in the wrong place. In Bastian’s visions, I was close enough for him to see, to touch.
“Let’s go get a drink. I want to say hi to Nadine,” I said as the credits rolled.
“No way. Everyone is getting drinks and stuff right now. We’re better off waiting ‘til the next movie starts.”
“Well, let’s go find Bianca.”
He grudgingly followed me out of the car, rolling up his window and locking the radio inside.
Bianca was exactly where I thought she'd be, lying on her stomach between Owen and Tonya in the back of Nathan’s truck. Phoebe and Nathan snuggled together sitting with their backs pressed to the cab.
“Come to hang out with us lowlies?” Tonya asked.
“Hey! Speak for yourself,” Bianca said.
“Well, I always try to say hello to the little people.” I gave Tonya a smirk.
I wasn’t sure why she and I hated each other, but it went back as far as I could remember. Nanna liked to say there will always be someone you simply don’t like, and then one day you’d become best friends. I believed her until I met Tonya.
Glancing around, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that not everyone was there. Micah and Lily weren’t anywhere around. Nadine. Bastian. None of them were here.
“Where are Lily and Micah? I haven’t seen them,” I said.
Phoebe pointed to the far end of the lot. “They ended up somewhere over there. We tried to save them a spot, but it was so busy when we got here.”
“What about Bastian?” I asked. She and Andrew gave me weird looks, though for totally different reasons. Andrew probably wondered why I was asking about another guy, while Phoebe was most likely already picturing me dumping Andrew for Bastian based off one little question.
Luckily, Bianca took it as completely normal. “He bailed on us.”
I sagged against the side of the truck.
“Hey! Watch the paint!” Nathan said, moving to swat at the arm I rested on the truck. “My dad will kill me if it gets scratched.”
“Well, then it shouldn’t be too hard for the Sheriff to catch your killer.”
“Ha ha. Like I haven’t heard that one before.”
“Come watch with us,” Bianca said, patting the space beside her.
The groan from Tonya sealed my decision and I hopped up into the truck bed, scooting over so Andrew could squeeze in.
“Comfy?” I asked, nudging him with my shoulder.
One of his eyebrows lifted as he paused in his struggle to arrange the blanket underneath him. “Oh, yeah. This is so much better than sitting in a warm car with cushioned seats.”
I laughed. “Just for a little, okay?”
“Fine,” he grumbled.
For days, I’d been on pins and needles, thinking that tonight would actually be the end of everything. To know it wasn’t was such a relief I could almost cry. Instead, I let myself enjoy being with Andrew and Bianca, and even my sister. I chose to ignore Tonya’s presence.
“You ready to grab a drink?” Andrew asked about half way through the movie.
“Definitely.” I slid off the truck after him.
“Going to rub it in Nadine’s face that she’s spending yet another Valentine’s Day serving soda and popcorns?” Bianca asked, laughing.
“No, we’re going to financially support the cheer squad.”
That only made her laugh harder. “Enjoy rubbing it in.”
Although I denied it, there was truth to her words and it all went back to the bitterness that still festered inside me.
Andrew and I made our way toward the concession. Part way there we ran into Micah and Lily who were doing the same thing as us.
“You look like you’re having fun,” she said as the guys walked ahead of us.
“I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Maybe because you’ve been on edge for days, freaked out about something you think will happen.”
“I was, but not anymore. At least not tonight,” I said. Tomorrow was different. Until something became clear or it actually happened, I’d worry. For now, though, I could relax. “Are you having fun?”
“Yes.”
I pulled her to a stop, letting some distance grow between us and the guys. “You don’t sound so sure. Is everything alright with you and Micah?”
Even though I’d seen futures of them together, I’d also seen one of her with Dylan before he died.
“We’re really good.”
“So what’s going on?”
“I love Micah. But it’s still hard sometimes to deal with Dylan being gone.”
“You came here with him last year.”
“And the year before.”
“So why come tonight?”
She tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “I can’t let my memories dictate what I do. I need to be able to do things I did with him or go places we went, and build new memories.”
“Maybe you just need more time.”
“Maybe, but right now I have Micah to help me get through it and he lets me.” She shrugged and gave a slight smile. “Now, if we could stop dwelling on the past, we can catch up with Micah and Andrew before Micah buys a bunch of those nasty Junior Mints.”
