“You do?” I frowned. How could she hate her teacher after only one day? And what was there to hate about someone who taught a group of eight-year-olds? It was my idea of hell but to each their own and all that.
“Yeah. Henry pulled my hair at lunch, so I told him I was going to call the cops.” She threw her hands up in the air, the bowl of chips wavering precariously on her lap as she blinked at me. “Miss Ferry said I couldn’t call the cops, so I told her my dad is in the PDA, and so are my uncles, and they’d arrest her for telling me what to do.”
“DEA,” I corrected, trying my utmost hardest to keep a straight face, but it was so hard with her serious expression. Thank god she didn’t have access to a cell because I had no doubt she’d call them from her school to come and rescue her, and what was even scarier was that they’d probably do it.
“What?”
“Dad’s in the DEA, not PDA. PDA means something—”
“Whatever,” she cut me off and waved her arms in the air, obviously having had enough of me correcting her. “She sent me to the principal”—her eyes widened in horror—“and now I have to miss recess tomorrow.” She groaned and pushed herself lower on the sofa. “School sucks.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad, PB. Your teacher—”
“Ugh! You don’t understand—”
The doorbell rang out, and I was literally saved by the bell. PB’s face was becoming redder and redder the more she talked about her day at school, and I was hoping whoever this was would make her forget about it, or at least stop her from taking it out on me because I didn’t “understand.”
“I’ll get it!” Belle shouted, throwing her bowl of chips off her lap and showering me with them. She made a mad dash for the door and was pulling it open before I even got the chance to stand up. “Finally! A girl who will understand!”
“Hello to you too, Belle.” Aria’s voice was the first thing I heard, and then I saw her smiling face. She looked different outside the classroom. More relaxed and…I couldn’t put my finger on it, but she appeared to be more like the Aria I’d known. I still couldn’t believe how much she’d changed. It hadn’t felt like I was gone that many years, but evidently, I had.
“Hi,” Belle replied as she walked back over to the sofa and threw herself down onto it.
The door clicked shut and Aria followed her in, flashing me a smaller version of the smile she’d sent Belle’s way. “Hey, Cade.”
“Hey,” I replied, trying to get all the chips back in the bowl before Lola came downstairs from putting Asher to bed and found out what I’d supplied her only daughter with.
“Aria, you’ll understand.” Belle pushed up off the sofa and pointed at the seat she’d been sitting in. “Sit, let me tell you about my day.”
Aria did as she was told but leaned closer to me and whispered, “I see Bossy Belle is present today.” Her flowery perfume drifted toward me, and I raised a brow. That was something new, but then, the last time I’d seen her she’d been an awkward teen, and now she was so much more than that. She was practically a woman. I dipped my gaze to her chest and the rainbow on her T-shirt. She was definitely a woman.
Shit, I did not need to be looking there.
“Yeah, maybe I should change PB to BB?”
Aria turned to face me. “What does PB mean anyway?”
“Princess Belle,” I told her. I’d given her the nickname when she was a baby, and it had stuck.
Belle cleared her throat, and we both whipped our head around to face her. She pulled in a dramatic breath and blurted out, “So Henry pulled my hair—”
“No!” Aria gasped, her sweet face changing in the blink of an eye. Gone were the delicate features. In its place was a frown and lips in a firm, straight line. “Again? That little shi—”
“Language,” I coughed.
“Poobag,” Aria finished, flicking her gaze to mine. Her light-brown eyes looked more like honey in this light, and I hated I noticed that. I shuffled a little away from her. We were too close, and also out of the classroom, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still her teacher.
Shit, what the hell was going on with me today? It was the stress of a new day on the job, that was all. Maybe I should concentrate on eating the chips in my lap and keeping my hands occupied and my attention on Belle. Yep, that was what I would do.
