The holiday weekend was great, but Monday came faster than Arielle had hoped it would. Her fingers shook as she got dressed. This would be the first day she saw Blake since he’d broken up with her. She didn’t know if she could do it, but ready or not, she had to face him.
She grabbed a banana from the kitchen, the only thing she could bare to eat with her stomach in shambles. After she finished, it was almost time for the bus to come.
She grabbed her book bag from the computer room, right by the front door. “See you guys later,” she said to her mom and dad.
Reed pushed past her. “Move it, loser.”
She shoved him back and beat him out the door before her parents could respond. “Some of us don’t have a bus to catch, but I do, so you move it. Dweeb.”
He ruffled her hair with his hands. “I know. I’m older and wiser, so you’d better start listening to me.”
She ducked out of his grasp and jumped away from him. “Go to school, where people actually like you.”
Reed hopped in his car. It was an old one Dad had gotten for him, but it ran well enough. Arielle had a feeling the gold car would end up being hers one day, which didn’t bother her. She’d have something to drive at least.
She couldn’t believe she had to ride the bus today. But she couldn’t expect Blake to pick her up anymore. Since he had been, Jess had started picking Damien up, who lived a lot farther away. Now, Jess didn’t have time to get Arielle and Damien…so she had to ride the big yellow stink mobile with all the younger kids.
As she waited for the bus, a familiar car pulled into her driveway, stopping right beside her. Blake rolled his window down. “Need a ride?”
Arielle’s mind froze, then she tapped her fist against her lips. She had no clue why he’d showed up or if she should go with him. But it beat riding the bus, so she got in, her stomach fluttering as she strapped her seatbelt on. This is a bad idea, she thought. Awful, even.
“Hey,” he said with a question in his tone.
She blew out a breath as she realized she might not be the only one who didn’t know what to say. She flicked her head upward once, not meeting his eyes. “Hi.”
Utter silence followed. No talking whatsoever. Her gaze went around his car and out the window, but not once did she look up at him. Something caught her eye as he came to a stop at the one light in town. He had a silver necklace with butterflies hanging from his rearview mirror, which swayed back and forth when he accelerated as the light turned green.
She tucked her hands under her legs to keep from balling them into fists. Her cheeks grew hot, but not with embarrassment. Anger coursed through every pore of her body. He had picked her up with some girl’s necklace hanging in his car. Sure didn’t take him long to move on.
The silence in the car made everything worse because she sat there, stewing, waiting for an explanation. He had to know she’d seen it. He couldn’t be that dumb.
It didn’t take long until she couldn’t stand it anymore, but she didn’t want to come right out and ask. She’d work her way up to it. “So how was the visit with your parents?”
Blake shrugged. “All right, I guess. Had some issues with my dad. The same old story. Did you have fun over the break?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Not as much fun as you, she thought.
“You look amazing today.” Blake glanced over and smiled.
Arielle scowled down at her old ratty jeans and a dark green shirt, which she’d stolen from her brother’s closet. She liked to steal his baggier clothes because they were more comfortable.
“Um…whatever you say.”
He smirked. “Whatever I say, huh?”
Arielle raised her eyebrows. “Are you flirting with me? Okay, forget it, because I know you are and you can’t flirt with me, Blake. You broke up with me. And no flirting was part of the deal to be friends.” She paused, her temper bringing even more heat to her cheeks. “What is wrong with you?”
Blake pulled off the road and into a gas station. After he put the car in park, he shifted in his seat, throwing his arm over the back of hers as he leaned in close, resting his other hand on his knee. “Ari, I didn’t want to break up with you. You are amazing and I love spending time with you. I explained this already. When I go home at the end of the year, how am I going to handle not being able to see you?”
“About the same as if I was your friend, kind of like now. It’s a cop-out, Blake. At least call it what it is, okay? You don’t need to pretend with me. Be who you are.” She raised her hand and pawed the butterfly necklace, holding it out between them. “What’s this? From your new girlfriend?”
His face went blank right before he hung his head. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to either.
Arielle raised her voice. “How could you?” She slapped at his chest. “How. Could. You?” she screamed at him, tears rolling down her cheeks as the realization hit her. He’d broken up with her for someone else. All his excuses, him wanting to be friends, it had all been a lie.
A friend would never treat a friend the way he’d treated her.
“Take me to school, now.” Her voice shook with the energy it took to try to keep her calm. “I don’t want any more rides from you. I don’t want to see you either. We aren’t friends, Blake. I don’t think we ever were.”
Blake slammed his fists against the steering wheel. “Ari, it isn’t what you are thinking. Yes, I have a new girlfriend, but I met up with her again when I went to South Carolina. She’s from West Virginia.”
“The old girlfriend you told me about?”
Blake nodded but wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Arielle chuckled with a hint of a growl. “Oh, classic. You broke up with me because it would be too hard to leave me, right? So you hook back up with your old long-distance girlfriend.” She yanked the butterfly necklace from the mirror and threw it at his chest. “That makes all the sense in the world, you donkey. Let’s go. I can’t stand to be in this car with you anymore.”
