Chapter 41
Skylar
It’s going on three in the morning, and there is still music playing and people laughing, stumbling around, and doing God only knows what. I cover my ears with my pillow, but my door opens. “Sky,” someone hisses through my dark room.
I throw the pillow and watch the person stumble and fall into my desk. “Fuck me. What the shit? Sky, your room is attacking me.”
“Caleb? What are you doing in here?” I ask as I flip on my nightstand light.
“I can’t sleep in my room. Apparently people are in my bed. Scoot over.”
I do and he curls in next to me. “Oh man, you reek,” I snap. “I can’t sleep with you smelling like this.”
“Sky, do you have any idea how hard it was to climb the stairs? How in the hell do you think I can manage standing in the shower?”
I turn and look at his innocent but completely wasted demeanor and huff. “Come on.”
I help Caleb into the shower, after he almost bashes his face into the wall taking off his socks. Once he’s in, I stay because he’s swaying so much I’m afraid he’ll smack his head on something and knock himself out—or worse. So I close my eyes as much as possible and refuse to look any lower than his belly button.
He leans against the wall and mumbles, “I can’t do this.”
“Do what? Wash yourself?”
He nods and staggers a little in the process, and I catch his arm just before he falls out of the shower. Righting him, I grab the soap and squeeze it into a puff. “That smells like you,” he moans.
“Well, it’s my body wash. Yours is too far for me to reach. You can smell like a girl for one night.”
“I know. You smell so fucking good. When you ignore me, and I can’t smell you, I use it. Because it’s you.”
I move my gaze from his back to his face and snarl, “So it’s been you! This whole flipping time? Are you kidding me? I thought it was my mom.” I smack him with the puff and bubbly soap sprays everywhere.
“Don’t be mad. I just … I’ll get you some more.” He turns and I try to shield myself from his below-the-belt area. “What are you doing?”
“Not looking.”
“You can, you know … look. I left my shorts on.”
“Oh.” I guess I didn’t notice because I was avoiding that whole section of him, and he insisted we didn’t turn the light on because it was killing his head.
“Sky, thanks for the gift. It’s the best gift I’ve gotten in a while.”
“You’re welcome.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me into the shower with him. I squeal as the warm water sprays me and gets my clothes all wet. “Caleb!”
“Shhh.” His finger drops to my lips. “Dance with me.”
“Um, you’re drunk.”
He nods. “Yes, but I still want to dance with you. And they say showers are kind of like rain, and you told me you wanted to dance in the rain.”
I dip my head back and let the water run over my head and face. He kisses the tip of my nose, and whispers, “Dance with me.”
Soaking wet, I sway back and forth in the shower with Caleb. There is a soft hum of music from downstairs, but it’s not loud enough to wake the neighbors or for me to make out the words. But it’s still enough to make me wish this moment never ends.
Eventually, the water starts to chill and we hop out. Caleb, of course, waits until I’m out of the shower to whip off his wet shorts and wrap up in a towel. I shake my head and go into my room.
I lock my door long enough to strip down and put some dry PJs on and then I let him back in. He apparently got some clothes from his room, because he’s wearing a gray shirt and light blue shorts. He makes his way to the right side of my bed and settles himself in between the covers.
I do the same on the opposite side. As soon as I turn off the light on my nightstand Caleb stirs a little and faces me. “Sky?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you really with that guy?”
“No,” I breathe.
He props himself up on his elbow. “So you’re not screwing him?”
“No. Are you happy? Go to bed or I’m kicking you out of mine because I’m tired.”
He kisses me lightly on the mouth and whispers, “Good night.”
“Go to sleep.” I yawn.
He lays against my pillow, wraps his arm around me, and shuts his eyes. I turn over, letting my back rest against him, and drift off to sleep.
***
“What in the … ” I open my eyes and notice an arm tight around me. I look over at the clock … and flip!
“Caleb! It’s two o’clock!” I smack him and try to push him out of my bed, but the muscular lump isn’t budging. Shit!
