by Amanda Abram
Stepping back, I folded my arms tightly across my chest. “Why are you suddenly getting all protective? Did Elijah ask you to watch out for me or something? Did he ask you to keep me away from other guys?”
“What? No, he didn’t. That’s not—”
“Look, Dylan, I appreciate your advice, but I’m going to that party with Lauren tomorrow, and I’m going to meet the guy Tiana wants to set me up with. End of discussion.”
Dylan’s mouth formed a thin line as he crossed his own arms over his chest to mimic my stance. We engaged in an intense staring contest for what felt like a good thirty seconds before he threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine. Do whatever you want. See if I care.”
And with that, he walked off without even saying goodbye.
“What’s gotten Dylan’s panties all in a bunch this morning?” Lauren asked behind me. Apparently, she had witnessed our little disagreement from afar.
“Who knows?”
I would have loved nothing more than to answer her with an insulting barb toward Dylan, but I didn’t. Between what was going on between his parents and having to play guardian angel to his best friend’s ex, he was dealing with a lot right now—which most likely was to blame for his sudden foul mood. I wasn’t going to take it personally.
But I wasn’t going to take his friendly advice, either.
“By the way,” I said, spinning around to face Lauren, “you can tell Tiana I’m in for tomorrow.”
Lauren’s eyes lit up as she leaned in and threw her arms around me in a breath-stifling embrace. “We’re going to have so much fun!” she squealed. “You don’t have to work today, right? Let’s go to the mall after school and find something sexy to wear tomorrow!”
She didn’t wait for me to protest before taking off and skipping down the hallway.
I guess I was going to the mall after school whether I wanted to or not.
◆◆◆
“Cassie, that sweater looks hot on you.”
I glanced at myself in the full-length mirror and turned sideways. Lauren wasn’t lying. The black off-the-shoulder sweater, which contrasted nicely with my pale skin, somehow managed to look simultaneously innocent and sexy—although when paired with the liberally-ripped pale blue skinny jeans I’d tried on at the same time, it was leaning more toward the latter. It was a perfect winter party ensemble, unlike the one Lauren had picked out, which included a short, tight skirt.
“Thanks,” I said. “Your outfit is hot too, but ironically, you’re going to freeze your butt off in it.”
She stood next to me and glanced up and down at herself. “Only when I’m outside. It’ll be hot inside. At least, if I have anything to say about it.” She gave my reflection a wink before turning on her heel and exiting my dressing room stall to go back to her own.
“Oh, by the way,” she said through the wall, “Tiana showed me a picture of the two guys she wants to set us up with, and let’s just say, you will not be disappointed.”
“Great,” I mumbled. I closed the dressing room door and pulled the sweater off over my head. For some reason, that news did nothing to excite me about tomorrow.
Once I was finished getting dressed, I grabbed the sweater and jeans and opened the dressing room door to see Lauren standing there waiting for me.
“Are you going to buy both of those?” she asked.
I glanced down at them and bit my bottom lip. “Maybe.” I paused. “You know, I spoke to Dylan earlier about the party, and he thinks we shouldn’t go. He said bad things happen at those parties, and that all the guys who go to that school are dicks.”
“Why does he suddenly care what parties you go to?”
“I don’t know.”
“And since when do you care what Dylan thinks?” She narrowed her eyes into a skeptical stare. “Do you have a crush on him, or something?”
“What?” I scoffed. “No, I don’t. Why would you even say that?”
Lauren’s eyes widened as she let out a snicker. “Whoa, calm down. I was just joking. Although, after that reaction, now I’m actually wondering.”
With a huff and a glare, I stormed out of the dressing room area and headed for the register. I could hear her laughing as she followed me.
“Seriously, though,” she said after we paid for our stuff and left the store, “don’t let Dylan talk you out of going. He’s just jealous that he’s not invited.”
“Maybe,” I muttered, even though I seriously doubted that was the reason for his warning. He had seemed genuinely concerned—and genuinely upset with me for ignoring his warning and choosing to still go. For the rest of the afternoon, he had ignored me. Even during Life Economics, he said nothing to me either before or after class and refused to even once look over in my direction.
“Besides,” she continued, “I think he’s taking his role as your pretend husband a little too seriously. He shouldn’t be worried about you going to a party.”
When we arrived at Lauren’s car, she popped open the trunk and we placed our bags inside. As we climbed into the front seat, I said, “I don’t think it’s his role as my pretend husband that’s to blame for this. I think Elijah has appointed him to be my bodyguard or something.”
Lauren seemed to consider that for a moment. “You might be onto something. The word around school is that Elijah is still head over heels for you. There’s no way he wants you to start dating other guys, but he also knows he’s in no position to ask you not to. Dylan, on the other hand, can try to persuade you against it without you throwing the whole cheating thing in his face.”
I sighed and let my head fall back against the headrest. “I wish I’d never gone to the party that night.”
