Never Far Away
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NEVER FAR AWAY
MARYSUE G HOBIKA
NEVER FAR AWAY COPYRIGHT 2014 by MARYSUE G HOBIKA
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. If you are reading this book and you did not purchase it or win it in a contest, this book has been pirated. Please delete and support the author by purchasing the ebook from one its distributors.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, events or circumstances, is coincidental. The characters and story lines are created by the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
The cover art was created by Regina Wamba at Mae I Design and Photography. For more information please visit her website at www.maeidesign.com
Editing services provided by J David Osborne. Contact him via www.jdavidosborne.com
Find out more about the author and upcoming books at www.onehiplitchick.com
DEDICATION
For my husband, Tom. I couldn’t write romance without having known you! I love you!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First I would like to thank my husband and family for standing by me while I pursue my dream of being a writer! I couldn’t do it without your love and support. I hope I make you proud.
Also I would like to thank my dear friend, Kelly Mooney. This book wouldn’t be what it is now without her guidance and help. It was a hot mess the day we sat down together. Thanks, Kelly. You’re the best!
I also want to thank J David Osborne for editing. It always amazes me how many typos can exist. Then again, just ask my former students and they’ll tell you I’m the queen of typos.
Every book needs a cover, and I want to thank Regina Wamba for putting my vision together beautifully. I love it!
And lastly I’d like to thank my readers because without you there’d be no reason to tell the stories that float around inside my head. Thank you!
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
PROLOGUE
Theo
I threw my backpack in the car. Stella had two minutes before I left her ass behind. I wasn’t joking. Even though she did have one fine ass. She’d have to find another way to school. I sighed. I was through with her. She might live across the street, but we were from different worlds and that was never going to change. Her actions this weekend proved it.
The passenger door opened and she slid into her usual spot. She looked calm and confident, just like always. Hell, if I weren’t so pissed off I might’ve taken the time to admire her long legs in the short black skirt she was wearing. She’d abandoned her winter leggings weeks ago and her creamy white skin was visible again. I had fantasies about running my hands over her skin and kissing every inch, or at least I did up until now. She hitched a ride to school every day, but we were nothing more than friends. And most days I wasn’t even sure you could call us that.
“I’m surprised to see you,” I said, not really knowing where to begin. Stella had never been late before. She was always waiting by my car when I came out of my house in the morning. Today was the first time I’d had to wait and I thought it was because she’d decided she didn’t want to be seen with me anymore. Things had gotten out of hand Saturday night and I could only imagine what rumors would be flying around school today. It’d be all anyone talked about.
She shrugged. “Why? I always ride with you.”
I had planned to wait for her to bring things up, but her nonchalant attitude rubbed me the wrong way. “Yeah, but you never called me yesterday,” I said. If I didn’t know any better, I almost sounded like a jealous boyfriend, which was far from the truth. Our relationship was contentious, at best. She lived to annoy the fuck out of me. I’d waited all day yesterday for my phone to ring or a text to come in from her, thanking me, but it had remained silent.
“Was I supposed to?” Her forehead creased in confusion.
“I just thought you would after everything that happened.” I started the car and the engine grinded, mimicking my frustration. It felt good to take my anger out on something, even if punishing my car was a stupid thing to do. Did I have to spell it out for her?
Stella’s crystal clear blue eyes widened. Her rock star confidence stripped. She bit her bottom lip. She had the same vulnerable look on her face that she’d worn on Saturday night when I’d found her in the girls’ bathroom at prom, hugging the toilet. Part of me wanted to reach out and hold her again, but I remained on my side of the front seat. This was serious.
Her voice was quiet and shaky, “I don’t remember anything. I tried all day yesterday to figure out what happened. It’s been freaking me out. I don’t even know how I got home. Do you?”
“Yeah. I found you in the girl’s bathroom drunk off your ass.” My blood boiled. I was pissed that she’d gotten so trashed that she'd put herself in a compromising situation. I knew she had a reputation for drinking too much and getting wasted, but Saturday night was fucking ridiculous. She could have been hurt. What if it hadn’t been me that found her? What if it had been one of the douchebags she dated? I doubted any of them would’ve been so noble. My guess was that they would’ve taken advantage of her and then left. My hands gripped the steering wheel. The front seat shrank. “I took you home and put you to bed. I lost my girlfriend because of it, and I almost lost my life when your dad woke up and came to check on you and I was still in your room. I had to hide in the closet.” I didn’t tell her how she had begged me to stay and how I had fallen asleep with her back pressed up against my chest, and how nothing in my life had ever felt so right.
“You took care of me?” Her eyes filled with tears. I hated it when chicks cried, especially Stella.