Thank goodness they were close to school because Arielle couldn’t take much more of Blake’s idiotic behavior. Sure, he was a guy, and her mom always told her they had problems, but she never thought she’d find one with this many issues.
Even with his problems, she liked Blake. Yes, she like-liked him, but she liked him even more as a friend and she didn’t know if she wanted to lose his friendship. Maybe, in a few days, she would calm down and be able to think about everything with a clear head.
For now, though, she needed space. And to never, ever see the stupid butterfly necklace again.
***
School flew by, but even so, by the end of the day, Arielle’s eyes were heavy and she wanted nothing more than to close them and sleep the rest of the day away. Blake waited for her at the main entrance to school, so she ducked down a side hallway before he could see her, not in the mood to deal with him and his drama. She waited at the side of the school for the buses and hopped on as soon as hers pulled up. Jess never got on, not that Arielle had expected her to, but part of her had hoped. She must have been taking Damien home which left Arielle sitting on the smelly bus, alone with her thoughts, and they weren’t pretty.
Her whole body felt like she had the flu, and in a way, she was sick. With heartache. Her heart felt like it had shattered into a million tiny pieces, fallen to the floor, and everyone around her had stomped all over them on their way to their seats.
She stayed quiet the whole ride and ran into her house and straight up to her room.
“Ari, get back down here.” Her dad’s stern voice left no room for arguments.
Arielle turned and walked down the few steps until she hit the dark blue carpet of her living room. “Yeah, Dad?”
Her dad pointed to the couch across from him. “Sit.”
She did, staring straight at her dad. She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows, a half smile forming on her face. “Am I in trouble?”
He grinned, running a hand through his longer brown hair, which h
e’d pulled back in a ponytail. “No, not in trouble. I wanted to check in with ya. See how everythin’ is goin’.”
Arielle shrugged. “It isn’t going bad, Dad, but it’s hard. Blake wanting to be friends hurts, but I’m trying the best I can.” She kept everything that had happened today from him. No need to make Dad hate him, in case they ever got back together. Which she didn’t see happening since she couldn’t even stand to look at Blake at the moment.
“I told ya before and I’ll tell ya again, there ain’t no way he just wants to be friends. I seen the way he looks at ya, Ari. That boy…”
Arielle’s cheeks grew hot. Talking to her dad about this kind of stuff wasn’t her idea of a good time, but it had always been easy to talk to her dad. “Thanks for checking on me, Dad, but I’m fine. Or, at least, I will be.”
He smiled. “I know you will, sweetheart. Ya always are. Doesn’t mean I ain’t gonna check on ya. Now, go on and get your homework done.”
Arielle nodded. “Thanks, Dad.”
He stood up and walked over to her. “Before you go off, how about givin’ your old man a hug?”
“I would never say no to that.” Arielle stood up and let her dad wrap her up in one of his famous hugs. She squeezed him right back, and when she walked back up to her room, a warmth had spread inside her chest, making her heart expand with happiness.
She’d won the best prize in the world when she’d gotten her dad.
***
That night, while she sat on the floor of her room doing homework and listening to the radio, a car door slammed outside. She leaned forward over the heat register and pulled her curtain back. She couldn’t see very well through the darkness, but it had to be Blake’s car in the driveway.
“What’s he doing here?” Arielle mumbled to herself as she ran her hands down the front of her to straighten her clothes. The front door shut and muffled voices traveled upstairs, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying so she stood up and leaned her ear closer to the door to get a better listen.
“Arielle. Blake’s here,” Dad yelled upstairs. She froze with her hand against her wall.
She didn’t want to see him yet, but she’d told herself she would try to be his friend…even though he didn’t deserve her. “Be right down!”
After she turned her radio off and stood in front of her mirror for a few seconds, she tucked her hair behind her ears and hopped down the stairs, opening the door and stepping out into the living room. She turned and there Blake stood, right in front of the door.
Mom patted her back and walked into the kitchen.
Dad smiled. “I’ll leave you two alone.” Then he looked at Blake. “But, I’ll be listenin’.”
Arielle grabbed Blake’s arm and pulled him out the front door to stand on the porch. “What are you doing here, Blake? Can’t you just leave me alone?”
Blake crossed his arms over his chest. “Ari, I don’t want to lose you.”
She snorted. “You just met me. Trust me, losing me wouldn’t be a great loss.”
He met her eyes and she could see straight to his soul. “It would be for me.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Guess you should have thought about that before you went and got a new girlfriend.” Goosebumps lined her arms, so she rubbed her palms up and down them to try to generate some heat. It was getting colder outside, which meant the house would be colder. The old farmhouse had a heating system that matched the age of the house.
Blake’s eyes shone. “I’m sorry. I will break up with her right now. She means nothing to me.”
“Yet you took her necklace and hung it in your car. Sure. I believe that.”
Blake came forward and wrapped his arms around her before she could stop him. “What can I do to make you forgive me?”
She shrugged out of his arms. “Nothing. Not right now. I need time.” She paused, running a hand through her hair. “And honestly, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to forgive you. Only time will tell.”
“I can wait.” He leaned back against the bannister by the stairs, staring at his feet like they were the most interesting thing on the planet. “But just so you know, this is hard for me too. I found someone who I want to be with more than anything and I can’t be with her because I don’t actually live here.”