He was in the process of purchasing the Junior Mints when we found him at the nearly deserted con
cession.
“Where’s Andrew?” I asked. Micah pointed to the restroom over to the right. I walked over to the small building, and leaned against the wall just outside the men’s door. A few guys came out, but no Andrew.
“Hey, Javier,” I called out, waving for him to come over from his place in the concession line.
“What’s up?”
“Can you go in and check on Andrew. He’s been in there like ten minutes.”
Javier grinned. “I told the dude not to eat the beans at lunch today. Those things’ll tear your insides apart. ”
“That’s disgusting.”
He disappeared into the restroom and was out a few seconds later. “He’s not in there.”
“What? Micah said he went in there, and there’s no way I missed him when he came out.”
“I don’t know. I’m just telling you the dude isn’t in there.” With that, he went back to the line, leaving me to figure out what happened to Andrew.
I scanned the entire concession area, wandering from end to end. I was about to make my way to the truck when I spotted him. He came around the side of the building and he wasn’t alone; Nadine walked close beside him.
They weren’t touching, nor did they act suspicious, yet something about them screamed guilty. Had everything I done been for nothing?
Nadine smiled and waved at me.
“Where were you?” I asked Andrew when I reached them. “Micah thought you’d gone to the restroom and I was waiting for almost ten minutes.”
“I did, and then I saw Nadine.”
“I needed to grab my cell from my car,” she interrupted his explanation. “It’s parked in the back, and I was a bit nervous about going alone, so Andrew went with me.”
“Oh.”
How do you argue with something like that? Only a horrible person would want her friend to walk through a dark parking lot to her car when she was afraid. And only a horrible person would be angry with her boyfriend for being willing to protect her friend.
“You still want a drink?” Andrew asked.
“Yeah, and popcorn.” I took his hand in mine and tugged him close to me. Away from her.
The three of us walked together to the concession where Nadine went through the side door to go back to work and Andrew and I joined the short line. We stood in silence and walked back to the truck in without talking. But unlike Lily, I never did comfortable silence.
A few feet from the truck, I said, “Let’s go back to the car.”
“I thought you wanted to hang with Bianca?”
I shrugged. “I can do that tomorrow.”
He gave me a curious look. “If that’s what you want.”
What I want. It wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted a fun and romantic Valentine’s Day with the boy I was in love with. I wanted to be… I didn’t even know. But surrounded by a bunch of happy people right now was about as far from what I wanted as possible.
We passed the truck, ignoring the kissy noises Bianca and Tonya started making when we didn’t join them.
In the car, I sat there and watched the movie, letting that horrible silence grow. And with each passing minute, the feelings bubbling inside me expanded.
“Are you mad at me?” Andrew asked.
“No.” I gritted my teeth, staring hard at the screen.
He snorted. “You’re mad because I made you wait?”
“No.” It was true. The emotions filling me had little to do with anger.
“Is this a guessing game?”
“I told you I’m not mad, but if you keep asking me then I’m gonna get mad.”
He stopped talking, but that only made things worse. I was being kinda bitchy, okay, really bitchy, and Andrew was getting the brunt of it for no real reason. In between the ten-minute intermission, we managed some small talk and things evened out a bit. Yet nothing could erase the picture of them together.
“What do you think of Nadine?”
“What do you mean?” He shifted to face me, surprise widening his eyes. “Holy crap. Are you mad at me for walking Nadine to her car? Is that what this whole silent treatment is about?”
“I’m not mad and I was being quiet, not giving you the silent treatment,” I said, trying to keep from huffing. “I just asked a simple question.”
“The Chloe I know doesn’t just ask simple questions, especially not like that one.”
“Are you avoiding answering the question?”
“Fine. She’s cool and I like talking to her. Is that a crime?”
“No.”
“So what’s the problem?” he asked.
I closed my eyes. My head thumped against the headrest before I looked at him again. “There isn’t one. It was only a question. You’re allowed to talk to Nadine. You’re allowed to think she’s cool.”
I spoke the words and meant them. He could talk to anyone he wanted.
“You’re really not upset you had to wait?”
“Really.”
“And you don’t care that I was walking with her?”
Did I care?
My gut reaction was to say yes, and part of me did. The idea of my boyfriend and my friend together behind my back left a foul taste in my mouth. But I felt no anger. I was simply sad, because it was all coming to an end and I finally knew what I wanted.