“That’s what I said!” Belle shouted, her hands now on her hips as she paced back and forth. “I told him I was gonna call the cops on him, but Miss Ferry”—she screwed up her face—“told me I couldn’t. So I told her my dad was PDA—”
Aria didn’t do as good a job as me in holding in her laughter. It burst out of her, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her lose control like that, but just hearing the sound and watching the way her body lost control had me grinning like a fool. It was always the smallest things that would set her off, and she had the kind of laugh you couldn’t help but join in with. It was addictive. Pure and simple.
“What?” Belle asked, clearly getting annoyed. “What did I say?”
“Well.” Aria tried to get ahold of herself as she wiped at her face. “PDA means public display of affection. I think you mean DEA?”
“Ugh. You sound like Cade.” Belle swiped her hand through the air and rolled her eyes. “What I was saying is that I hate my teacher. She’s bossy, and—”
“Bossy,” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth, which set Aria off again.
It had been years since we’d sat on this sofa together and laughed, but it felt like only yesterday she was pacing in front of me the same way Belle was now and telling me I shouldn’t move because of my bullet wound in my shoulder. If Belle was bossy now, she had nothing on Aria back then.
“You adults don’t understand anything!” Belle shouted and stomped out of the room and up the stairs, leaving me wide-eyed and wondering what happened to the sweet Belle I’d last seen a couple of months ago.
“Well…” I raised my brows and turned to face Aria. “She’s…”
“Bossy.” Aria nodded. “She’s probably tired from her first day back. Plus, that Henry is a shit bag.”
“Hey now.” I stood and gripped the bowl of chips in my hand as I looked down at her. “You shouldn’t talk about a kid like that.”
“Yeah?” She raised her own brows in response and stood. “That ‘kid’ has been picking on Belle for the last twelve months straight, but she won’t tell anyone. She vents to me, but I’m sworn to secrecy—ah, shit.” Her shoulders drooped. “I just blew our secret code contract.” Aria threw her hands up in the air and narrowed her eyes on me. “You made me break my contract.”
“Me?” I pointed at my chest, wondering what dimension I’d found myself in which made all the women throw their anger my way. “What did I do?”
“You…never mind.” Aria spun around, leaving the room in the same way Belle had, and ran up the stairs.
I wasn’t sure what the hell had happened, but I was starting to realize things were different now. I’d been gone too long to simply slot back into the life I’d left when I was eighteen. Belle was practically a moody teenager, and Aria was no longer the little girl who could be entertained by poo jokes.
Things had changed, but so had I.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever be the same again, and just as the thought occurred to me, I itched to go for a run. To clear my mind of everything and concentrate on the beat of my sneakers hitting the sidewalk. I craved the burn it would cause my muscles, and before I knew it, I was changed and knocking on Belle’s bedroom door.
“Aria?” I pushed the door open a crack. Aria and Belle were sitting on the bed and reading a story. “I need to head out, and Lola is putting Asher to bed. Could you watch Belle until she’s finished?”
Aria blinked several times, her gaze roving from my sneakers, over my shorts, and stopping on my tank top and the tattoos I kept covered up at school.
“You run?” she asked, her voice small. I remembered what she’d said in class ea
rlier today. She liked to run too, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d try out for the track team in a couple of weeks.
“Only when I need to clear my head,” I told her, admitting more to her than I ever had to anyone else. There was always a silent understanding between us, ever since I’d first met her. We were secret keepers—and pretty good ones at that.
But I’d never tell her why I needed to clear my head.
I wouldn’t tell her how the sound of Asher screaming his refusal to have a bath brought back memories of that night. I wouldn’t tell her how the sound of footsteps echoing on the stairs reminded me of the boots hitting the tarmac and heading toward the burning vehicle I’d been trapped in.
I wouldn’t tell her anything, because no one would ever understand what had happened that night. No one would ever feel the pain I felt.
Aria nodded, and Belle looked over her shoulder, her tired, blue eyes piercing through me. I was here to start over, to be closer to my family, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have baggage.