My chest tightened and I almost fell for it, but at the last second my heart hardened. Her harsh words from a few months ago came back to me. I’d been looking for an excuse to keep her in my car one day because we could hear her parents arguing all the way from my driveway. I’d already exhausted every excuse in the book when I touched my lips to hers as a last resort. I’d wanted to kiss Stella for months and the kiss had been hotter than I thought was humanly possible. It rocked me to the core and left me weak in the knees. But Stella had said she felt nothing and I believed her. There was no way she’d fall for a geek like me. She was beautiful, with her platinum blond hair that reached the middle of her back and legs that were long and silky smooth. Not to mention that she went for guys who had that bad-boy-charm and treated girls like shit and then bragged about it to all their friends. And that wasn’t me. I’d never treat Stella like shit. I’d cherish her. I sighed. I wasn’t her type and she’d ma
de that clear. I focused on that.
“I wouldn’t have had to, if you hadn’t gotten so wasted.”
She looked shocked. “I wasn’t drunk. All I had was water.”
“Trust me, you were bombed. You puked in the girls’ bathroom sink.” She looked confused. “You couldn’t even walk. I had to carry you. It’s no surprise you can’t remember—you were passed out cold. You shouldn’t drink until you black out.”
“You’re not listening,” she shouted. “I’m telling you I didn’t drink.” She grabbed my arm and stared at me. Her eyes begged me to believe her. I looked down at her small pale hand on my arm. I felt her slight touch everywhere. Knowing she didn’t feel the same way about me pissed me off.
“Whatever.” I shook off her hand and put the car in reverse. I didn’t want to argue with her.
“You’re an asshole.” A single tear slid down her cheek. It made me feel like I was the bad guy. I just didn’t understand what I had done. How was this my fault? All I did on Saturday night was try to help her.
She didn’t say a word the whole way to school. When I picked up Eli she stayed quiet, so I knew things were bad because she always talked to Eli. Sometimes I thought she liked him more than she liked me. He tried several times to engage her, but failed. He gave me accusatory looks in the rearview mirror, like Stella’s strange mood was my fault, like I had done something to fuck things up. He’d been at prom and had seen what happened. Still Stella’s silence was wearing me down. I looked over at her many times on the short drive to school, but she never looked in my direction. She simply stared out the window, shutting me out. By the time I parked I knew something was seriously wrong and I’d fucked up big time. I considered driving her back home.
“Bye, Theo.” She leapt out of the car and disappeared before I could attempt to set things right.
I sucked in a breath. Theo. She never called me Theo. Not once in my whole life. She always called me Teddy. I’d hated that nickname, or at least I thought I did because it reminded me of babies and bears. But now I realized I didn’t hate it. I loved it. Stella was the only one who called me that and to hear her call me Theo, like everyone else, cut me deeper than I ever would’ve guessed. Fuck! I’m an idiot. I watched her quickly fade into the crowd. I thought about chasing her down, but what would I say? She’d said it all with that one word.
I was so lost in my own thoughts that I’d forgotten Eli was in the car until he said, “I don’t know what the hell happened between you two after prom, but I’ve changed my mind. She’s not into you. She hates you, dude.” Eli had been telling me all year that Stella’s taunting was a direct result of the crush she had on me, but I never believed him. And apparently he didn’t believe it anymore, either.
I wanted to punch something and hard. I’d never had the desire to smash anything before, but right now it took all my strength not to send my fist through the windshield. “Obviously I fucked up.” There was nothing else to say. I slammed the car door and stalked off to class. Eli was smart enough to leave me alone. We entered the building and I felt everyone’s eyes on me. Whispered conversations were taking place and I knew they were talking about what happened.
A dude from my English class stopped me in the middle of the hall. “Was it fun banging Stella while she just laid there passed out? Or did she wake up when you stuck it in her?”
No sooner had the words left his mouth when I jumped him. “Fuck you!” I pulled my arm back and nailed him in the face. I’d wanted to hit something and he’d given me the perfect excuse. Blood spurted from his nose. I didn’t want to stop. Hitting him felt satisfying. I moved to continue my attack.
Eli grabbed me and held me tight, stopping me from throwing any more punches.
I glared at him and struggled to get out of his grip. “Let me go, Eli.”
“Stop. I think you broke his nose.”
Blood pooled on the floor, and I didn’t doubt Eli was telling the truth, but I didn’t care. I was pissed. I wanted to beat the shit out of him for talking smack about Stella. She made some bad choices sometimes, but he had no fucking right.