She gave me a sympathetic smile as she started the car. “But isn’t it better that you know exactly what happened? Elijah might never have told you that he kissed Hannah. You two would still be together, but you’d unknowingly be with a lying cheat.”
“Sometimes ignorance is bliss,” I muttered, staring out the window beside me.
“Tell you what,” she said after a brief pause. “Let’s go to that party tomorrow and meet the guy Tiana wants to set you up with. Go into this with an open mind. If by the end of the evening you’re not interested in him, and you find yourself wishing he was Elijah instead, then maybe you need to seriously consider just talking to Elijah. Maybe even Hannah too. Get this all figured out, so you can move on by either getting back together with him or by embracing the single life for a while.”
It was good advice, and I was going to take it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I glanced curiously at Dylan’s empty desk in Life Economics the next afternoon and frowned.
“Hey,” I said, leaning over to Lauren. “Where’s Dylan?”
Her eyes darted toward his desk. “I think I heard someone say he stayed home sick today.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t seen him in school all day, but I just figured maybe he was avoiding me. “Do you know what he’s sick with?”
She snickered. “Sorry, not yet. I’m still waiting to hear back from his doctor.”
Making a face at her, I slouched back in my chair. I was hoping to see him today. I wanted to make sure everything was okay between us. He’d seemed so annoyed with me yesterday and we hadn’t spoken since he warned me against going to the party tonight.
I contemplated sneaking out my phone and sending him a quick text, to ask if he was okay, but I decided against it as Mrs. Andrews stood from her desk and started taking roll call.
I would just text him later.
At the end of class, Lauren and I had just made it out of the room when a voice called out to me from behind us.
“Hey, Cassie.”
I stopped and closed my eyes briefly. The voice belonged to Elijah. Taking a deep breath and reopening my eyes, I turned around to look at him. “Hi, Elijah.” I forced a smile onto my face. “What’s up?”
He returned the smile, but his seemed way more sincere than mine. “I was wondering, um,
do you need a ride after school today?”
I shook my head and motioned to Lauren. “No, thanks, I’m going with Lauren.”
“Oh,” he said, his smile slowly morphing into a straight, disappointed line. “I was hoping maybe we could talk.”
“Talk? About what?”
Elijah cleared his throat. “Uh, well, I just, you know, I was hoping maybe…”
Lauren chewed on her bottom lip as her eyes darted between me and Elijah. “Actually, Cassie, I forgot to tell you I can’t give you a ride today.” I could tell from the tone of her voice and the look on her face that she was lying.
“Why not?”
“Because something suddenly came up and now, I can’t give you a ride.”
“What suddenly came up?” I asked, arching a suspicious eyebrow at her.
She had no intention of even attempting to make something up. Instead, she subtly motioned her head toward Elijah and mouthed, just go with him.
Narrowing my eyes into a glare, I sighed. “Okay, fine.” I turned to Elijah. “I guess you can give me a ride, then.”
His face lit up and his smile reappeared. “Great. Meet me at my car. It’s parked in the usual spot.”
I gave him an unenthusiastic thumbs-up before he took off down the hallway. As soon as he was out of sight, I lightly punched Lauren in the arm.
“Ow!” she cried, punching me back. “What was that for?”
“Why did you say you couldn’t give me a ride?”
“I’m sorry, but you’ve barely spoken with the guy since everything went down. I think you need to.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Laur. He kissed another girl while he was still with me.”
“I know. I just think it would be good for you to have a heart-to-heart with him.”
“Why are you so intent on me having a heart-to-heart with him when you’re trying to set me up with another guy?”
“Because I know you’re hesitant about going to the party tonight,” she replied. “Maybe if you talk things out with Elijah, you’ll feel better about meeting this other guy and moving on. You need closure.”
I did need closure. I needed to let Elijah know there was no chance we were ever getting back together—no matter how hard he tried to “fix” what he had done. But I had been putting off having that conversation with him for a reason: because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go through with it.
Were we really over for good?
◆◆◆
When the last bell rang at the end of the day, I slowly made my way out to the parking lot, where Elijah was already waiting for me at his car. When he saw me approaching, he grinned and waved.
“I wasn’t sure if you were actually going to show,” he said as I stopped in front of him.
“Well, I need a ride, so, here I am.” I kicked at a chunk of hard brown snow that was frozen solid to the ground. I could already tell this was going to be awkward.
Rushing around to the other side of the car, Elijah opened the passenger door and motioned for me to get in.
“Thanks,” I said, climbing inside. After I was buckled, he closed the door and then jogged around to the other side and got into the driver’s seat.
Nothing inside the car had changed since the last time I was in it. There were still empty fast food cups and wrappers strewn about the back seat; the new-car-scented air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror still smelled as strongly as the day he’d unwrapped it; and my seat was still adjusted the way I liked it, as if nobody else had ridden in it since we broke up.
“Work or home?” he asked, turning the ignition.
“Home,” I replied. “I’m meeting Lauren somewhere after work tonight, so my parents are letting me borrow their car. I just need to go pick it up.”
