Aftershocks (13 page)

“Yeah, it is,” he said, looking at me for a beat longer than he probably should have. “We’l see.”

Connor stuck around for another few hours flipping between three colege footbal games that were on. When my parents came home around five my dad settled in to watch the game Connor and I were watching. I got up to get us al sodas and to see what my mom had purchased at the art festival.

When I came back Connor and my dad were engrossed in a conversation about players and stats and other details that boys always seem to know. I had to smile to myself. It seemed my dad might have finaly found his replacement for Aaron while he was away at school.

I wouldn’t tel Aaron that, but I was happy for my dad.

When Connor left to go home to change for his date, he hugged me tightly, puling me close. I felt a ripple of excitement in my stomach being so close to him and had to remind myself he was going to hang out with his girlfriend. Just like the day before. I got him for a short time, but she was the one he kissed goodnight.

“I had fun today,” I said. “I have to tel you. The more time I spend around footbal, the more I like it.”

This made him smile. “I knew you’d come around.”

I wasn’t completely sold on the game, but I liked how happy it made him, so I played along. Maybe it would grow on me. It certainly wasn’t a dul sport.

“Have fun on your date,” I said, as I let him out.

I closed the door, turned around and smiled. It had been a great afternoon. Now, if I could just erase the fact that Connor was going on a date with someone else – and the fact that I wasn’t okay with it – that would be great.

“You what?!” Nicky asked, turning to face me.

“I like Connor,” I repeated and felt my face flush.

Nicky and I were at work when I laid the bomb on her which caused her to swivel on her stool and face me with her eyes bugging out of her head. I was straightening the racks, which she was supposed to be helping me with just as soon as her nails dried, which would probably be after we closed. Normaly, I would have drug her off of her stool, told her to forget about her nails and get to work, but that night the mind-numbing routine of organizing and folding was welcome.

After three weeks of deliberating and denying my feelings, I’d finaly come clean to myself about the fact that I thought about Connor as more than a friend. I’d fought hard not to fal for him, but when he smiled at me like he did and hugged me and caled me every night before he fel asleep, wel I sort of found myself wishing he would kiss me and hoping that he’d break up with Alexis for me. I wanted it so bad I could taste it.

Nicky roled her eyes. “Oh hel no,” she said, getting her ghetto on. She had very little ghetto in her, but when she was pissed it seemed to come out. I wasn’t exactly sure where she’d gotten it from. “You’re insane.”

I refused to look at her. Instead I focused on the table of graphic tees that Luke had designed, taking extra care to fold them perfectly.

Nicky was in a bad mood that night anyway, so it wasn’t like I should have expected her to respond any different.

“Okay, yes, he sort of looks like Adrian Grenier,” she continued. “I get it, but he also has an appendage we like to cal ‘crazy-ass bitch from hel’ who won’t think twice about ripping out that pretty brown hair of yours if you touch her man.”

I reeled on her, crossing my arms in front of me. “Where are you from? Dorchester? If I ‘touch her man’? Who says stuff like that?

You need to quit watching
Flavor of Love
reruns.”

“Whatevs,” Nicky said, and I half-expected her to add a snap to her statement. “Aaron would appreciate my street cred.”

“Nicky!” I admonished. “Aaron grew up in Scituate, just like you. He has no street cred. His girlfriend is whiter than you are. Stop trying to stereotype my brother!”

“Fine,” she said, slamming her magazine closed. “It’s not like we couldn’t take Alexis if she tried to go after you when you steal Connor out from under her. I got your back, girl.”

With that she got up and locked the front door. The clock had just struck eight, so we were officialy closed.

“Okay, girl,” I said, giving her some ghetto back.

She pursed her lips and kissed the air in my direction before finaly coming over to help me finish cleaning up. With a little luck, we’d both get out of there at a decent time.

I caled Connor when I left work an hour later. I figured he was headed to the same party that Nicky was going to, but if I could catch him before he left I could see how his day was. Nicky and I had gone to Taco Bel after school and then headed to work, so I hadn’t seen him since fourth period. I knew he had plans to go to the footbal game that night, so I’d have to catch him in that window of time between when he was with Luke at the game and with Alexis afterward.

“Hey you,” he said, in that warm way he did when he answered his phone when I caled. I didn’t hear any noise from the background, so I figured he must be at home stil, and Alexis wasn’t with him. Yea!

“Hey! How was the game?”

“I didn’t go,” he said. “Jordan got sick at school today, and my dad’s in Omaha, so I had to pick him up after lunch. He’s got bronchitis, which is awesome. He’s been coughing like crazy, and complaining ever since we got back from the doctor. He’s normaly realy self-sufficient, except when he’s sick.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling genuinely bad for both of them. A concussion, a broken finger and bronchitis – Jordan wasn’t having the best month, and poor Connor had to deal with it al. “When does your dad get back?”

He hesitated before responding. “His flight gets in around ten.”

