She looked over at me, "This really isn't a short story."
I looked at the clock, "It's only seven. I've got plenty of time."
She laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, "My parents didn't care. They both just wrote her off. She was eighteen and I specifically remember my dad saying she wasn't his problem anymore. She sent me a few texts and told me they had made it to California and were doing okay. I knew it was a lie, but she wouldn't tell me her address. Since then, I've only seen her twice. Once she overdosed and ended up in a hospital in Arizona, and then she came home for Christmas last year. Her boyfriend and her had broken up and she wanted to go to rehab again. My dad paid for it and that was the time she stayed for three weeks."
"Did she ask to go this time also?"
She shook her head, "No. Court ordered. She tried to sell meth to a cop."
"Wow."
"Yeah. So that's it. That's my messed up life. Now you know everything."
I smiled at her, "Thank you for telling me. I'm sorry about your sister. And your parents. I'm glad you made it okay."
She laughed, "Yeah, I'm just judgmental and don't trust anyone, especially good looking jocks."
"Makes more sense now at least."
"Yeah, it makes me so angry. I mean she had so much potential and she just threw it all away."
We laid there and talked for a while. I changed the subject to lighter topics after that and I left her apartment at ten.
When I got back to my room, Pete was eating cold pizza in the kitchen, "Hey. Where were you?"
"Sorry. I was with Lindsay."
"You guys have been spending a lot of time together lately."
I went to the fridge and got a slice of pizza for myself, "Yeah, we're friends. Are you getting jealous?"
He rolled his eyes and looked me over closely, "You're having sex with her."
"No I'm not. We are friends."
"Cut the shit man. You are definitely fucking. You are spending a ton of time with her. You aren’t as wound tight as you used to be. Why are you hiding it?"
I let out a load groan and sat down at the table, "Because we really are just friends, but we are sleeping together."
He laughed at me. "You think you're capable of that?"
"It's been going on for months. She doesn't want a relationship and neither do I. No drama."
He scoffed at me again. "Please. She's a chick. There will be drama."
I finished my pizza, "You're wrong. There isn't with her."
I stood up feeling confident that I was right and went to my room.
We started our next semester in college and everything was going great. There was no drama. Things weren't weird with Lindsay after she told me about her sister, and we continued to have sex and a friendship.
Three weeks into the semester we were hanging out with Trevor and Julie at the girls’ apartment when Lindsay asked me to join her out on the balcony. I followed her and looked down at the parking lot below. She turned to me, "So…I need to tap out."
I looked at her confused, "What?"
"No questions remember?"
She didn't want to have sex anymore. Okay. Of course I wondered why, but I knew the rules so I just grinned at her. "Okay. Well it was fun."
She smiled back at me. Totally casually. It didn't seem like anything was wrong, maybe she had just gotten bored. "Yes it was. And see no one got hurt and we are still friends."
"Yep. We should write a paper about this."
She laughed, "Yeah. That's really not a bad idea. A successful experiment."
"Yep. Do you want to go back in now?" She agreed and we went back inside with Julie and Trevor.
After that we spent a little less time with each other, but still spent a significant amount of time together. Things really weren't weird between us. She came over to study one Monday and we ordered Chinese food. We were eating when I looked over at her, "So how's your sister?"
She smiled, "She's doing good. Seven weeks sober."
"That's great."
"Yeah. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but maybe she will make it through this time. I promised her if she did, I will go and visit her."
"I hope it works out."
"Thanks. So how's the wedding planning going?"
"Pretty good. June second is the official day."
She got up and put her trash in the kitchen, "Well that awesome. I bet your mom is excited."
I joined her in the kitchen and threw away the boxes from the food we had ordered, "Yeah, it's a little weird to think that my mom is getting married, but she is so happy that it trumps any weirdness."
I had thought about inviting Lindsay to the wedding, but that was more of a dating thing than a friendship thing. She looked at her phone, "Well I better get going. I know you have to get to the gym."
We made plans to study toward the end of the week and she left.
I went into my room and changed into workout clothes and headed to the gym with Pete to meet Trevor at the gym.
We were all lifting weights quietly when Pete turned to Trevor who was working out extra hard these days. Pete and I had joked that he was trying to get rid of the sexual frustration. "Are you sure you don't want to go to that sorority party with me this weekend?"
Trevor ignored him and kept lifting furiously. I shook my head, "Pete, don't tempt him."
Trevor scoffed, "Nothing can tempt me. I'm gonna marry that girl."
Pete and I stopped and stared at him. I cleared my throat, "You're proposing?"
He nodded, "In a few months. When school is out. I figure we can be engaged all next year and get married after graduation."
Pete actually smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "That's awesome."
I was surprised at Pete. He seemed genuinely happy for him. The guy that was always trying to get him to go to parties with him and end his relationship. "You're not going to try to talk him out of it?"
"Nope." Trevor grinned and put the weights down and went over to the treadmill to run.
I started lifting again and turned suspiciously back to Pete, "You are really supporting this?"
