by Nicky Shanks
“Let me drive you guys home.” His soothing voice meets me. “Please, Julie. You gotta believe me…I would never hurt you.”
Lucy jogs up next to us and stays silent as Casey pleads for my forgiveness.
“Please, Julie, you know I would never hurt you intentionally. Are you okay? Can I see your eye?” He bows down a little and the car moves because Oliver has seen Casey talking to me. I shoot him a look through the back window for him to stay put and let me handle this. My fingers cover my forehead and I cringe in pain. “Let me drive you home, Julie.”
“Casey—” Lucy starts to say, but he ignores her, so she closes her mouth.
I feel bad for her. I wish Casey would just focus his energy on chasing her instead of chasing me. I don’t even want this—I don’t want Casey, and how he hovers over me is starting to really piss me off. It makes me think of Brandon and his predatory stance whenever he wanted to remind me I was his property.
The paper in my pocket feels heavy.
A piece of paper is always dictating my damn life.
“Casey, move out of my way.” The chill in my voice isn’t from the cold air nipping at my skin; it’s from the level of annoyance that he’s pushing against me. “I don’t want to even look at you right now.”
“Julie, please—”
I lift my eyes to his and make sure he sees the disgust in my eyes. “Move out of my way. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to be near you.”
He sucks in air through his teeth. “You can’t mean that. We’re friends—”
“I can’t be friends with you anymore. Oliver is waiting for me.”
Lucy storms off with her arms crossed, but he doesn’t care. “Oliver isn’t a good guy—he doesn’t deserve someone like you,” he whispers. “You have to know that…he’s hiding things from you and I would never do that…”
A loud slapping noise echoes in the air as my hand collides with his face. Oliver has gotten out of the car and stops in his tracks when he sees what I’ve done. Casey holds his face and tears form in the corners of his eyes. He’s shocked and heartbroken.
“When is everyone going to understand that I’m with Oliver? I’m not free to be preyed upon by everyone who thinks I do something magical for them.” I snap. “I’m not a fucking unicorn!” My voice rises and Lucy stops running away to see how it’s going to play out.
My breath is so hot that I can see it in the air in front me. “I don’t ever want to see you again. Oliver and I are better off without you.”
The defeat on his face makes me a little uneasy. “Oliver started this. He swung on me first.”
I look at Oliver, whose mouth is wide open in shock. I move my body around Casey and he lets me pass—he doesn’t dare reach out to try and touch me. “You two make me so exhausted, you act like children. Oliver has his faults, but yours are far worse. You tried to take advantage of the situation when he was incapacitated, and that’s not fair to him. Or me.”
I open the driver’s side door and get into the car. Oliver follows me on the other side and I start the engine, waiting for Casey to move out of the way so I can back up and burn rubber out of here. So much craziness happens around me that it’s hard not to get sucked into it sometimes. It’s hard to calm down as Casey finally moves and I back the car up, his eyes bursting with sadness at the sight of me walking—or driving—away.
“Julie.” Oliver’s voice cuts through my anger. “Stop the car.”
I shake my head. “No, we’re going home.”
His warm hand sits on my thigh and everything washes away. “Baby, stop the car.”
I pull off the road into an empty parking lot and put the car in park. He takes my hand into his and holds it tightly. My body is still buzzing a little from the horrible instance we drove away from. “Casey is harmless.” His voice is low enough to penetrate my thoughts without startling me. “We fight like that sometimes. There’s no need to worry.”
“He was on top of you, punching your lights out.” I turn and look up at him. “You guys were outside for less than five minutes…when does this end? Why can’t we have one freaking day without someone getting into a brawl or causing some sort of drama?”
He clears his throat. “I’m sorry, Julie. I’ll try to be better. Just don’t leave me, okay?”
A loud laugh escapes and it grows so fast that the car shakes. “Leave you? Oliver, in case you haven’t noticed…there’s literally nothing you can say or do to make me leave you again. I love you. I just wish things weren’t so…abrasive sometimes.”
“That’s my fault. It’s my temper…”
I put the car back into drive and leave the parking lot a lot calmer this time. “No, it’s everyone. No one can just be there for each other—we have to scratch and claw and hate ourselves so much that we bring it on ourselves.”
Oliver laughs. “That’s pretty deep.”
“Shut up.” I snicker and poke his arm with my finger. “At least I never have to worry about you hurting me. You and your rules are probably the only thing that’s consistent in my life right now.”
His face looks sick but he changes the subject. “Maybe we can just move far, far away where no one else exists and be alone.”
“You would miss civilization.”
His longer, shaggier dark hair twirls around his head. “Not really. As long as I have you…what else do I need?”
A smile spreads across my lips before I can help it. “You’d miss chocolate chip pancakes too.” He chuckles and I pull into the garage of his apartment. “And you’d miss your friends. I don’t know what the hell Casey is thinking, acting like that. Has he done this before?”
