But if she felt it… and she turned her head… and her eyes opened… and she looked at me… and I looked at her… and I knew she wanted me to kiss her lips again…
I got out of the bed and raced to the bathroom.
I looked like a goddamn fool as I hung over the bathroom sink, throwing cold water on my face.
After drying my face, I lit a cigarette.
I opened the bathroom window and stood there, staring at myself as I smoked.
Replaying way too much in my mind.
I reached into my back pocket and took out the note again.
It was wrinkled and the folded edges were stained blue from my jeans. The crease made the paper flimsily, ready to rip apart.
The typed words were the same. Faded, a little, but still very clear with their fucking message.
I looked to the open bathroom door, where my bedroom was. Where my bed was. Where my Surfer Girl was.
I finished my cigarette and flushed the evidence down the toilet.
I then walked to the sink and splashed more cold water on my face.
When I walked back to the bed, Nova hadn’t moved an inch.
“Goodnight, babe,” I whispered.
“Don’t stop,” Nova whispered.
“Stop what?”
“Playing with my hair,” she said. “It feels good. I miss it. I miss you, Elijah.”
I climbed back into the bed and slipped my fingers into her hair.
Between the two of us we smelled like booze and cigarette smoke.
And the subtle hint of the ocean and the beach.
And whatever was left of my cologne and the smell of our clothes.
Combined together it was the smell of our summers together.
So powerful that when it hit me at once I felt those cracks in my heart pulling, wanting to open more.
Nova was asleep again in seconds.
And I stayed just like that.
Minutes ticking away, growing into one hour… then a second…
Until I finally snuck out of the bed for good.
I couldn’t bring myself to sleep next to her.
I couldn’t wake up next to her.
To see her sober eyes and still drunk heart.
To have her feel pain and regret.
To hear her wish me gone for good again.
So I made myself a bed on the floor.
A few blankets and a pillow.
And I stared at the ceiling in complete silence.
The only sound I heard was Nova peacefully sleeping.
I just wished she was in my arms.
Chapter 15
Nova
I knew where I was.
It wasn’t one of those panic situations where you’d wake up and not know what was happening or why or when or where you were.
I knew exactly where I was.
In Elijah’s bed.
I vaguely remembered him carrying me.
Helping me off the beach.
Into his car.
Driving me to his house.
Carrying me through the house.
Putting me into his bed.
Playing with my hair.
The only thing that did surprise me was he wasn’t next to me in the bed.
I slowly lifted the covers to look at myself.
I had this feeling that I was going to be naked, or mostly naked. Which honestly wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world. Not like it wasn’t something that happened before with Elijah.
But I was fully clothed.
I was even wearing my white shoes that I had worn to the beach.
That meant Elijah’s bed was going to be covered in sand.
I rolled to the other side of the bed and gasped when I saw him on the floor.
He made himself his own bed there.
I propped myself up on my left elbow and stared at him.
A smile crept across my face.
Fuck, he’s so hot…
There was no fighting that truth.
The tattoos on his arms. The way his entire jaw looked rugged, cut from jagged stone, that bad boy look and feel to him that happened with ease. Even asleep… with his head to the side a little, he looked ready to fight someone. But there was a little peace to him when he slept too.
Whatever.
I had to give him credit though for sleeping on the floor.
I didn’t know what the message was by doing that but it was… something.
I gently sat up in the bed and forced my hands through my knotted hair.
To my shock, there was no headache.
I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
I mean, sure, not having a hangover was good.
But was it because my body was so used to this by now?
I had never been like this before. So eager to grab a bottle and make it so I could forget things. And it obviously was putting me into some shitty situations. Situations that Elijah bailed me out of. He was right that something could have happened at that party. I could have woken up in a strange house or woken up in a strange bed with a strange guy next to me. And then last night… the same thing. Wanting to use Conor one last time.
All to chase away everything.
I lowered my hands to my face as everything came back to me.
I felt my body starting to shake.
The rush of anger and fear.
Fear.
I hated fear.
I leaned to the left and looked down at Elijah again.
If I was going to be scared and shaking, he could hold me. He could play with my hair. He could tell me it was going to be okay.
I bit my lip and slowly reached for him.
My fingertips grazed the steel like of his chin and I opened my mouth to whisper his name.
That’s when the bedroom door opened and there was a scream.
* * *
I screamed because someone else screamed.
Elijah popped up and grabbed for the bed.
I never saw someone get up so fast in my life.
And in that split second of movement, he managed to find my hand and was holding tight.
He stood next to the bed while I was still under the covers.
A woman stood inside his bedroom door, her chocolate brown eyes bigger than any eyes I had ever seen in my life.
“A girl, in your room?” she barked.
“Shit, Annie,” Elijah said. “What the…”
“Who are you?” Annie asked me, pointing a finger, wagging it.