“Sure,” Aria whispered.
“Thanks.” I didn’t say anything else as I moved back, pushed my earbuds into my ears, and headed down the stairs and out the front door.
I’d run until all the thoughts had evaporated, and then I’d go a little longer to make sure they stayed away, if only for one night.
Chapter Three
ARIA
The first week back had gone by at a snail's pace, but it was finally Friday. Only one day left until I could spend two days to myself without anyone else around to bug me or want to talk to me. I could run for hours with my music blasting in my ears, and not one person would disturb me. It would be pure bliss. But that soon evaporated when I realized Cade would be teaching my last class of the day: PE.
The school had been abuzz with his arrival and students telling people who he was and who his dad was. People knew of Uncle Brody, but none of them really knew him. They had heard the rumors of him leaving his wife nearly a decade ago for someone nearly half his age, but they didn’t understand who they were, or how you could feel their love for each other when you were in a room with them. They didn’t understand how fate worked, and neither did I, but I understood that love didn’t care about boundaries and rules because love was love, no matter how you viewed it.
“So you grew up with him?” Hope asked as we walked around the track to warm up.
“Not exactly.” I’d finally given in and told Hope I knew Cade—Mr. Easton, I kept reminding myself. I’d nearly slipped up several times this week when I’d seen him around school. Hope had done her best impression of a blowfish when I hit her with that fact this morning.
I couldn’t get the look on his face out of my mind when he’d stood in Belle’s doorway. The pain shining in his eyes was obvious for everyone to see. Or maybe it was just me. Maybe I could recognize it because I felt it too.
“I met him when I was eight.” I huffed out a breath, my legs begging me to go faster, but I had to keep pace with Hope, if only for a little while. “My mom worked with Lola—Brody’s wife—and Sal is good friends with his dad.”
“Wow.” Hope blinked and halted halfway on the track, trying to catch her breath. We’d barely moved, and she was already tired. “And he was a teenager at the time?”
“Yep.” I swiped my arm over my face to wipe some of the sweat away and to keep myself busy. “He was maybe fifteen, sixteen, at the time.” I shrugged and stretched my arms over my chest to get ready to take off. We had a routine we’d gained over the years. I’d do one lap at Hope’s pace, and then I could take off and lose myself in the rhythm of my feet hitting the ground. “He left for college a couple of years after that, and I barely saw him.”
“Wait…” Hope stepped forward, her eyes narrowing as she stared at me. “Did you have a crush on him?”
I opened my mouth, about to deny it, but she gasped, seeing the truth written all over my face. Instead of answering her, I took off, running away from her exactly like I did with everything else. I could feel the burning of my cheeks as I ran around the track, but the burn in my thighs was a welcome one. All I wanted was to lose myself—tire my muscles out the best I possibly could. This was only meant to be a warm-up, but running was never that for me. It was an escape, something that could never be taken away from me.
I was so inside my own head that I hadn’t realized I was on the fourth lap when a whistle blew and Cade’s booming voice shouted, “Everyone in the middle to pick teams.”
Great. Team sports. Just what I loved the most.
I was a solo athlete, and the old PE teacher knew this, which was why she would let me run track for most of the class. But from the way Cade was staring at me and waving me toward him, I didn’t think I’d get away with it this time.
He wasn’t wearing his usual shirt and dress pants, but instead a full-sleeved training top and sweatpants. You could see every outline of muscle on his top half, and I knew, for a fact, every other girl in class noticed.
I made it to the middle of the field, huffing and puffing as I tried to regulate my breathing. Cade chose the captains: Jasmine and one of her friends. They went through every person in the senior class, leaving Hope and me until last, which meant we’d be on opposing teams.
I stood awkwardly at the edge of the team, not wanting to get involved as Cade told us the rules to lacrosse. I’d never played in my life, and I wasn’t sure any of the other girls had either. We’d had a lacrosse team when I first started as a freshman, but it ended that year when our team came in last in the championship.
