“Hey Parker, good to see you again,” Beck said as they shook hands. I laughed a little at the forced politeness he was showing, but at least he was trying.
“You too man,” Parker replied. He looked over to Ellison, and I realized that they hadn’t been introduced yet.
“Oh! Parker this is Ellison, she’s a friend of Beck’s. Ellison this is Parker,” I introduced them.
Parker gave her a killer smirk, and I looked over to Ellison to see if it had any effect on her.
I laughed hard when I saw her face; she was not impressed with him. That fact wasn’t lost on Parker, who looked a little disappointed.
I think she was probably the first girl to not fall for his smirks. Any hard feelings that I may have had towards her disappeared at her dismissal of Parker.
“Dinner is almost ready. Parker, are you able to stay and eat?” Beck asked.
“Wow, Westin you’re looking pretty domesticated now. Should we start calling you Martha?” Parker teased.
We all started laughing, Beck included.
“Whatever man, are you eating with us or not?” He asked again.
Parker looked at Ellison while he answered. “I’m definitely staying.”
Dinner went great. The conversation flowed naturally, and it felt good to have it go so smoothly.
Parker left right after dinner, he needed to get back to MSU for a concert that he was supposed to set up for the next night, and apparently it would take most of the day to do it.
Since Liza was still out of town, I offered for Ellison to stay with me instead of going to a hotel for the night. I wanted to get to know her better, and show her that I was serious about my feelings towards Beck.
Beck drove us back to my dorm room. He carried Ellison’s bags up for her, and said goodbye at the door.
Chapter Eleven
Asher
End of Junior Year
IT HAS been a year since Delilah and I broke up.
Part of me wanted to go to her, and tell her everything… but then there’s this part of me that would hold back.
Truth was, I’m scared of what’s going to happen if anyone else found out about this.
Goodbye freedom, goodbye college, and goodbye future. Knowing my parent’s I’ll be watched like a hawk. I understood why they would, but am I really ready to put myself in that situation?
In a little over a year from now Beck, Cal and I were supposed to be heading off to college together.
I don’t know what to do. I can always try to stop on my own; I mean how hard can it be to get over this?
I needed to get out of the house, so I walked over to Cal’s house. When I reached the front door, I knocked a few times.
The door opened, and Mrs. Jensen was there.
“Hey Asher, looking for Calla?” She asked me.
“Yes ma’am, I wanted to see if she wanted to get a bite with me,” I informed her.
“I’m sorry; Beck came and picked her up a little while ago. I’ll tell her you stopped by though.”
“Thanks,” I told her as I walked down the steps.
My relationship with Cal has been strained, she asked me several times if I’d stopped, and I refused to lie to her.
She wanted me to tell my parents, but I wasn't ready to face their disappointment.
I missed Delilah so much, so I decided to drive to her house.
The thirty minute drive went by quickly, I didn’t know if it was because I was scared of her reaction or if it was because I was happy to finally see her after all this time. I pulled up and parked across the street from her house.
She was outside with her little sister washing her car. They looked to be in the middle of a water fight, and the smile on her face was so big that I suddenly felt guilty for thinking that I could put her in the middle of my life again. It was such a mess, and she didn’t deserve to be in the middle of it.
I quickly pulled back onto the street and drove off before she spotted me.
I decided to go home. When I got there, I headed straight to my room and reached under the mattress and pulled the pill bottle out, and popped three in my mouth.
I wanted to forget the whole night, forget about happy people, forget about Delilah’s smile, and forget about college. Tomorrow…I could stop tomorrow.
***
Calla
Now
NOW THAT we were finally over break one, the countdown to Christmas break had begun.
“What are you thinking about getting your mom for Christmas?” I asked Beck one night while I was at his apartment studying. This happened most nights since i had officially become a couple.
“Haven't given it much thought yet, probably get her a gift card or something,” he answered with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Are you kidding? A gift card? You might as well just hand her a wad of cash along with a card that says ‘I was too lazy to spend any time looking for an actual gift, so here’s some money... go buy your own’.”
He threw his head back and gave me a huge laugh. “She knows I don’t shop, she expects a gift card,” he answered back.
I closed my textbook, and jumped up.
“Get up, we’re going shopping. You're getting your mom a real gift this year and before it's ‘a last minute thought’.”
He rolled his eyes, but complied by standing up and grabbing his shoes.
“Fine, but I expect dinner too,” he said. “And you’re buying.”
“Whatever, dinner is on me for taking you to get your mom a gift,” I said sarcastically.
We hopped into his truck and headed for the mall.
Everything I picked up, he turned down. His reasons were either it was too sparkly, too boring or too expensive. I laughed when he claimed the diamond heart necklace was too sparkly.
At the last department store we went to, he finally picked out some perfume for her. We had a few minutes to wait for the store to gift wrap it, so we started walking around. I was carefully watching Beck to see if anything caught his attention, I was having a hard time figuring out what to get him. Hence the need to start shopping early. Anytime I asked him what he wanted he would reply “a gift card,” go figure.