Arielle glared at him, then put her hands on her hips. “You broke up with me because you were scared, Blake. At least be honest with me. Either way, that was your decision, which I accepted.”
A cat meowed, and Bandit climbed the steps, rubbing against her legs. “Hey, buddy. You hungry?” She opened the door and let him inside. “I’ve got to go take care of him. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“I can pick you up for school, if you want.”
She glared at him. “No. I don’t want. I need you to leave me alone for now.”
“Okay. I’ll be here when you want to talk.” Then he walked off the porch and got in his car, leaving her driveway, maybe her life, forever.
Putting Blake as far from the front of her mind as she could, she opened the door and stepped inside, then squatted down and rubbed Bandit’s head around his ears. “All right, big guy. Let’s get you some food.” She walked into the kitchen, poured out some dry cat food, and sat down at the kitchen table.
“Everything okay?” Mom placed the last dish in the strainer.
“Everything is fine.” Arielle dropped her head in her hands. “Peachy, even. But, if it’s okay, I’m too worn out to talk about it.”
Mom came over and hugged Arielle. “Then why don’t you head on up to bed. I will take care of Bandit.”
Arielle nodded. “Sounds good. Thanks Mom.”
Once she made it to her room and her head hit the pillow, she closed her eyes and fell right to sleep.
Chapter 11
Friends Again
The next few weeks went by slowly. Arielle tried hanging out with Jess a couple times, but she was always with Damien so she didn’t see her as much as she hoped. Also, she’d been acting weird, distant and irritable, so Arielle didn’t do much besides stay at home and work on homework.
Her last day of school before Christmas break went so fast she blinked and it was over. She went home that afternoon, dropped her book bag on the porch, and marched out to the chicken coop. After she fed them, she grabbed the basket she kept at the entrance and climbed inside.
A fine layer of snow crunched under her feet as she walked there. The cold had come, but not so bad she couldn’t stand it. As it stood, she had a light jacket on and not her thick winter coat, so winter hadn’t hit hard yet. It would come, though. It always did.
Mama sat on the eggs and stared at her with beady little eyes.
“How you doing, girl?” Arielle asked, stroking the back of her all black chicken. “Staying warm?”
Mama clucked as if in response. She stood up, flapping her wings a few times, so Arielle moved her and grabbed the eggs from under her. There were only about eight today, not many, but enough. Sometimes, Arielle felt bad eating eggs because she knew Mama could turn them into babies, but it was the way of the world. Eat or be eaten.
She put Mama back in the hay she laid in most of the time, sprinkling a bit of food before her. “I’ll tell you, things haven’t been the best for me either. My life is probably worse that it has ever been, which is funny because at the beginning of the year I thought it was bad with Karla and her teasing. Then it turned into the best time I’d ever had when I met Blake.” Arielle sighed. “Maybe I should forgive him. What do you think?”
Mama tilted her tiny head.
Arielle smiled and stroked her feathers once more. “I know. You have no idea what I’m talking about, right?” Laughing, Arielle stood and brushed off the back of her pants, carrying the basket in front of her with both arms tucked in the handle. “Maybe I am crazy for talking to chickens.”
She kicked an acorn lying on the ground and it hit the side of a tree, ricocheted back at her, and slammed into her forehead. Arie
lle winced, rubbing her head. “Things keep getting better and better.”
When she made it back to the house, she put the eggs in the fridge and walked out the front door to grab her bag. Blake halted at the bottom step of her porch, his eyes wide.
Arielle jumped, placing her hand over her heart as she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Blake climbed the first step. “I miss you, Ari. I’ve tried to give you time, but has it been long enough for us to revisit the possibility of being friends again?”
Arielle took a step back until her back hit the door. “I don’t know, Blake.”
“Can we give it a try? See what happens?” Blake asked with a certain desperation in his voice.
Arielle hadn’t been as hurt or mad the last couple weeks. The only time she spent with Jess was when she let her best friend fix her up with a couple of Damien’s friends. She’d gone on a couple of dates, but they hadn’t worked out well. The guys were morons and she couldn’t stand them. Maybe she could let Blake back into her life. At least give him a chance.
“Well?” He climbed the stairs to stand before her on the porch. He kept a little distance, though, acting like Arielle had morphed into a deer that might spook if he moved too fast.
Arielle shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t know. I guess we can see what happens.”
Blake smiled.
“You wanna come in?” she asked, her heart racing.
He nodded. “Would I ever.”
Inside, she tossed her book bag in the computer room. She wouldn’t have to touch it during winter break because none of her teachers had given her any homework, so she could spend her days being lazy, reading books, and watching TV. The downtime would do her some good. Well, maybe. It would also give her more time to think, which she could do without.
“Sit down. We could watch TV, I guess.”
Mom and Dad weren’t home. Mom could be at work still, but Arielle thought they might have went grocery shopping. Reed had practice after school for one of the sports he played. She couldn’t keep track, even if she wanted to. Any way she looked at it, nobody was in the house, leaving her utterly alone with Blake, something she hadn’t been in a long time.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 82