“Ah. Cool.” He paused, glancing at me with a small smile. “You know, I’ve missed looking over and seeing you there.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing as he started the car and backed out of the parking space.
We rode in silence for a couple of minutes while I tried to think of topics to discuss that wouldn’t somehow lead to talking about the kiss. Finally, when we were halfway to my house, it came to me.
“What’s wrong with Dylan?”
Elijah blinked in confusion. “Huh?”
“Dylan. He wasn’t in school today. Lauren said he was sick?”
“Oh, yeah. I texted him earlier. He said he wasn’t feeling well, so he stayed home.”
“Hmm.” I stared out the window with a frown. “I hope he’s okay.”
“I’m sure he’s fine.”
And that was the end of that conversation.
For the next couple of minutes, we rode in complete and awkward silence, until a song I liked came on the radio and I reached over to turn up the volume.
Elijah smiled. “Oh, yeah. I forgot you liked this song.”
I smiled back. “How could you forget? I only sang it to you all day, every day for a whole week that time it got stuck in my head.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “That’s right. And then it got stuck in my head, and I was so mad because I hate this song.”
I made a face at him. “How can you hate this song? It’s catchy.”
“It sounds like every other song on the radio.”
“Hey, you have no room to talk. Those heavy metal songs you love so much all sound the same, too.”
“Uh, no they don’t.”
“Uh, yes they do,” I said, giggling.
Elijah glanced over at me then and my giggle abruptly stopped. This wasn’t good. It was far too easy to fall back into our normal routine of bantering, flirting, and giving each other longing looks like the one he was sending my way right now.
“Cassie,” Elijah said, his voice low and soft, “I miss you.”
I held my breath for a moment before slowly letting it out. Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say—
“I miss you too, Elijah.”
His eyes widened. “You do?”
“I do,” I admitted against my better judgement. Truth was, I did miss him. As much as I didn’t want to.
He let out what sounded like a relieved chuckle as he turned onto my street. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that.”
That was exactly why I had tried not to tell him I missed him. I knew he would read too much into it, like my admission was somehow a declaration that I wanted to get back together with him.
“Elijah, I—”
“Wait. Before you continue, I just want to say something.” He slowed to a stop in front of my house and put the car in park. Shifting in his seat, he turned to me. “Cassie, I screwed up, and I know because of that, I don’t deserve you. But I love you and I miss you, and I want a chance to make this up to you. I want to show you how much you mean to me—how much you’ve always meant to me—and to prove to you that you’re the only girl I want.”
“Elijah—”
“I’m not asking that you take me back,” he continued. “At least, not right away. All I’m asking is that you think about it. And in the end, if you decide you just want to remain friends, I’ll be fine with that. And if you decide you never want to speak to me again, I’ll accept it and I’ll stop bothering you.” He took my hand, sandwiching it between his. “But we’re meant to be together. We both know that.”
Just a week ago, I did know that. Problem was, he didn’t know that. It took getting caught kissing another girl for him to figure it out.
“Elijah,” I said, “I’m not going to lie. I do still have some feelings for you, but it’s going to take some time for me to be able to trust you again. I’m not sure how much time, but if you’re willing to stick it out and take things slow—”
“I am.”
“And by slow, I mean we remain just friends for right now—”
“Absolutely.”
“Then maybe I’m willing to consider giving you another chance,” I finished.
Elijah’
s whole face lit up. Dropping my hand, he leaned over the center console and wrapped his arms around my back, pulling me into a tight embrace.
“Thank you,” he whispered into my ear. “You will not regret this, I promise.”
I said nothing as I weakly returned the hug. I wasn’t as happy about this as he was; in some ways, I still wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of getting back together with him. But that’s why I wanted to take things slowly and just be his friend for now: it bought me some time to figure everything out.
“I should go,” I said softly, removing myself from his arms.
“Okay.” He returned to his side of the car and beamed over at me.
I opened my door and slid out. Poking my head back into the car, I said, “Thanks for the ride.”
He smiled. “Anytime.”
Returning his smile, I shut the door and backed up as he pulled away from the curb. It wasn’t until his car had disappeared out of sight completely that my smile faded.
I had just told Elijah I would consider giving him a second chance. And I had no idea why.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Fifteen minutes before the end of my shift, I decided to send Dylan a text.
How are you feeling?
Five minutes went by and I got no response. Ten minutes later, same thing. It was almost nine o’clock, so it was possible that if he was sick, he might have already gone to bed and not heard his phone. But I had a nagging feeling that he was just avoiding me.
Maybe it was just my pretend-wife instincts kicking in, but if he was in fact sick, I felt almost obligated to go check on him. It was the least I could do.
“Hey, Jade,” I said, removing my apron. “Could you make me some of that miracle tea of yours?”
Jade’s “miracle tea” was a special blend of different kinds of tea and top-secret ingredients that she made for people when they were sick. According to her, it could break fevers, soothe upset stomachs, clear nasal passages, suppress coughs, and put you to sleep.