Oliver violently shakes his head. “No, I didn’t know he even slept with Heather until he told me a few weeks ago. He never openly tried to take her from me like he’s done with you. Although…”
My eyebrows rise and I know what he’s going to say.
“…I don’t blame him.”
I snort. “Well, I do.”
“Julie…” His deep breath shakes me. “You have to understand what you do to people to be able to understand why they chase you. You radiate so much goodness that it’s hard to resist wanting to even be near you sometimes.”
I cross my arms. “Well, I don’t mean to.”
“I know that. It’s just something that comes natural to you. You’re an angel to a lot of people. You just don’t realize.”
I slam my hands on the steering wheel. “I don’t want to be! I can hardly handle myself, let alone be that for other people!”
We don’t speak for the rest of the ride home; even in the elevator, the air between us is so stale that it rips my lungs when I breathe.
I thought Casey was my friend.
Now, I’ve lost him because he can’t figure out his own emotions.
Oliver has known him longer, but he doesn’t seem to care that he’s lost him, like this sort of thing happens all the time and they’ll be back to being best friends.
Not me.
I don’t ever want to see Casey again.
Oliver shuts the door of the apartment behind us and his rough hand grabs my arm, pulling me around to face him. “Let me see your eye.” He smiles and touches the tender part below my eye. I wince in pain and he smacks his lips, trying not to show me his anger. “Casey is lucky I didn’t kill him for hurting you…You’re gonna have a black eye, baby.” He lightly grazes the skin again and clicks his tongue. His lips find the side of my cheek and he gently kisses me, in fear that he’ll hurt me.
I wrap my arms around his neck and sob into his chest. “Life is bullshit,” I mumble against his warm skin, listening to his heartbeat grow faster with each second I cling to him. “At least I have you…I’m lucky to still have you.”
“Hey, now…” He pulls my arms down and holds them at my sides. “I’m not going anywhere, you hear me? What else can happen to me?”
“Don’t say that out loud. You never know what’ll happen when you don’t foll
ow the rules.” His lips turn into a smile. “Even though your rules aren’t good for anything.”
He playfully acts offended. “They mean something! How dare you say that.”
I feel my eyelashes touch my cheeks as I lock my eyes on the floor. “You broke your first rule and it worked out for both of us. You broke your second rule and almost died. What do you think is going to happen if we keep trying to follow your rules, Oliver?”
The paper from Brandon’s house burns a hole in my pocket.
I want to show Oliver what it is, but I don’t want him to get homicidal for the second time today.
“Let’s just calm down and think about something else.” He holds my hand lightly. “We have a long time to think about all this other bad shit. But, I can tell you want to ask one more question. So, ask away, but then we’re done with it for a long time.”
“Okay…” I suck in air. “What were you and Casey fighting about?”
His tongue glides across his perfect teeth. “He was talking about my mother.”
“Really? Like a ‘yo mama’ joke?”
The sick look on his face returns. “No, he said that we share a mother. Like, my mother is also his mother.”
Holy crap.
“Is that true?” I squeak. “Wouldn’t you have known before now?”
He caresses my cheek and kisses my forehead, walking around me to enter the living room so he can sit down and rest his legs. I follow him and make sure my thighs are touching his as I sit next to him. “Probably not. My mother wasn’t exactly faithful to my father. It’s weird, though…I knew Casey was adopted but no one ever told me we share a mother.”
Well people don’t always tell their loved ones the truth if it’ll hurt them.
I swallow, and it hurts because my throat is dangerously dry. I carefully snake my leg around his and he smiles, like sunlight has finally broken through a long, cloudy day. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love him. Even before I met him, I could feel him in my bones.
I felt him before I laid eyes on him.
Something would call to my heart when Brandon tormented me—something that told me that deep down, I knew that something better was waiting for me.
And that something better is Oliver Jackson.
All of Oliver Jackson.
His wide smile when I capture his bright eyes with mine.
The invisible, warm safety net he casts over my body when he’s near.
The lies on the tip of his tongue as his mouth opens and closes tightly.
He has secrets.
We all have secrets.
Looks like we’re finally obeying one of his rules: Rule number three.
We’re keeping our secrets safe.
Or…at least I intend to.
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About the Author
I live in Kansas City with my husband and our son, Ryker. I have been writing for over a decade, I started out writing songs and music and then realized that those stories were too short for the tales I wanted to tell, so I switched to writing books and articles, which then blossomed into writing contemporary romance and fantasy novels. I am in indecisive person at heart, I love coffee more than a Gilmore girl and my most favorite time to write and create is during a rainstorm (with coffee!).
I love hearing from those who read my stories, I love to hear how much people relate to each character and how they are rooting for their favorites to succeed! I don’t only create stories, I create entirely new worlds and people that come to life!
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