Sticks were handed out, but thank god only ten people were on a team because it meant another five girls and I could sit and watch.
Hope was placed in the goalie position, and I grinned at her. She stuck her tongue out in response and completely missed a goal being shot toward her. It flew by her head, and she stumbled to the side, mouthing, “What the fuck,” at me. I couldn’t help but laugh at her, but all too soon, Cade was telling me to get on the field.
I didn’t have a problem sprinting down the pitch, but what I did have a problem with was actually catching the ball with my stick and net thing, and if I did catch it, it was knocked out of it more or less right away. This was the exact reason I only relied on my feet to do the moving because, as soon as another object was added to the mix, I lost all sense of equilibrium.
“Good job today, girls!” Cade shouted and clapped his hands. “Next week, we’ll work on some techniques. Have a good weekend.”
All the girls headed for the locker rooms, but Hope and I stayed back, not wanting to be in a confined space with them all. The last time we’d done that in sophomore year, we’d ended up “losing” half of our clothes and having to wear some weird lost-and-found stuff for the rest of the day. Never again.
“You girls heading in to get changed?” Cade asked as he put the sticks in the two barrels he’d had out here when we first warmed up.
Hope and I looked at each other then back to him. I may have known him as Cade, but here he was Mr. Easton, and there was no way I was going to tell him why we hung back and waited until everyone was finished.
“Do you need help packing away?” I asked instead of answering his question.
“I…” Cade frowned as he watched me and then flicked his gaze to the goals. “You can take those down if you want?”
“Sure.” I didn’t say another word as I walked over to the one Hope had been standing in and started to take it down. I may not have been good at the actual sport, but I could figure out any puzzle like a pro, and that was exactly what taking these goals down was. We had them bundled up in no time.
We headed over to where Cade was marking some things off a clipboard.
“Thanks, girls.” Cade grinned, the kind of grin he used to flash at me, and I blinked. There’d been a time where I skipped into his house and waited for that grin to come my way, but that was before…
Before that day.
Before my life change
d forever.
I’d never again be that girl, the one he first met, and the single thought sobered me and had me pulling back my shoulders. I had to remember where I was, but most importantly, who I was. I wasn’t like most of the girls at this school. Their idea of baggage was their parents not buying them the car they wanted. Or not getting to go away to Mexico for their eighteenth birthday.
“No problem,” I answered Cade, my tone coming out stiff and not like me at all. Even Hope raised her brows at me. “We’ll take them inside.”
I didn’t stick around to wait for what he said. Instead, I spun and headed inside. The end-of-day bell was ringing, and the locker room would now be empty. Hope was trying to keep up with me, but I was on a mission to run away from my memories.
Having Cade back waged a war inside me. He’d been my first crush, but he was also a reminder of the one day in my life I tried my hardest to forget. He was a living, breathing, memory I couldn’t escape.
“Jeez, Aria! Wait up.”
I shook my head, and placed the goal outside the equipment room which sat between the two locker rooms. “Sorry.” I flashed her a small smile, the most I could manage with my skin crawling. “Mom will probably be waiting for me.”
Hope nodded like she understood, but I could see the doubt written all over her features. She knew when to push and when not to, and this was a time she shouldn’t. I needed to process things and categorize them into their own little folders. Or find relief someway else.
We stayed silent as we headed into the locker room, got dressed, and headed out front together. Hope’s bus was pulling into the lot as we got to the top of the stairs.
“I’ll see you Monday!” she shouted, and with a wave, she ran across the lot, faster than she had ever run in PE.
The lot was emptying of cars, but the one I wanted to see most wasn’t there. I needed to get home and lock myself in my room to be able to take a full breath. I needed to breathe again. But Mom wasn’t here. Her red car wasn’t pulling into the lot, and the longer I stood on the steps, the more I wondered if she’d forgotten to pick me up.
Defy Fate: Fated Duet: Book One Page 3
