Over the Fence Box Set

by Aarons, Carrie

  “You should have seen her goddamn face.” She looked at me like I ripped the stars from the skies. I put that look there. I could kill myself.

  She told me to protect her heart. That she couldn’t take it if something like that happened again. And I ripped the organ from her chest and all but stomped on it. I’m a fucking dick.

  “I have to go.” All of a sudden I can’t move my feet fast enough. Keys, I need my keys. And my license. And a fucking miracle.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can’t leave now. What’re you gonna say to her, man? I am just considering your balls here.”

  That one made me stop in my tracks. “Just how often do you consider my balls?”

  “Fuck off, bro. I mean ’cause she will definitely kick them once she sees you. Plus, she’s in school right now. How are you going to talk your way in there?”

  I’m not worried about that. I had those secretaries wrapped around my finger since day one of freshman year. It’s Minka I’m worried about.

  “I’m not sure how I’ll get her to talk to me, but I have forty-five minutes to think up a plan.”

  Farris starts to put on his shoes.

  “Why’re you getting dressed?”

  “Dude, if you’re going to get your ass beat by a girl, I have to be there to see it.”

  28

  Minka

  Right as I turn the corner, I feel the air shift.

  “Yo, Axel! What’s up, man, what’re you doing here?” I hear a hulking football player from my grade shout from farther down the hallway.

  I stop in my tracks. Standing twenty feet away is Owen. Tall, lean, outfitted in his baseball uniform. His sexiness makes my knees go weak. Seriously, I have to brace the wall.

  Kelsey stops, noticing I’m not next to her, turning back to see me no longer moving.

  “Minka, what are you …” Following my line of sight, she gives a low noise of understanding. “What the hell is dickhead doing here? I’m going to go kick him in the family jewels.”

  I feel the adrenaline rush through my body the moment he locks his eyes on mine. It hits me like a tidal wave. Two weeks since I’ve seen him and he can still turn my stomach into knots and make me instantly lust for him.

  He starts to run for me, all eyes in the hallway moving back and forth between us. Three dings sound over the school speakers, signaling that there is only a minute left before the next period starts.

  “We have to go.” I turn on my heel, speed-walking back the way we just came from. My classroom is the other way, but at this point, I’d scale Everest to get away from Owen.

  Too bad he is an almost-professional athlete. And fast as shit.

  As soon as Kelsey and I hit the tile in the lunchroom, he’s grabbing my elbow.

  “Minka, wait. Please … please listen to me. Give me a minute.”

  Kelsey looks like she’s about two seconds from punching him in the nose.

  “I need to go to class. Please leave me alone.” I pull out of his grasp, going to turn again. He’s got my movements down as if he can read my mind. The minute I turn, he throws himself in front of me.

  Grabbing my hands, he hunches his body down so he can look me in the face. Since I’m avoiding eye contact at all costs, it’s the best he can do.

  “I know that you were telling the truth about Gregory. I’m an unbelievable, unmitigated ass. You must allow me to tell you just how stupid I’ve been. And how much I love you.”

  My ears are ringing. My stomach and heart have joined each other in a pile of goop at my feet. Did he just say I was right? The only people who have ever said, out loud, in the open that what I said about Gregory was true were Chloe and Kelsey. It feels like a dam of relief and pent-up frustration are breaking open in my chest.

  And is he quoting Mr. Darcy? Only Owen. Only he knows the way to melt a girl’s heart and her panties at the same time.

  And did he say he loves me? Two weeks ago I would have been jumping around in giddy middle schoolgirl circles hearing him say that. Now it brings confusion and sadness.

  And worst of all, hope.

  I break the hypnotizing stare Owen has me in to search for Kelsey. Maybe she’ll give me one of her “men suck” speeches and I’ll be able to walk away. Because right now, I don’t think I can do it on my own.

  Instead, I lift my head to see almost two hundred people at a dead stop, silently watching this go down.