We were supposed to have the house cleaned by one because Mom and Brian were coming home at two. I smack Caleb once more on his head and he groans, “What?” He rubs sleep from his eyes and grumbles, “Am I dreaming?”
“Caleb! No! Unless you’re dreaming of my mom coming in here, finding us in the same room—and you in my bed—and killing us both. Then yes.”
“Wait, what time is it? How did I end up in here?”
He forgot how he got in here? Does he not even remember the dance in the shower? Ugh. Leave it to him to ruin the one good moment we had. What a jackass. I storm out of my room and almost trip on the bottle of alcohol at the top of the stairs. I pick it up and carry it down to the very gross and very trashed house.
My mom stomps out of the kitchen and down the hallway carrying a lacy bra. “What the hell is this? I agreed to a nice get-together. A small party. Not a playboy bunny convention!”
“I was in my room. Why are you yelling at me?”
“Because you’re the responsible one.” She throws her hands up. “Skylar Olivia Fletcher, I am very disappointed. Look at this mess. And what happened to my walls? This better be some sort of cheese concoction and not someone’s bodily projections. You promised this place would be clean.”
“Whoa! Back up the train, I didn’t promise that. Caleb did. I didn’t know that meant for the both of us. We’re not two peas in a pod, you know. I said I’d help monitor the keys for those who were obviously too drunk to drive. And look, they’re all still here. So I did my job.”
Mom rests her hands on her hips, the bra still clutched in one and stringing down her thigh. “I want the bodies and trash gone. Brian and I will go to the store. You have an hour.”
Caleb stumbles down the steps and stops on the last one, right as my mom opens the door. “Don’t even bother,” she shouts out the door. “Just get back into the car, we’re going to go grocery shopping. Apparently the kids just got up.” She turns to Caleb and adds, “You two better start working on cleaning this mess up.” She thrusts the bra at him and walks out the front door.
Caleb looks over at me and I turn away from him. There are people sleeping on the floor, on the couch, in the dining room, on the table, basically all over. Two are eating cereal at the island when I enter the kitchen. I just give them a dirty look and shake my head. Seriously, who goes to a party, gets smashed, and decides it’s okay to raid cupboards? At a friend’s house, cool. But I’ve never seen these people before.
I grab the broom, dust pan, and the box of trash bags. Caleb enters the kitchen with a bucket of keys. “Who the hell are you guys? Is that my cereal?” He looks at me like I know them. I simply shake my head and head toward the dining room.
The two eating cereal look up at Caleb, shrug, and go back to eating. Caleb’s face turns red. He snatches the bowls from them mid-spoonful and asks, “Did you drive?”
Both of them shake their heads.
“Good. Get out!” He shoos them off the stools and out of the kitchen, then shuts the door and turns to me. “You believe that shit?”
“Yeah, real awesome. Do you even know half of these people?”
He rubs the back of his neck. “Honestly, no. Shit, I barely remember the night. But whatever, let’s get them out of here.”
<
br /> “I like how you assume I’m going to help.” I glare at him. This is his mess and he didn’t even ask if I would help him.
“Please! I’ll owe you. Whatever you want.”
“Fine. I want to go to the baseball game with you.”
He smiles. “Yeah? All right then.”
After fifteen minutes, we finally get everyone who doesn’t belong out of the house. Caleb convinces Lance and Derrick to help clean up, and Kayla comes over while we’re all picking up trash in the living and dining rooms.
I decide to head upstairs and clean the bathroom and bedrooms. Of course, when we were clearing out people, I didn’t think to check upstairs. All the keys were gone so I assumed that meant all the people were gone, too. Turns out I was wrong. I open the door to Erin and Brian’s room and find Amber passed out with some guy. I look up at the ceiling and shout, “It’s time to go! Everyone has to leave now!”
Amber shouts, “What? Oh crap! Who the hell … ” I look over at her and she points a finger at me. “Not a word about this! Got me?” Swim season is over with, so we can go back to being enemies. Well, she thinks we’re enemies; I personally don’t care about her.
