by Mary Martel
I wanted to gag. She was so fake it was disgusting. Honey. Puh-lease.
“I’ll be out in a minute. Why don’t you go wait in the car.”
Mr. Cole had his back to her as he so easily dismissed my mother, the same way she’d so easily dismissed me, which is why he missed her look. And it had been a good one, too. Anger and outrage mixed together, when showed on my mother’s face, did not make for a pretty picture.
She wordlessly picked up her luggage and stormed out of the kitchen and through the door leading to the garage. She was probably pissed she had to carry her own bags.
I fought the urge to giggle hysterically.
Mr. Cole was quickly becoming my most favorite person in the known universe.
His back was turned to me while he poured coffee into a travel mug. He turned around as he screwed the lid on top of the mug. When he had the lid secured he came right at me. When he stood before me he leaned in and kissed me softly on the cheek.
“Call me if you need me and stay safe.”
Then he was gone.
And I wanted to cry. Again.
He cared so much when my own mother, my own flesh and blood, couldn’t care less.
I made a rough sound in the back of my throat as tears finally slid down my cheeks. Leaving him was going to hurt like a mother.
I stood there in the kitchen, unmoving while silent tears streamed down my face. Not because I was sad or upset. Oh no. It was the opposite. I cried because I finally had an adult in my life who gave a shit about me.
How sad was that?
I really hoped Mr. Cole’s brother didn’t die.
I opened my palm and unfolded the neat, crisp bills he’d placed there. He’d given me seven one hundred dollar bills. It made me curious to know how much money he’d put in the bank account he opened up for me. I’d never had so much money at one time before and all I wanted was to give it back to him.
Chapter Thirteen
I was alone. Completely and utterly alone. In a ginormous house I hadn’t even explored half of. I spent the majority of my time alone so I shouldn’t have minded it now. But I did.
I sat up in my bed with my back against the headboard, my knees to my chest, my arms wrapped tightly around my knees and I jumped at every tiny noise I heard. Something creaked deep in the house and I let out a small scream. I knew I was being ridiculous. I had activated the alarm as soon as Mr. Cole had pulled his white SUV out of the garage. There was no one in the house with me, that’s what being alone in the house meant. I knew this, all of it. But, still, I jumped at every small noise. Admittedly, the girly scream was embarrassing. The only upside to being alone was there being no one around to hear it.
I crawled out of bed and picked up my phone from where it sat on the window seat. There was an outlet in the wall right beside the window seat that made it the perfect place to charge my phone. I carried it back over to the bed with me and crawled under the covers, this time not placing my back against the headboard but laying down on my side instead.
I didn’t want to be alone.
Like, really, really, didn’t want to be alone. I thought about texting Tyson to see if he was awake but hesitated. It was after one in the morning and those boys were weird. Yeah, we were becoming friends, but still, they were weird. I wasn’t certain sure it was a good idea to invite one of them over in the middle of the night when I was all by myself in the house.
I held my phone close to my face and opened up my messages. There were several unread ones from Tyson.
Tyson: If it’s okay with you, I’d like to catch a ride to school with you tomorrow. My Uncle needs my car until he can pick his up from his friend’s house. I hope that’s okay. If not, I will ride in with the twins. Sweet dreams, sweetheart.
Tyson: Good morning.
Tyson: Come over. I ordered you pizza.
Tyson: Are you okay?
Holy crap. Now that I had more than my mother to text I really needed to pay attention and actually start looking at my phone. Tyson had been texting me and he probably thought I was an A-hole because I never responded to half of his messages.
Not caring about the time, I sent him off a quick text.
Ariel: Sorry. I hadn’t looked at my phone since I went to sleep last night. Thanks for asking if I’m alright. I’m going to be just fine.
He texted back not a minute after I hit send. I worried I had woke him up.
Tyson: What are you doing up?
I grinned at my phone.
Ariel: What are YOU doing up?
Tyson: I asked first.
He had and I felt compelled to be honest with him. Though, I didn’t know why.
Ariel: Mr. Cole’s brother got into a car accident and is in the hospital. It isn’t looking good. He and my mother left about half an hour ago for the airport.
Ariel: This house is big. And noisy.
I waited a minute and when there was no response I placed the phone down on the pillow on the empty side of the bed.
I closed my eyes and snuggled into my pillow. Maybe he’d fallen asleep. I couldn’t blame him if he did.
All around me the house made weird noises. I pulled the comforter all the way up to my chin. Why had I not noticed these noises before tonight? I’d grown used to the quiet that comes with living outside of town. When it was only my mother and me and her endless string of men we’d lived in a large city. It was never quiet and the noise of the city never bothered me. Three and a half months of living at Mr. Cole’s and I’d been spoiled.
My cell phone vibrated. I eagerly picked it up.
Tyson: I’ll be there in a minute. Meet me at the front door.
I stared down at the illuminated screen, unable to comprehend what I’d read. He’d meet me at the front door… To Mr. Cole’s house? It was after one in the morning. Why in the world would he be coming over here? I should never have texted him.
I must have stared at nothing for too long because the next thing I knew the doorbell was going off.