  “All right people, this isn’t soap opera hour. Get your nosey asses to class. You’re all going to be late!” Kelsey’s demand sends people scuttling away, remembering they have class in less than thirty seconds. “You stay, I’ll tell Petri you’re going to be late. He won’t mind.”

  So much for her telling me to be strong.

  “I can’t be late for AP bio,” I say to no one in particular, because Kelsey is already halfway up the stairs to the science wing.

  Owen grabs my hands again, leading me over to a lunch table, pulling me down to sit. Our knees brush together and I shudder. I can’t help my body’s physical reaction to being so close to him.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so goddamn sorry, Minka. I know there is nothing that I can say or do to make up for what I’ve done. But I can’t be away from you. When Miles told me … told me what he’d done to you sophomore year … I swear I almost got in my truck to drive to where he was and kill him. I could kill him with my bare hands.” Owen chokes out the words, as if they are physically hurting him.

  “You didn’t believe me. You chose him.” My voice sounds extremely small inside my ears.

  “And for that I will never forgive myself. And I don’t expect you to either. I chose what was safe. What was familiar. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life, Minka. Choosing the path that people put me on, the one people expect me to follow. Turning a blind eye to anything in the periphery. I’m an idiot. And I’m not that person anymore. You have made me a better person. The only thing I care about is you. I’m happy, because I’m with you. Without you, I have no world.”

  I let his words soak into my brain, hearing what he’s saying but not really being able to process it. I miss him. So much that it hurts. And to have him sitting in front of me, saying these things I’ve always wanted him to say; I feel the tiny brick walls around my heart crumbling with each word.

  “I love you. I am in love with you. I know I can’t re-do the past, but please. Baby, if you … if you give me one last chance, I promise I will do everything I can to prove that my life means nothing without you in it.”

  I feel a tear drop down my cheek and when Owen reaches out to brush it away, I audibly sigh into his hand. Just his touch makes my whole world better.

  “I don’t know, Owen. You promised not to hurt me, and now …” I can’t keep up with the mixed emotions flying through my head. I want him back more than anything else in the world, but my self-preservation is waging a mean battle.

  “I know … I know. And I’m so sorry. I’ll never be able to say that enough. But just give me a shot. Let me show you what we, together, can be like. Because without you, my life means nothing. I am nothing.”

  I close my eyes, trying to calm my shaking hands. “I’ve missed you so much. Sitting here with you, I’ve dreamed about this every night for weeks. Hearing you say you love me, I’ve wanted that for so long. But you lost my trust, Owen …”

  “And I want to gain it back. I will try forever. I’ll drive up here every single day. I will bring you cheesesteaks and pickles, with white chocolate and Lost marathons for dessert. I’ll put corny hip-hop covers on YouTube dedicated to you. I’ll do anything, Minka. Just don’t give up on me. Please.”

  I smile through my tears, unable to contain it after his silly diatribe. “I’m not sure …”

  “You don’t have to be sure now. Go to class. I’ll be waiting in the parking lot after you finish, waiting to begin proving it to you. Just say you’ll meet me.”

  I weigh the options in my head. It’s safer to put those walls back up, not expose myself
to pain, or love, or all of the scary emotions that come with them. But Owen, he has shown me that stepping up to the plate is worth it. And who cares if you strike out a time or two? It only matters if you get back out there and swing at the challenges life throws you.

  “Okay. I’ll meet you.”

  Epilogue

  Owen

  One Year Later

  I lean my back against the old brick building, admiring the rays shining through the tall oaks that dot campus.

  The weather is perfect, high temps and sunshine with no humidity in the air, which is weird for a September in Virginia. Students begin to trickle into the quad, those whose teachers called class just a minute or two early.

  I hear the doors swing open just beside me and pull my Tigers hat lower down on my head. Sticking my hands in my pockets, I wait.