He stopped at a rack with some baseball shirts and hats. He picked up a Braves cap and I immediately thought of Ash.
Sensing where my thoughts were, Beck wrapped his arm around me.
“Ash would love this huh?” He asked me.
“He would. Remember when he left his hat on top of the truck and we drove off with it still up there?” I asked him.
“Of course, he made us go back and look for it on the side of the highway. Took us over an hour to find it.” Beck answered with a sad smile.
“I wonder what happened to that hat,” I thought aloud.
A huge grin spread across Becks face.
“What did you do?” I asked him.
“I threw it in a trash can at school one day, while he was out practicing some pitches.”
“No you didn’t!” I started laughing hard, so hard that some of the people in the store were now looking over to see what was going on.
“Oh I did, you saw how nasty that thing was,” he said as he walked towards the doors.
“Hey pick me up at the doors, I just need to buy something real quick,” I told him.
“Okay,” he answered, and walked out the front doors. I watched him for a few seconds; he stopped and put some change into one of those Salvation Army cans, and gave the guy a wave as he passed him by.
When he was out of sight, I picked up the hat and walked over to the cash register. I wanted Ash to have it; he never did get another hat like it after that other one ‘mysteriously’ disappeared.
Finals week was here, it was brutal. It seemed like all of my professor’s decided that we didn’t really need much time to study and threw a bunch of final projects on us. I didn’t see Beck much that week, I barely left the room.
Liza occasionally brought me food from the cafeteria. If it hadn't been for her, I prob
ably would've starved to death. But I was glad to have the first semester of my freshman year of college over and done with.
The Wednesday before break, I headed into church, and the sweet lady came up to me again. Although this time, she didn’t just give me a hug.
She squeezed me tight, “You look happy tonight,” she told me. “I’m Eva.”
“Calla, it’s nice to finally meet you,” I teased her. “And I’m getting there, thanks for all my hugs, they helped.”
“You just always looked so sad, sitting there by yourself. I noticed when that handsome fellow started coming, you seemed to be lighter, and then today your face is just happy. I was worried about you,” she said sincerely.
She let go of me, and grabbed my hand giving it a small squeeze. “I have a favor to ask you… this Friday night our church is supposed to be helping wrap presents at the mall. All the money will go to the local food bank. And all the people that I had lined up to work the booth have cancelled. One said her hands were too arthritic, another said that they were coughing up a lung, oh and Doris complained that he sciatic nerve was acting up, which—”
“So you’re wondering if I could help?” I asked her, interrupting a little… I had no interest in Doris’ sciatic nerve.
“Oh would you?” She asked me with a hopeful smile. Her blue eyes were begging me to agree.
“Yes, Beck and I will help.”
“Perfect! Thank you so much, dear. Be at the shopping center at five, Friday night, okay?”
“You got it,” I told her.
I finished with my last class on Friday, and felt pretty confident that I had done well on that final.
Beck and I went to dinner beforehand at the diner we went to on Thanksgiving. It was sort of becoming our place. Well, except for this past week, because of all the finals we both had.
Flo had also sort of become like a surrogate mom to us, she was always sending us home with food, claiming that they would just have to throw it all away if we didn’t take it.
“What are we going to do with all that food?” Beck asked me as we walked outside to the shopping center.
“I don’t know, I think she went a little overboard this time,” I answered.
As we walked, he grabbed my hand and laced his fingers with mine. It was becoming natural for us to hold hands when we were together.
“Okay, so did Eva tell you where they’d be set up?” Beck asked as we walked into the mall.
“No, she just said that we’ll be able to find it easily,” I replied.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Beck said. We walked past a few more stores, and finally saw what Eva had been talking about.
There were several large Christmas trees, all with bright neon colored garland strung around them. The lights on the tree were all synchronized with the loud music that was playing. As scary as that seemed, nothing compared to what everyone was wearing.
I spotted Eva right away, she had on a bright green elf costume, and it had everything. Little yellow pointy shoes, red tights, green dress, and she even had the elf ears.
“She’s not expecting us to wear something like that is she?” Beck asked.
“I have no idea, but I have a feeling we’re not going to like it,” I answered as I looked at Eva, who had now spotted us and was heading our way. She had two garment bags in each hand, and a huge smile across her face.
“Is it too late to leave?” Beck questioned, and took a step back from where he was standing.
“I’m not leaving, and you’re not abandoning me right now either,” I informed him. “Come on let’s get this over with.”
“You owe me big time for this… like big. I’m not even sure if it’s even possible for you to repay me, but you just wait. I’ll think of something.”
I grabbed his hand tighter, and pulled him over to Eva.
“Oh good, I was worried you kids wouldn’t show up. I have your costumes here,” she said as she handed us our bags. “Oh, I’m so excited, Beck, they actually had a costume like that one in that Elf movie.”
I looked over towards Beck, and laughed at his expression. He look horrified, as he pulled out a pair of yellow tights.
“Um-Miss Eva, you don’t really expect me to wear the tights do you? I’m pretty sure that the jacket will fit over my jeans. Right? The tights must be for Cal, right?” Beck asked her.