I have no idea who the guy is, but he looks all sheepish when he walks past me. I hurry into the room and strip the sheets. After I throw all the bedding into the wash, I return to cleaning the upstairs. In Caleb’s room, there are clothes all over the place. After I pick up all his laundry, I take his basket downstairs, along with a bag of trash.
Kayla looks over at me as I’m about to take the bag out to the dumpster. “Hey, need help?”
“You can walk with me if you want.”
We walk outside and she elbows me. “So … I heard Caleb tell Lance that he woke up in your room.”
“Yeah. Did he also tell Lance he forgot how he got there? Or about the dance we had in the shower?”
She gives me a funny look. “Really? Aww, so you guys are on the mend?”
“Don’t get too excited. He doesn’t remember.”
She frowns. “Well, it’s a start.”
“I don’t know.”
We make our way around the side of the house. “What are you doing after this?” she asks.
I heave the bag into the trash bin. “After cleaning the house? I’ve got to start my history paper, and then hit some balls at the batting cage. Why?”
“I was thinking we could go to the mall today. Have a girls’ day.”
“Kayla, I really don’t feel like going to the mall. And I need to start my paper.”
She pouts. “You have three weeks to get the paper done. Come with me. I’m picking out my prom dress and shoes. I need some advice.”
“What? That’s two months away. Why are you buying a dress now?”
“Okay, I’m browsing for dresses, but I need a browsing buddy. Please!”
I sigh. “All right. I’ll go. But we have to clean up the front yard first.”
We spend the next ten minutes cleaning up the front lawn and porch, and while I’m making my way to the back, I notice the boys have moved outside, too. “Hey, are you done cleaning the house?” I ask.
Caleb nods. “Mostly. I’ve got laundry to do, but yeah, it’s done.”
I look over at Kayla, who’s hopping up and down. “Can we go then?” she asks.
I nod and go grab my purse. As I come back out, Caleb asks, “Where are you off to?”
“Kayla wants me to go shopping with her.”
“Oh. Well, thanks for helping me clean.”
“Yup.” I head down the driveway to Kayla’s mom’s car and slide into the passenger seat. Lance and Derrick run down the driveway and hop into the back before we pull out.
“Um … you guys do know we’re going to the mall, right?” I ask.
“Yeah, and there is food there,” Derrick says, like it’s something that should be obvious.
We arrive at the mall twenty minutes later. Kayla and I hit a few stores, browsing for her dream prom dress. In a store called Proms-4-ever, she tries to get me to try some on. But as I walk up to the racks near the front to see if they have a dress I actually like in my size, I notice a person barreling out of the Mother-be store across the way. “Hey, is that Danielle?” I ask Kayla.
“Looks like it.”
“She walks fast for a very pregnant girl. When did she get huge? I just saw her the other day and she was barely showing anything.”
“I don’t know. But it’s about time she started showing. You know, Caleb should tell her to eat more than a Snickers bar at lunch,” Kayla snaps.
“What are you talking about? Surely she eats more than a flipping candy bar. She’s pregnant. Shouldn’t she devour the entire lunchroom like Godzilla looking for food?”
Kayla laughs. “I am pretty sure it’s not like that but … Mom did eat way more than normal when she was pregnant with Kia.”
I shrug. Maybe everyone is different. My mom told me she couldn’t eat much the first three months she was pregnant with me because she was nauseous all the time. I go back to looking through the dresses, and my phone rings.
“Hey, Liddy, what’s up?”
“How was the party?”
“Eh, you know.”
“You sound mopey again, what’s up?” she asks.
I skim through the rack and mumble, “Nothing really. Just dress shopping with Kayla.”
“You hate dresses.”
“I do, yes, but I kind of want to go to prom. I mean, it’s the last … ” I trail off when my unoccupied hand is pulled and then my shoulder is shoved downward. “Ugh, what?”