  Guys and girls pour out of the exit, clad in their Grover University gear, flip-flops, yoga pants, and basketball shorts. This might be a prestigious college, but we all still dress like bums for class.

  I see a long, curly ponytail swoosh a few feet in front of me, the head it belongs to turning to search for someone in the crowd.

  “Hey, freshman!” I yell.

  She turns around, an annoyed smile gracing those perfect lips. I walk straight for her and don’t waste a minute fusing my lips to hers in a kiss that is probably not decent for public observation.

  She tastes like berries and home. Minka. The best taste in the world.

  “Ew, junior boys are so creepy,” she teases, but by the breathlessness in her voice I know I’ve affected her.

  “Well, this junior boy loves you. Loves you so much.”

  “And I love you.” Minka smiles up at me, her small body enveloped in my arms.

  It still makes my heart do a funny lurch inside my chest when I hear her say that. I hadn’t heard it until about four months after I ambushed her in the lunchroom. When she finally said it to me, I thought I’d damn near have a stroke.

  Those four months hadn’t been easy, for either of us. She was snippy and distrustful at first, not unlike our initial meeting when I tried to win her over. And I was so hard on myself for how I’d hurt her, I had a dark period there for a minute. But we got through it, me driving to Mitchum any chance I got to see her and her slowly giving on the reins.

  When she got into Grover and subsequently accepted, I gave her an extra-special accepted students tour. A large portion of the tour featured my bedroom. I like to think she was more than satisfied with the benefits package.

  “So, I have a little celebration planned to commemorate your first week of classes being over …”

  “Owen, have you really been that bored today? Lucky you, no classes on Friday.”

  “Would it be weird to say I’ve been counting down the minutes until you got out of class?”

  “No, it’s actually very sweet.”

  I wrap her locks around my fingers as I direct her toward my truck in the parking lot. “Good. We’re having a small get together, Chloe is invited, of course, as another one-week freshman.”

  “Oh, great. Miles is going to kill you! Ha!”

  Miles and Chloe have been beefing ever since the fair. I don’t know why. I do know that he’s still not acting like himself almost a year later. “Whatever. He can suck it up. And another surprise …”

  I unlock the doors to my truck and out jumps Kelsey.

  “OH MY GOD! Owen … what … Kels?” Minka looks at me, her eyes wide with glee and shock.

  Kelsey is leaving for a year-long trip to Africa in two days. The girls thought they’d said their goodbyes last week before they came to school, but I had other plans.

  “What are you doing here?” Minka was yelling now, the excitement coming through in her voice.

  “I had to come to your first weekend of college parties! Come on, who do you think I am. Plus, Clint would have killed me if I didn’t show my face before I left.”

  Kelsey and Clint have become close over the last year, with Minka coming up a few times and me taking my buddies home some weekends. The way he looks at her though, I know he wanted to be way more than friends.

  Minka pushes up on her toes and gives me a sloppy, enthusiastic kiss before slinging her arm around Kelsey, talk of what they were going to wear already going on.

  I stand back and admire my girl. My beautiful, smart, brave girl. She’s faced so much and come out to beat it into submission. I am in awe of her every day.

  It seemed like my existence up until I met her only depended on the next win. The next time I could mark that W. But I don’t need that validation anymore. I won her heart and she has mine. Everything after that is just balls and strikes.

  Hitting to Win

  Over the Fence, Book Two

  Prologue

  Chloe

  One Year Ago

  The creak of the rusty Ferris wheel car is the only noise transpiring on this ride.

  Off in the distance, children are screaming, and the off-kilter hum of the merry-go-round music tinkles in the humid summer night air.

  The Freeboro Fair used to seem magical when I was younger. All the twinkling lights, soaring rides, and prizes. The smell of sickly sweet cotton candy and fried funnel cake invading your nostrils.

  Tonight though? The Freeboro Fair is a death sentence. There is absolutely no magic happening. None.