Mr. House, the principal, appeared. “In my office, now.” Eli let me go and I followed the principal. The kid from my class headed in the direction of the nurse’s office. I knew I was in trouble. At the very least I was going to be suspended. I’d have a big red mark on my otherwise pristine permanent record and I didn’t fucking care. I sat in the seat across from the principal’s desk, knowing that I wouldn’t do anything different next time. He’d gotten what he deserved.
A few hours later, I was sitting at the kitchen table when my dad came home. He held up a camera, “This doesn’t have anything to do with why you got suspended today, does it?”
It was Stella’s camera. I must’ve left it in his car when I drove her home from the prom. I’d borrowed his sweet ride for the dance. How my dad made the leap between Stella’s camera and my suspension, I didn’t know. I guessed my dad was smarter than I thought, or maybe I was just that transparent. My face burned.
“I got into a fight.”
“I know.” My dad got back to his point. “Isn’t this Stella’s?”
I nodded.
“It was in my car. You know, the one you drove to prom.”
Next thing I knew I was confessing. Maybe some of my mom’s psycho-analysis bullshit had rubbed off on him over the years. She had her own private psychiatry practice downtown. “I gave her a ride home after prom. I found her in the bathroom getting sick. I thought she was drunk, but now I’m not so sure. I think maybe someone slipped a roofie in her water bottle.” I remembered learning about date rape drugs like Rohypnol and Ketamine in health class last year. Their side effects matched up with what had gone down with Stella on Saturday night—difficulty speaking, problems with motor skills, nausea, memory loss and blacking out. Fuck! “I messed up today, dad. I mean really messed up, and I’m not talking about the fact that I broke that kid’s nose. I’m talking about Stella. She tried to tell me and I didn’t believe her.”
My dad nodded his head and gave me one of his all-knowing looks. My mom was the psychiatrist in the family, but something about my dad made me want to talk to him. Maybe it was because he was a guy, or maybe it was because he seemed to already know shit that I had yet to begin to understand. “What do I do?” I begged, sounding desperate.
“I’d make sure she got this back, if I were you.” He handed me Stella’s camera.
It was simple advice, but it made sense. Everywhere she went it hung around her neck. It was a part of her. She’d be relieved to get it back. Being the one to return it to her could be my ‘in.’ My dad was brilliant. If he weren’t a successful partner in a law firm, I’d recommend my mom add him to her payroll.
I thought about reaching out and giving him a hug, but we were way beyond that stage, so instead I did the next best thing. “Thanks, dad.”
He nodded. “You’re not off the hook for punching that kid. We’ll talk about it after dinner.”
“Okay.” I knew my parents weren’t the type to just let something like this go and I’d accept whatever punishment they gave me. I knew what I did was wrong, but I wouldn’t change it.
I left through the garage and stared across the street. I saw movement in Stella’s room. Before making my way to her house, I looked at the camera in my hands, stalling. What should I say? While I was busy figuring out the best way to play this out, my hands fidgeted with the camera, accidentally turning it on. At first I wasn’t paying attention to the photos on the display screen. I was too lost in thought. I scrolled through them without really seeing. Slowly my brain caught up with my eyes. There were pictures of random couples dancing and sitting at tables. But what caught my eye were all the pictures of me—she had taken a fuckload. And none of them were of Janie and I. Janie had been my girlfriend until she’d seen me cradling Stella in my arms. She’d dumped me on the spot. The pictures were of just me. Why would she take so many? It didn’t make any sense.
“You’re a dick.” Eli was my best friend, but he didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. Stella didn’t have a thing for me. She was way out of my league. I’d pushed my foot harder on the gas pedal, ready to drop his ass off. I’d heard enough.
“I’m your best friend, Theo. It’s my job to tell you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it.”
“You’re wrong about Stella and me. There’s nothing going on and there never will be.”
Eli had shaken his head. “Just promise me I can be the best man at your wedding some day.”
Maybe he had been right. These pictures seemed to indicate that. Hope surged through me. I had to apologize for my behavior this morning. I’d made a terrible mistake. Maybe she’d forgive me and I could finally tell her how I really felt. I’d fallen for her—hard.
I looked through the pictures one more time, looking to see if I could figure out where the night had gotten so far off track. Maybe there was a clue as to who spiked Stella’s drink. Unfortunately the photos didn’t help much. It wasn’t like she took a picture of the person who had drugged her. The only conclusion I came to was that the pictures she took after the coronation were sloppy. They helped to establish timeframe, but that was it. I’d found her about ten minutes after the prom king and queen were announced.
I marched across the street, determined to set things right. I rang the doorbell and waited. It took Stella four long minutes to answer the door. I paced across her front stoop the whole time, back and forth.