I wanted to still be in love with Andrew.
But I wasn’t.
Chapter 21
Andrew and I had ceased to be. Phone calls and texts dwindled to nothing. We no longer sat together at lunch. We hadn’t made eye contact in over a week. Neither of us ended it. There was no official break-up. There was simply no more us.
Bianca said I needed to dump him and that it would give me closure, but I didn’t need closure. We had already closed the book on us.
It would be easy for me to look at Valentine’s or New Year’s or even the party at Javier’s as the beginning of the end. I knew, though, it had been Homecoming and the first time I saw that horrible vision of him and Nadine.
I had fought it hard. I’d wanted to believe that just maybe there could have been a future for us, but when you see the person who’s supposed to love you betray you, it never leaves you.
My eyes found Andrew across the cafeteria. He sat between Travis and Javier, along with a few other friends, his hair sticking out from under his beanie cap. He chuckled at something Javier said. I was too far away to hear the sound of it, but I could remember how it felt to the feel of his chest rumbling with laughter as I rested my head there.
I would miss being with him, but he was happy and that was good.
Phoebe wanted me to hate him, to have it out with him, go full on drama in the cafeteria, but I couldn’t. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He never cheated. He never lied to me. I couldn’t really be angry with him for a future that never happened.
It was the same with Nadine. She’d been my best friend and hadn’t done anything wrong. Yet, just as I stopped fooling myself about Andrew, I stopped with her as well. We still talked a bit, and I hung out with her a few weeks ago, but she was simply drifting out of my life. And I was okay with that.
“Are you moping?” Phoebe asked as she and Nathan sat across from me, blocking my view of Andrew.
“No, I was thinking.”
“You should try happy thoughts, like someone dropping their food in his lap, or him coming over here and groveling at your feet so you could coldly reject him.”
I smiled at how Phoebe those revenge scenarios were. “It sounds like you’ve given this lots of thought.”
“It’s all I did for the year Nathan and Vivian dated.”
“Hey!” he said. “You would have rejected me coldly?”
She leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the check. “Of course, but don’t worry, you would have pursued me and won me over. That’s when we would have taken steps against Vivian.”
“Good to know I redeemed myself,” he said before stuffing his sandwich in his mouth.
“So? When are yo
u gonna have it out with Andrew?”
I sighed. “I’m not. There’s no reason to. We were together and now we’re not. End of story.”
“Bull, the guy cheated on you.”
“Uh, no he didn’t.”
“He was going to.”
How did she manage to be both right and wrong at the same time?
“I’m not going to be your daily soap opera show, so give it up.”
“All right, I’ll drop it. So, what’s up with you and Bastian?” She leaned forward, laughing as the question caused me to choke on the mouthful of spinach salad I was attempting to swallow.
“Why would you ask that? Why would you even think there’s something going on with us?”
“Hmm, maybe because you guys have been hanging out a lot.”
“Only because he’s friends with Bianca. I’ve also been hanging out with Owen. Are you going to imply I have a thing with him, too?”
“Fine, it must be the way you’re constantly touching him.”
“To check his future. You know his is the only one I can see anymore.”
“Well, then it must be the way that every time his name comes up, your cheeks go a lovely shade of pink and your eyes sparkle.”
“They do not!”
She must have kicked Nathan under the table, because he looked up from his food at me. “Yep, pink cheeks and twilight eyes.”
“Sparkling,” Phoebe corrected him.
“Right, sparkling.”
I glared at him. “I think my sister failed to inform you that joining her side in fights rarely ends well for her supporters.”
“I kinda figured, but I enjoy the benefits of having a girlfriend more than I value any sanity you’ll strip from me by taunting me with the eventual consequences of my future misdeeds.”
Wow, he had thought about it. Or Phoebe warned him.
“If the two of you are ganging up on me, you can find your own table.”
“Yeah, I’m not moving,” she said, wiggling down in her seat. “Besides, I want to hear all about you and Bastian.”
I tipped my head to the left then right, gaining the satisfying pops I wanted. Phoebe’s face paled. I did it again, and cupped my chin firmly in the palm of my hand and pressed. The result was a louder series of rapid pops.
Watch Me: Teen Paranormal Romance (A Touched Trilogy Book 3) Page 17