"Yeah. I've never seen him so happy. And it's fun to bust his balls about Julie, but he really loves her."
"Yeah, they do seem to care about each other. Marriage at twenty two is fucking scary though."
"Marriage at any age is fucking scary, but I don't know, I bet they make it."
"Yeah. So does this mean you are going to change your ways and start seriously dating?"
"Hell no. It's fine for him, but I'm the type that's not going to settle down until my late forties with a hot twenty year old for my first wife."
I shook my head and we continued our workout. I was happy for Trevor, but I was still a total skeptic when it came to love and relationships. In my opinion everyone ended up getting hurt, so what was the point.
I was especially worried about my mom. She was so blissfully happy right now, but that fades. I didn't want to see her hurt. I would never tell her any of that though, I knew she valued my opinion too much.
A couple of weeks later I was asleep when I heard frantic knocks on the front door, I glanced at my alarm clock and saw it was one in the morning. I got up and went out into the living room. I flipped the light on and went over to the door, still half asleep and trying to let my eyes adjust to the light.
I opened the door and Lindsay was standing there in her pajamas: a black baggy Rolling Stones t-shirt and short cotton shorts. She had definitely been crying. "Lindsay? What's wrong?"
Pete stumbled out rubbing his eyes, "What's going on?"
Lindsay finally opened her mouth, "My sister..." Oh God please don't say she died. "She left. She left rehab."
I let out a small breath of relief, she was still alive. I turned to Pete, "It's okay. Go back to bed."
He nodded, looking concerned, but turned and went back into his bedroom.
I turned back to Lindsay, "Come in."
She walked in a lit
tle and I closed the door behind her. "What happened?"
"The rehab place called and said Laura left. She packed all of her things and left. They couldn't stop her, but they had to call the police since it was court ordered."
She was sobbing and I had never seen Lindsay so upset. I hated that she was in pain. She went on, "She was nine weeks sober. Nine fucking weeks. Who leaves when they are so close to the end? She had three weeks left."
I hugged her body to mine a led her over to the couch, where we sat down, "I'm so sorry, Lindsay."
She wiped her eyes with her hand, but didn't stop the tears, "I just don't get it. She was so close. I tried to call her cell, but she didn't answer. No doubt because she is getting high somewhere. She's going to die, Ryan, and there is nothing I can do for her."
I put my arm around her and tried to comfort her. Knowing nothing I could say would make her feel any better.
The next morning I woke up to Pete nudging my shoulder. I slowly opened my eyes and looked at him. He whispered, "Hey its seven thirty. You might want to get up if you're gonna make it to practice on time."
I still had my arm wrapped around Lindsay and she had her head on my chest, curled up to me. I didn't want to wake her, but I couldn't be late.
I nodded to him and he walked out of the room. I gently shook Lindsay, "Lindsay."
` She stirred and pushed away from me a little. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying, but she still managed to look really pretty. "Morning. I'm sorry I had to wake you, but I have to go to practice."
She sat up and yawned, "I'm so sorry I came over so late."
"Don't be sorry. You are always welcome here. I'm sorry about your sister. You can go back to sleep in my room if you want."
She shook her head, "No thank you. That's sweet, but I'll just go back to my apartment. Thank you so much for being there for me."
She stood up and stretched and then left.
Chapter 17
It was a full week before Lindsay had heard any news about her sister. They found her trying to buy drugs in California and had arrested her. She was sentence to six months in jail.
Lindsay told me about all of it when we were sitting at the bar in her kitchen, eating pasta she had made, "Maybe I should just give up on her like my parents did."
I knew that wasn't possible for her. "You aren't your parents. Maybe six months in jail will do wonders."
"You can get drugs in jail."
"True. But maybe she won't."
"Look at you being Mr. Optimist."
I smiled and didn’t say anything to that and we started eating again.
She had her long legs crossed while sitting on the bar stool and she was wearing short jean shorts. My eyes wandered up her legs, like a total douchebag. The girl was talking about her sister being in jail and I couldn't stop picturing her naked.
That was the tough part about our old arrangement. I had seen her naked many times. I knew how perfect her body was and what it felt like to kiss her, to be buried deep inside of her. It had been a while since we had sex and it was really starting to get to me.
I found myself checking her out more and more, but she had "tapped out" and there was no way I was going to try to cross that line.
A few days later I received my invitation in the mail for my mom's wedding. There was an RSVP envelope and slip of paper and my mom had hand written a special message for me on the back.
Ryan,
You can bring a few people if you would like. I would love to meet some of your new friends. Let me know as soon as you can.
Love,
Mom
I smiled and Pete walked into the room as I put the invitation on the counter. I looked over at him, "You want to go to a wedding?"
He walked over and glanced at the invitation, "Aw. You want me to be your plus one?"
I laughed, "I'm thinking more like a plus four."
"Oh yeah? Who else?"
"Trevor, Julie, and Lindsay. We can all drive up together."
"I'm always up for a road trip. Count me in."