Kayla smacks a hand over my mouth and points to a person rummaging through the dresses on the other side of the store. It’s Danielle—with a barely size-three figure.
I gasp. “How is that … ”
“What? What’s going on? Sky?” Liddy asks.
“Okay, you remember Danielle the—”
“Slutbag who got pregnant with Caleb’s baby? Yeah, what about her?”
I almost ask her if her mom is around because she would probably cry if she knew how Lidia felt about what girls like Danielle do. Although, in Danielle’s defense, she and Caleb were dating before she got knocked up, and then they broke up and she found out she was prego. Unlike Lidia’s mom, who totally seduced a married man and didn’t care if she got pregnant or not.
“Well … Kay and I just saw her walk by, and she was huge. Like six months pregnant, which I guess she would be, right? But now she’s in the prom dress store with us and looks thin as a rail. I don’t get it.”
“Oh my God! She’s got a fake belly! I saw it in that movie. You know what I’m talking about.”
Not a clue. “What?” This is too crazy. My half sister has completely fallen off her rocker or something.
Kayla looks at me funny. “What? What does she think?”
“She thinks Danielle has a fake baby belly thing. She saw it in a movie.”
“Holy shit!” Kayla snatches my phone. “How do we bust her?”
I can’t listen to this anymore. It would be great if she really wasn’t pregnant. I could stop fighting my feelings for Caleb. Things would be amazing. But if I let myself hope for this, and it turns out Danielle really is pregnant, then I’ll be crushed all over again. And I can’t handle any more disappointment.
I start to stand in order to look through the rack of dresses, but Kayla pulls me along with her to another rack. “When she goes into the dressing room I’m going into the one next to her. Guard the door.”
“Um … okay.”
Danielle slips into a stall with a couple of pink numbers, gag me. Kayla snatches a dress off the rack and slips into the dressing room beside her. Someone taps my shoulder, causing me to jump. “Jeez, Bulldog, calm down, it’s just us. You act like you’re doing something illegal in here.” Derrick laughs.
“I feel like I am.”
“Where’s Kayla?” Lance asks.
The dressing room pops open and Kayla comes out with a s
cowl. “Okay, I can’t get a good look. The chair doesn’t help me see into her room and I’m not doing the underside view in case I get a close up of her undercarriage, if you know what I mean.”
Lance gives us a weird look and says, “Wow, are you two talking about spying on some other girl changing?”
Derrick elbows him. “That’s freaking hot.”
“We’re not perverts. Oh crap, get down!” She yanks Lance with her behind a rack.
Derrick shakes his head, but I turn him around so he’s facing a rack of dresses instead of the exit where Danielle is heading with her Mother-be shopping bags in her hands. Kayla darts up and says, “Come on. We’re following her.”
“Who are we following?” the boys ask.
“Danielle,” Kayla says.
But I stop in the middle of the busy mall. “I can’t do this.”
Kayla turns and faces me. “What do you mean? Of course you can.” My phone starts to ring, and she answers it. “Hello.” She hands it over to me and sighs. “It’s for you. But we’re doing this, if not for you, for him.”
“Hello?” I ask as I grab my phone from her.
“Hey. Uncle Bri told me to tell you, you don’t have to rush home to make dinner. I got it.”
“Oh, okay. What are you making?” I ask as I keep up with Kayla, who is practically right behind Danielle.
Lance asks, “Are you two going to tell us why we’re following Danielle?”
“Did Lance just say you’re following Danielle? Is she okay? Does she look like she’s about to go into labor or something?”
“Um … I’m going to call you back.” I click end.
Derrick nudges me. “So, why are we following Danielle?”
“She was huge ten minutes ago and now … ” Oh man, I sound like a crazy person. I’m stalking a girl in order to … what? Prove she isn’t pregnant, so I can what? Get Caleb back, only to leave in June. Two weeks in Italy and then I’m off to Duke for an accelerated program.
Before we enter the parking lot I say, “Lance, make her stop.”
Rival Hearts (Rival Love #2) Page 19