She looked like a cliché librarian or something.
I hugged the sheets as though I were naked under them.
“Novalee,” Elijah said. “My friend. She wasn’t feeling good last night.”
“In your bed?” Annie asked.
“I slept on the goddamn floor,” Elijah growled. “And you realize that I’m a fucking adult, right?”
“Nothing happened,” I said. “It was my fault. I asked him to stay.”
“Don’t explain yourself to her,” Elijah said. “She’s paid to be up my ass.”
“Don’t you talk like that to me,” Annie said. “You might think you’re an adult but this is not your home.”
“Fucking right it’s not my home,” Elijah said.
“Elijah,” I said, pulling at his hand.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Let’s get out of here, babe. I’m sorry I brought you here. I forgot their favorite son is dead. I’m just the nephew, right?”
I started to shake again. “I’m so sorry.”
A figure entered the doorway.
It was Elijah’s father.
Alexander.
Tall, dressed nice, a scowl on his face.
He just nodded.
“Take it easy over there,” Elijah said. “She needed a place to sleep it off.”
I threw the covers off my body. “Look. I’m…”
My face turned red.
“This is no good,” Annie said. “No good.”
“N
othing to worry about,” Elijah said. “We were just leaving.”
His father didn’t say a word.
Even as I got to my feet and felt like my legs were going to give out. Even as Elijah squeezed my hand tighter and walked to the bedroom door.
Annie stepped out of the way. Her finger still pointing at me.
She was shocked. Horrified.
Her lips moving but she wasn’t speaking.
As I passed her by, she blessed herself.
“What…”
“She does that shit,” Elijah whispered to me. “I guess I’m the devil. Even though I didn’t ask to be born. Right, Dad?”
I gasped as he looked right at Alexander when he asked that.
Alexander had stepped back into the hallway, his hands at his sides.
I looked at him, my chin quivering.
“I’m sorry,” I said to him. “About everything.”
He didn’t respond.
Elijah pulled at my hand.
I opened my mouth again, desperate to say something that would fix this situation and make me not look so… whorish.
But what did it matter?
“See you around,” I called out.
Which probably made everything worse. Or sound worse. Or whatever…
I hurried to catch up to Elijah.
Going shoulder to shoulder with him as we ran down the hallway of the house.
He looked at me and smiled. “See you around?”
“Shut up,” I said. “I didn’t know what to say. This is fucking crazy.”
“No shit, babe,” he said.
He took me to a set of steps that weren’t the main ones. We hurried down the steps and ran to a door.
Elijah put his hand to the door and everything came to a sudden halt.
“What are you doing?” I asked him. “We have to get out of here. Right now.”
Elijah stroked my chin. He leaned in and gently kissed me. “Good morning, babe.”
My lips fluttered. I smiled. “Good… morning…”
He opened the door and we got the hell out of there.
Hand in hand.
Running away.
Laughing.
Together.
* * *
“Where to now, babe?” Elijah asked as he sat behind the wheel of his car.
I was on my second cup of coffee, my feet up on the seat, chewing on my bottom lip as though I hadn’t eaten in days and was desperate for food.
That wasn’t the case at all though.
Elijah got me coffee. Got me food. Got me more coffee.
It was like living in repeat of what had gone down before.
Except this time I didn’t want to break apart.
Even though we had to.
I had to get to class.
He had to get to class.
“I need to get home,” I said. “Get fresh clothes and get to HCH.”
“You got it,” he said.
I reached for his hand before he could start the car.
I looked at him.
My mouth started to move but nothing came out.
I probably looked like Annie.
The morning rushed through my head.
Waking up in his bed. Finding him on the floor. Knowing what had happened the night before. Then the madness of getting caught and running through the house that wasn’t his - or mine.
“I feel stupid for saying thank you again,” I said.
“Then don’t say it. Or just don’t feel stupid about it.”
“But I do feel stupid about it. Because this isn’t me, Elijah. I don’t do that to myself. Get like that. Go to parties. Lose myself like that.”
“Babe…”
“And don’t get all bragging on me either,” I warned. “Because it’s not just you.”
Elijah grinned and leaned toward me. He touched my cheek. “I know it’s not just me.”
“Fuck,” I whispered. “I hate you for that.”
“I know you do.”
Elijah moved his thumb to my lips.
I swallowed hard and shut my eyes as I kissed his thumb.
When I opened my eyes, he had his hands on the wheel and started to drive.
I scrambled to put on my seatbelt because, you know, it was the responsible thing to do.
As opposed to getting drunk at a party with nobody you know? Or getting drunk on the beach? Or watching your mother…
“Don’t worry about this morning either,” Elijah said, perfectly breaking up my thoughts.
Always knowing what to do and when to do it even when he didn’t know what he was doing.