I talked to the others that day and everyone else was in also, so I filled out the RSVP and mailed it to my mom, who called me a few days later to tell me how excited she was that I was bringing my friends.
The next month passed really quickly and I did really well on my finals. I continued going to practice and keeping up with weight lifting and working out, and two days before the wedding Pete, Trevor, and I picked up Julie and Lindsay at their apartment at six A.M
They both looked half asleep as we walked out to the car. Lindsay mumbled something about coffee and Julie said something about just going back to sleep in the car.
After we stuffed Julie's three bags and Lindsay's two large bags in my trunk we got started on the long trip. I drove by a drive through and bought everyone coffee on the way out of town. The girls were sitting in the back with Trevor and Pete was in the passenger seat.
For the first three hours everyone else slept and the trip seemed a lot like every time I had made it before. Then everyone started to wake up and we all started talking and playing car games like, I Spy and 20 questions.
At noon Trevor and Pete were complaining that they were starving so we stopped at a small diner on the way to eat and take a break. When Pete got out he stretched and rubbed his neck, "We aren't even half way there?"
I closed my car door, "Almost. About eight more hours."
Lindsay groaned, "This better be one hell of a wedding." She grinned over at me.
"Oh it will be."
We all went in and ate and then headed back out to the car. Lindsay yelled, "Shotgun!" and went to the front seat."
Pete whined, "Oh man! I'm gonna be squished!"
Julie looked over at him, "You? I'm the one that will be in between you two giants. But that's the rules of road trips. She called it."
We all laughed and got back into the car. It was funny seeing two big guys and tiny Julie in between them. I was happy Lindsay was up front with me though.
She played with the radio, not finding more than static because we were out in the middle of nowhere and finally switched it to a CD. "So you are walking your mom down the aisle?"
I nodded as I focused on the highway, "Yep."
"Well that should be fun!"
I laughed, "Yeah. It's kinda weird giving my mom away, but her father passed away a long time ago."
"Well I'm sure she's glad she has you."
We finally made it to my mom and grandma's around eleven that night. We all dragged our stuff into my old house and my mom and grandma were waiting up for us.
My mom grabbed me and kissed me right away and then I introduced everyone. We sat down in the living room and talked for a little bit before we went to bed.
The girls slept in the guest room and Pete slept on the floor in my room and Trevor slept on the couch.
I woke up early the next morning when I heard laughter in the kitchen. I walked into the room and my mom, grandma, Julie and Lindsay were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. My mom looked up, "Well good morning! I was just telling them stories from when you were little."
Lindsay and Julie both giggled. Great. Just what everyone wanted. I walked over to the cabinet and got a coffee cup. I filled it and sat next to Lindsay, "So you are learning all of my secrets huh?"
She took a sip, "Yep. I have a ton of information to blackmail you with now."
I laughed, "Great." I looked over at my mom, "So when is the rehearsal?"
I could tell my mom was nervous and really excited, "It's at five this evening." She gestured to Lindsay and Julie, "And you guys can go too. We are having a dinner and there will be plenty of food."
They both nodded and Lindsay said, "We would love to go."
Pete and Trevor finally woke up and they all insisted I show them around my home town. There wasn't much to show them, but we all piled in my car after being warned by my mom that we better not be late for rehearsal.
I showed th
em my old high school and football field. Then we drove downtown to show them where we all used to cruise on Friday nights. I drove them out to the country where they used to throw a lot of parties and we drove by the road I parked with Maddy on our second date.
I tried to shake off the memories of that night and my relationship with Maddy. I had thought she was this sweet innocent girl then, but it turned out I was the naïve one. Lindsay, who was in the front seat again, said, "Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah. Just painful memories."
Pete shouted from the back of the car, "Please do not say her name."
I'm not sure how he knew what I was referring to and Lindsay nodded, "Oh. That girl."
I laughed, "You sound like my mom."
"Yeah I know. That's where I got it from."
I turned to look at her for a second before returning my attention to the road. "You talked to my mom about Maddy?"
She shrugged, "She brought her up. She does not like that girl."
"No she doesn't." I wondered what they had talked about exactly, but didn't go further into it. We made it to the rehearsal a little early and spent time with my mom and Troy as we waited for it to start.
The rehearsal was actually a lot of fun and the dinner was really good. They had a bunch of barbecue catered in.
Afterward, we all went back to my house and hung out for a while before going to bed early. The wedding was at eleven the next morning and I knew it was going to be a long morning.
Everyone got settled and went to sleep. My mind was racing from being home and from all of the memories. Also because my mom was getting married. I got up carefully so I didn't wake Pete and went out to the porch swing.
I was surprised to see Lindsay sitting there when I closed the door quietly behind me. "Hi. What are you doing out here?"
I sat next to her on the old, creaky swing. It was dark, but I could see her smile slightly when she said, "Couldn't sleep."
"You?"
"Same."
"Because of Maddy?"
I dragged my feet on the porch as we swung, "I don't know. Just everything I guess. I love being home, but I hate it too."
Rebound (Soulmates Book 3) Page 12