“Oh, no dear… the tights go with your costume.” She pointed to them, “tag goes in the back.” And with that statement, she walked back to the gift-wrapping table.
“Epically big favor, Cal,” Beck said as he headed towards the bathroom.
I walked into the woman’s room, and unzipped my garment bag. I cracked up when I saw what my costume looked like. With Beck’s outfit as Buddy the Elf’s… mine would have to be his girlfriends. I mean it would only make sense. Right?
As soon as I got the costume on, I walked out of the bathroom. Beck was waiting for me. He was leaning against the wall, and had a huge smile on his face.
“I really can’t stay…” he started to sing, but I interrupted him.
“Not one word, Buddy,” I informed him. “Do not finish that line.”
“Baby it’s cold outside,” he sang, and started to run off.
I chased after him, but he was a lot faster. He stopped when he got to the gift-wrapping area, and gave Eva one of his smirks.
I quietly walked over to him, and stood next to him. When Eva finished explaining what our jobs were, she turned around and I took the opportunity to punch his arm.
“Ah Cal, don’t be a Cotton-headed-ninny-muggins,” He told me before walking off to wherever his area was.
The night was busy, and we wrapped so many gifts that I couldn’t even keep track of them if I wanted to.
When I got back to the dorm, I took a quick shower and finished packing up for the trip home for Christmas break.
With all the excitement and time I had been spending with Beck, I hadn't had a lot of time to focus on Ash. But tonight with thoughts of going home I started missing him. I had been doing so well, but now… It had been awhile since I tried to reach him so I picked up the phone and dialed… of course as usual his voicemail picked up.
“Hey Asher, I’m heading home tomorrow, actually riding with Beck. We’re going to stop at all those diners you guys mapped out. I wish you were riding back with us. I miss you.”
Beck and I had made plans to ride home together for winter break and make up for what we had missed on our drive to college.
We left Saturday morning, and planned on stopping to stay somewhere that night. Beck had everything all planned, I didn’t ask what we were doing, I was just happy to be with him.
So I really didn’t have room to complain when Saturday night, he pulled into a campground and parked the truck in an empty space.
“Beck?” I asked him looking around the site.
“Yes?” He answered.
“What are we doing here?” I asked as I looked around at nothing but dirt and trees. There was a picnic table and a fire pit in the corner of our spot.
“We are going to sleep here,” he said with a huge grin across his face.
“Well, I realize that. But I hate camping. You, of all people, should know this. What are we going to sleep in?” I asked him.
He jumped out of the truck, and walked to the back of his truck. He pulled out two bags and then walked over to my side.
“In this. I borrowed them from Finn. They’re backpacking tents, so there’s only room for one person in each. But thankfully his brother had one too,” he said with an evil grin on his face.
“You want me to sleep by myself out here?” I have been camping before, and I really didn’t mind getting a little dirty. But my idea of camping is a travel trailer with a bathroom and an actual bed.
“Don’t be such a girl, I’ll be right next to you,” he said as he started pulling the poles out and setting up the tent. “We’re lucky Finn lives in town, he had this stuff stored in his par
ent’s garage. Now come over here and grab this pole.”
After we got the tents set up, we roasted some hotdogs on the fire, and made some s'mores.
“Mmm... there’s nothing better than s’mores,” I said as I took a huge gooey bite.
“I don’t know, the chocolate is never melted. Now if we could figure out how to get the chocolate bar to melt then we’d be talking,” he replied.
A few minutes later, Beck had both our roasting sticks, and had a s’more sandwiched in between them. He held it over the fire, trying to get the chocolate to melt. After a few attempts, and a half dozen burnt graham crackers, he finally made the perfect s’more.
After all the marshmallows were gone, which mostly ended up in the fire after Beck had burnt them; we laid a blanket in the back of his truck and stretched out.
“Did you see that shooting star?” I asked him pointing to the spot in the sky where the bright star just streaked across.
“I did. This may cause me to lose my man-card, but I used to wish on them. My mom started it, and it was just something I always did out of habit almost.”
I looked over at him, as he studied the sky more. “What would you wish for?”
“Oh you know, when I was younger it was stuff like to be the best baseball player in the world,” he answered me.
“And when you were older?”
“You.” he answered turning his gaze on me. I reached over and took his hand, never once taking my eyes off of him.
After a few minutes, he sat up and released my hand.
“Okay, now I can sleep tonight,” he said.
“Well I’m glad one of us will,” I replied.
“Come on Cal, I’ll be right next to you. It’ll be like we’re in the same tent,” he said.
“Except that we won’t. What if a bear comes and eats me?” I asked.
“I’d hear him before he made it to our campsite, they’re not exactly quiet.”
“Yogi was quiet. How else would he have stolen all those picnic baskets?” I asked him.
“Yogi also wears a hat and tie,” he replied laughing. “Plus, we’re not too far from civilization; I doubt they’d be over this way.”
What's Left of Us (The Us Series Book 1) Page 13