I jerked to life and tossed the covers off of me. I left the phone on my bed and made my way towards the front door.
I stood in front of the door with my palms pressed flat against it and my eyes wide open and looking out the peep hole. My right arm slid out to the side as I searched for the porch light. I found it and flicked the light switch up, turning it on.
Tyson stood before me, only a door between us and an empty house surrounding me. His long hair was pulled back into a pony tail at the back of his head. He had on grey pajama pants and a black V-neck t-shirt. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his feet were bare. And he was at my door. At one in the morning.
Dare I open the door and let him in?
I couldn’t not let him in. I unlocked the door and opened it. Immediately the alarm on the wall started beeping at me. Without greeting him, I rushed to the wall and punched in the code to make the beeping stop. The door clicked shut behind me.
“Will you lock it please?” I asked over my shoulder, not wanting to move away from the alarm. The thing freaked me out a little. It was on a timer and if you didn’t get the code punched in a very small amount of time the security company called and the police came. I heard the lock click and I re-armed the alarm.
Slowly, I turned around and faced him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked quietly.
“You sounded like you could use the company.” He shrugged as he slid his hands in to the front pockets of his pajama pants.
“It’s late,” I told him like he didn’t already know.
“Technically, it’s early.” He smiled with teeth, blinding me.
“Whatever,” I muttered around my own smile. Mr. Cole had not said anything about having boys over late at night, just no parties.
“Do you have Netflix?” He asked.
I nodded. “On my computer. I think the tv’s down here probably have all that stuff on them, but I’ve never used one of them before.”
“Alright,” he pulle
d a hand free of his pocket and waved towards the stairs. “Lead the way.”
Lead the way, he says. Upstairs. Where my computer is. In my bedroom. Suddenly this didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. My stomach knotted painfully and my fingers twitched at my side as I fought the urge to run my hand across the back of my neck in a nervous habit.
I skirted around him and headed up the stairs. He followed closely behind me.
The house was dark and my bedroom was no different.
My laptop sat closed on the window seat. Tyson spotted it and headed right towards it. He sat down on the window seat and scooted over so he was beside the window. He sat forward and stuffed a bunch of my bright, girly pillows behind his back. His long legs stretched out in front of him and were crossed at the ankles. He looked entirely at ease in my bedroom.
He looked up and spotted me hovering in the doorway, uncertain. His face softened as the right corner of his mouth twitched up. He patted the seat beside him, inviting me to come and sit beside him. I licked my dry lips nervously, still hovering in the doorway. I thought about slowly backing away and running off to hide somewhere in the bowels of the house where he wouldn’t find me but stopped myself from taking the first step backwards when somewhere downstairs something creaked loudly.
Thankfully I didn’t let out any embarrassing noises, but I did practically sprint across my room to the window seat. He eyed me curiously as he sat my laptop down on his lap and lifted the top. While he was opening up Netflix on my computer I got up and raced back to the door. I shut it and locked it before heading to my bed. I dragged my pretty comforter off and hauled it over to the window seat. I plopped down next to him and dragged the blanket over me. I caught him watching me intently so I lifted up the blanket in a silent question, asking him if he wanted me to cover him up too. He took the corner of the blanket with one hand while lifting my laptop off his lap with the other. He pulled the blanket over him, covering up his lap and his legs. When he had the blanket situated how he wanted it he sat the laptop back on his lap and leaned back against his massive pile of girly pillows. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and curled up on my side, facing him.
He was messing around on my laptop, not looking at me, when he asked, “Why’d you lock your door when we’re the only one’s here?”
“Habit,” I mumbled. A habit born out of necessity. I hoped he left it alone at that because I really didn’t feel like answering his nosy questions at the moment.
Surprisingly, he let it go. “Do you like Friday Night Lights?”
I had no idea what he was talking about. “What?”
“The tv show, Friday Night Lights. Have you ever watched it before?”
“No.”
“It’s one of my favorite tv shows. I’ll start it from the beginning for you.”
“Okay,” I mumbled. I didn’t really care what we watched so long as I didn’t have to be here all by myself.
Tyson hit play and sank back onto the pillows. Without thinking, I snuggled into his side, laying my head on his ribs. His body went stiff and I realized what I’d done.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered in horror as my face heated. I hardly knew him. What was the matter with me? I moved to pull away from him when the palm of his hand landed gently on the back of my head.
“Stay where you are, Ariel,” He whispered as his fingers threaded through my hair, tangling in the blonde locks. “Lay your head back down on me and put your arm around my stomach. Then either watch the show or try to get some sleep.”
I did as I was told, laying my head back on his ribs and slipping my arm around his hard stomach. My legs brushed up against his. He kept his fingers tangled in my hair and his hand at the back of my head. My entire body was engulfed in his strange heat and I found myself relaxing against his side.
He played with my hair as episode one of Friday Night Lights played then bled into episode two. No words were spoken between us, he simply offered the comfort he knew I needed and I greedily took it.
He was right, it was really good. As his fingers shifted gently through my hair, I fell in love with his favorite tv show and hoped we could watch all of it together.