  I sit next to Miles Farriston in the rickety, too-small seat. And when I say too small, I don’t mean because the ride has been built that way. No, it’s because Miles Farriston is an actual giant.

  See, I’ve been waiting almost fifteen years to get the perfect moment alone with this six-foot-seven blond hunk. I’ve tried on multiple occasions, in high school and after he left for college, to arrange a drunk hookup at this party or that. He’s never bitten.

  When Minka gave me the inside intel that he was newly single, I knew this summer was my opportunity to pounce.

  Oh, how wrong I’ve been. Everything that drew me to Miles Farriston since the first time I saw him in elementary school—his goofy humor, the way he completely lights up a room, the smile that never seems to leave his face—is long gone.

  Replacing it is some robot, some shell of Miles’s former self. The couple of times I’ve seen him this summer, he wavered between a scowling grump and so drunk he couldn’t physically stand.

  Not that the scowling grump isn’t still the hottest man I’ve ever seen in my life. He’s an Adonis. His body is literally his freaking temple, he hones and works on every aspect of it until there is no more muscle he can add, and then he adds some more. H’s huge, there’s just no other word. He towers over me, and I am tall for a girl at five foot nine. His strong jaw sets off the rest of his chiseled face, and he always keeps his blond curls just a little too long. The dimples in his cheeks only add to everything that is just so Miles about Miles.

  But it’s those eyes that first captured my breath, and then my heart. One, the palest blue you’ve ever seen, the other was greener than a four-leaf clover in the fields of Ireland. He really does look like some mythical storybook character.

  “Chlo!” Minka’s wave from the car above us grabs my attention, and I wave back, trying to convey the “I’m going to kill you for setting me up with this jerk” look effectively.

  Instead, I see Owen swoop in and plant a very intimate kiss on her lips. She’s too in love to realize my pain.

  “So, are you excited to go back to school?” I try for one last measly attempt at conversation. Not that I hadn’t tried for it in the car, and hard. He hadn’t even nodded in my direction.

  If he didn’t answer this question, I might just jump out of this seat, no matter where it is height wise on the wheel. With no regard for my American Ballet Company-hopeful legs.

  “You should know I only came on this ‘date’ because Owen threatened to tell my college coach about my love of marijuana.” Miles uses air-quotes when he says the word date. Ouch. That one hurt, even though it shouldn’t. Even
though I know he’s not here to get to know me, romance me, and make me his girl. No matter how much I’d like that option.

  “I kind of caught on to that. That is, you not being here for me. That’s okay. But maybe now that you are here, we could get to know each other. Make the best out of this night.” I try to plaster the most brilliant smile I can on my face. I’m a generally a cheery person, and I really do try to brighten those around me.

  Miles starts to laugh. I smile, thinking that I’ve maybe broken through his newly tough exterior. I’ll look back on this moment later with shame broiling my insides.

  “Chloe, isn’t it? Yeah, whatever, I know you’ve been into me for years. Trying to sink your claws into me. Well, you should listen good now. I’m not looking for another hoity-toity, princess bitch who only wants to date me so she can post it all over social media and get her hands on my family’s money. I’m here because I was dragged here, not because I want to fuck you, or God forbid start a relationship. So save your cheery-cheery sunshine bullshit and leave me the fuck alone. Bad enough I have to sit here with you, I don’t need to talk to you too.”

  It feels as though my mouth has unhinged from my jaw. I know by the flaming heat in my cheeks that they are bright red, if not purple and spotted with shame. My throat’s closing up, the ball of emotion stuck right in the middle of it, not going down.

  You know that feeling you get right before you throw up? All the saliva collects in your mouth and your stomach crawls up into your trachea? I feel something like that before I cry. Not so much the nausea, but I just know from the tingling in my throat and the bottled emotion behind my eyes that I’m about to break down into sobs.

  That’s why, when I feel the tears filling up the wells at my corneas, I turn my head. I assume Miles is no longer interested in me, because he makes no move to comfort me or even apologize.