Say that ten times fast.
“It was interesting,” I said. “Not my style of waking up.”
“Ah, come on, babe,” Elijah said. “I’m sure you’ve had mornings like that before.”
“Like what?”
“You never woke up in a bed you didn’t know? With a guy you didn’t know? Or hurried to get out of some place?”
I rubbed my forehead. “Do I have slut written on my forehead?”
“No. But you have the sexiest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. And a body that could make someone in a wheelchair stand up and run after you. And a-”
“That was sort of offensive,” I cut in.
“I don’t care. It’s the truth. Look at you, babe. You ooze the Surfer Girl name. And it’s maddening to be around.”
I saw the way he gripped the steering wheel tighter, his knuckles turning a white shade.
It made me grin a little.
I touched my hair, knowing it was messy from last night and from sleeping.
Yet Elijah thought I was pretty.
It didn’t add up.
Then again, not much with him did.
He was his own person. His own kind of guy.
Maybe his own species too.
“I’m sorry for implying that you’re a slut,” he said. “I didn’t mean it like that. Just… you know… there’s a lot of time in between summers.”
I laughed. “So this is your way of saying you’re the slut.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not an idiot, Elijah. You’re poking at me hoping I confess I fooled around with a bunch of guys to make your list seem smaller.”
“My list?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. I started to draw in the air. “You know, your I-got-laid-list.”
“Oh, that one,” he said, snapping his fingers. “I thought you were talking about the she-went-down-and-I-asked-her-to-leave-after-I-was-done-list.”
I groaned. “Loser.”
“I’m the loser?” he asked, now laughing.
“Yeah, you are. Total loser.”
“Wait a second… who’s the one who needed me? Twice now? You thought a fucking bathtub was your bed the first night. Oh, and then the next night… you’re crying on the beach over some geek you were using to get me jealous.”
I gasped. “Seriously?”
“Dead serious,” he said. “Want me to keep going?”
“Yeah,” I said. I turned in my seat. I took off the seatbelt. Fuck safety. I wasn’t safe near Elijah anyway, right? “You’re one to talk, asshole. You just show up, pretending like you care about your brother? No way. I don’t believe that for a second. Oh, and then you think you’re just going to strut your ass down to the beach and win me over? Oh… and how could I forget. You’re banging the earbuds freak. What’s that like? She’s jamming to her favorite song while you’re fucking her? That must be fun for you. Do you pull out her earbuds after you… pull out…?”
Elijah just grinned.
I hated him even more for that.
He had me enraged when he pulled into the driveway of my house.
He stopped the car way before the house.
When he looked at me, he bit his bottom lip. Which was my move. And why did he have to look so sexy doing it?
“I usually can’t stand jealous girls, but you make it cute, babe,” he said.
I scoffed. “Je
alous? Of you? And Noelle?” I laughed out loud. “Never.”
I moved to my knees and put my right hand to the dashboard and my left hand to the middle console.
I leaned toward Elijah. “You’re nothing to get jealous over, bro.”
Elijah put his pointer finger under my chin. “Yes I am, babe.”
“You’re just trying to get in the middle of everyone’s business. To stir shit up. Because you have nobody. No friends. No family. Nothing. And without Ryland around you don’t have an in here anymore. Unless, of course, you really do miss your brother.”
“Who knows what’s going on inside my heart,” he said without missing a beat. “It’s a scary place.”
I slowly shook my head. “You…”
I had nothing else.
So I turned and plopped down in my seat.
I shut my mouth and jumped out of his car when he pulled up to the house.
“You can leave,” I told him.
“I’ll miss you, babe.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
“I’ll see you after class.”
I almost had the door shut but opened it. “What?”
“I’ll be waiting for you,” he said.
“No. Don’t do that.”
“See you then, Novalee…”
He drove and I had to shut the door.
I gritted my teeth and hurried up the steps.
I froze when I saw the door.
I pictured my father standing there. And Dr. Harold walking out the door with a big smile on his face. Paid to pretend like nothing was wrong.
I turned my head and saw Elijah’s car stopped. Waiting.
He wasn’t gone yet.
That was the only way I felt comfortable going into my own house.
When I opened the door, my mother was walking toward me.
Wearing a baggy sundress. And a gigantic straw looking hat. With white ribbon that tied under her chin. And a pair of black sunglasses that were just as big as the hat.
Her way of covering everything up.
Except her lip, of course.
She tried her best though. Wearing a god awful maroon shade of lipstick. Not to mention the amount of skin tone coverup on her cheek. She looked papery. Fake. Hidden.
Which was so fucking fitting for this town…
“Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” she asked.
“Came home to get changed,” I said. “I have a few minutes to spare.”
HIDDEN CREEK AGAIN: a hidden creek high novel Page 16