Episode three had just started when my eyes slid shut and my breathing evened out. For the second time in as many days, I fell asleep next to Tyson. I really needed to stop doing this to him.
Chapter Fourteen
Cool, soft lips brushed against my forehead in a light kiss. “Ariel, wake up,” a deep, rough with sleep voice rumbled at me.
I ignored it and snuggled closer into the immense heat I was wrapped around.
He groaned deep and loud in the back of his throat. The noise rolled through me, making me shiver and, unfortunately, reality set it. My front was flush with his side, my breasts pressed up tight to him. My leg was thrown over his, my crotch against his thigh. The arm that had been loosely wrapped around his stomach when I’d fallen asleep had moved without my brain giving it the okay to do so. My hand had found its way under his t-shirt and was resting low on his stomach, directly above his pajama pants and on top of his happy trail. His hand was no longer tangled in my hair but wrapped around the back of my neck instead.
My phone started vibrating and beeping from across the room where I’d left it on my bed.
“What time is it?” I mumbled while rubbing my forehead into Tyson’s side.
“Six thirty. Your phone’s been going off for about ten minutes now. It woke me up.”
Who would be calling me at six thirty in the morning? I didn’t know anyone and the only people who even had my phone number were Tyson, my psycho mother and Mr. Cole. Mr. Cole… Damn. I’d forgotten about his brother.
“Shit,” I muttered as I threw the blanket off of me and struggled to untangle myself from Tyson. He grunted when I accidently elbowed him in the stomach. “Sorry. Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he grumbled as he rubbed his stomach with is palm. His shirt had slid up, exposing hard abs and a dark trail of hair. If I wasn’t so worried about Mr. Cole I probably would have stood there stupidly while I stared at his deliciously hard stomach and that dark, dark line of hair. I turned my back on him and headed towards the bed before he caught me blatantly staring at his body.
I sat down on the edge of my unmade bed and picked up my cell phone. Shit. I had three missed calls, one voicemail and a text from my mother and one from Mr. Cole. I opened Mr. Cole’s first.
Mr. Cole: Your half an hour starts now.
That was ten minutes ago.
Shit. This having a parental figure who cared could quite possibly drive me crazy.
I opened my mother’s text. I shouldn’t have bothered and should have deleted it without having read it.
Mom: You better be behaving yourself. Your actions reflect on me and you had better remember it.
See? I shouldn’t have bothered.
I called Mr. Cole back. He answered on the second ring.
“Did I wake you up?”
Even though I knew he couldn’t see me, I shook my head. Noooo, you didn’t wake me up. The sexy neighbor who spent the night woke me up. Oh, and did I mention my body had been clinging to him with my girl bits pressed right up against him? I didn’t share this with him because I figured Mr. Cole wouldn’t appreciate the honesty.
“Uh,” I cleared my throat and my thoughts. “Yes.”
“Sorry, sweetheart. We just landed and I’m headed straight to the hospital while your mother checks into the hotel. I wanted to touch base with you before I left because my phone will be off while I’m with my brother and his family. The next chance I would have to call you’d be in class.”
I did not mind him calling and waking me up in the least bit. I told him as much. “Don’t worry about waking me up. You can call whenever you need to.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.” He murmured softly. “The car just pulled up at the hospital so I’ll have to let you go now. Send me a text when you get out of school and I’ll update you on Kurt’s condition.
Have a good day.”
He hung up without waiting for my response.
I could so fall in love with Mr. Cole. Not in a weird way, but in a ‘will you please be my dad for forever?’ kind of way.
“Everything okay?” Tyson asked.
I jumped at the sound of his voice. I’d forgotten he was still here.
“Yeah.”
“You want to get some fast food for breakfast before school? And some coffee?”
My stomach rumbled at the thought of food. I was beginning to think my stomach was turning into a bottomless pit.
A little voice in the back of my head tried to tell me to be careful, that I was getting too close, too fast. It told me to remember hearing their crazy talk when they didn’t know I was listening about magic and claiming me. Part of me wondered if it had been real at all. Maybe I had dreamed that part and only thought it was real because it felt real.
“How much time do you need to get ready?” Tyson asked.
“I need to take a shower this morning because I never got around to it last night. So… Twenty to twenty-five minutes.”
“Okay.” He sat the laptop on the empty side of the window seat and climbed out from under the blanket. He stood up and stretched his arms up over his head. His t-shirt rode up and I looked down at my hands in my lap.
He dropped his arms and walked up to the bed. “I’m driving today,” he told me in his still rough with sleep voice.
“Alright,” I quickly agreed. My eyes were still locked on my hands which is why I missed his head descending towards me. Soft lips hit my cheek and I jerked back in shock.
If he was offended by my jerking away from him he didn’t show it. He smirked at me and headed towards the door.
Tyson had kissed me.
I pressed my fingers to my cheek where his warm lips had caressed me. I wanted him to do it again. Then I wanted him to kiss me on the lips. And maybe put his tongue in my mouth.
Insistent beeping drifted up the stairs towards me. The alarm. Crap. I jumped off the bed and flew out of my room. I really did need to get a handle on the whole alarm thing before the cops showed up and I gave Mr. Cole a heart attack.