“Do you want some company?” I asked, as I puled into my driveway. Inside I could see the light on in the living room which meant my parents were up and watching TV. I circumvented the house and walked through the backyard toward Connor’s house, prepared to hop the fence so we could hang out. Once he’d learned that we were neighbors he’d started taking that route to come to my house instead of driving around the block.”

He sighed. “No, you’d better not come over. I don’t want you to get sick.”

“I don’t mind,” I said, realizing I sounded like a desperate girl who would risk getting a bronchial infection to hang out with the boy she was crushing on. I hesitated as I waited for him to change his mind, but when he didn’t I climbed up the ladder into my tree house.

“No, it’s okay. You probably have plans tonight anyway. Go have fun with Nicky or something. Jordan’s finaly asleep. I’m just going to play video games.”

“I have a better idea,” I countered.

“What’s that?”

“Walk out into your backyard,” I commanded.

“Are you going to tel me to look up at the moon or something cheesy like that?” he asked, and I knew he was mocking the fact that I’d pointed out Orion’s Belt a few nights before when I’d gone with him and Jordan to get pizza for dinner.

“Just shut up and walk over to your fence,” I said. I walked over to the back window of the tree house, opened it and stuck my head out. I could see Connor walking over with his cel phone attached to his ear. When he got to the fence that separated our yards, I told him to look up.

“Hey,” he said, surprised to see me up in a tree.

“Come up,” I said. “We can hang out – germ free.”

He grinned at me as he hopped the fence, and before I knew it, his head was poking through the opening at the top of the ladder. “This is cool,” he said, taking in the smal space. I lounged in one of the beanbag chairs, a stack of magazines next to me and my iPod playing in the corner. It was my own little sanctuary which could even be warmed by a space heater in the winter.

“How come you’re not out at the beach tonight?” Connor asked after we’d been hanging out for a good half hour.

I looked up from the
Us Weekly
I’d been perusing to answer his question. He was lounging in the other beanbag chair and my feet were in his lap. He’d been leaning back with his eyes closed, listening to the mix I’d put on, but every once and a while he’d tickle my toes, making me giggle. Everything had been light and airy until he decided to bring up Alexis. She was hosting that night’s party at her huge house on the beach and everyone from school was going.

Because your girlfriend is hosting it, and she’d probably drown me in the ocean before she’d let me drink her beer.

“You know I don’t realy party,” I said simply, wondering when he’d stop trying to get me to go out.

“Why not? You are a high school senior, right?” he asked, and I knew he was just teasing me.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Yes, I am. I just don’t much care for drunk people puking on my shoes or crying in the bathroom for hours because the boy they liked hooked up with someone else. It’s not realy my thing.”

“Alexis tels me you were quite the partier back in the day,” Connor said, as he glanced down at his cel phone. He kept it on his lap, glancing down at it every few seconds to see if Jordan had caled or texted him, which I thought was incredibly sweet.

“Okay,” I said, at a loss for words. I wasn’t sure if he was inquiring or accusing.

“She said you were pretty legendary when it came to how much you could drink in a night – said you were a lot of fun.”

“Um, not realy,” I said, aiming for detached so he wouldn’t continue peppering me with inane questions. I continued flipping through my magazine, hoping he would take the hint that this wasn’t a great topic. I didn’t want to be the one to tel him his girlfriend was a big, fat liar, but if he kept pushing the issue, I just might do that.

“You don’t want to talk about this do you?” he asked, reading me so wel.

Of course I didn’t want to talk about it. Was he nuts? Even if had drank my weight in tequila and whored around for a summer, I obviously wasn’t that person anymore. How could he ever think it was a good idea to dredge up something like that?

“Connor, I know we haven’t known each other that long, but do you realy believe that?” I asked, my voice ful of condescension. I put the magazine down next to me, folded my arms and stared at him.

I wanted him to see that I wasn’t happy about him broaching this subject, and I honestly would have hoped he wouldn’t believe such garbage. Then I had to remind myself that he didn’t know Alexis like I did. He didn’t know how conniving she was. For al I knew, he was in love with her and thought the sun shone out of her ass.

“I don’t think any less of you, Abby,” he said, taking my defensive tactic in a different way than I’d intended. He moved his hands out from behind his head and sat up.

I got up and moved to stand in front of him, my arms folded across my chest. “You’re an asshole,” I snapped, suddenly losing al self-control. I was sick of people believing the rumors Alexis had spread. “I don’t know what you heard, but trust me, I was never that person, so if you were looking for me to al of a sudden throw back shots and sleep with you, then you’re shit out of luck. I thought you actualy wanted to be friends with me – for me – not because you heard I was easy.”

I was pissed. I couldn’t believe I’d been so wrong about him. Al this time I’d thought we were friends, but it seemed like he was just another guy who wanted me to take my clothes off. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to live down the reputation I’d had before, even if there wasn’t one ounce of truth to it. I could have kiled Alexis for saying something to him. She was such a bitch.

“I’m an asshole?” Connor spat, standing up to his ful height. “You need to cool your shit, Abby. First of al, I’ve heard a lot about you, but I choose to ignore it because the girl I know isn’t like that. Second, I have enough respect for you not to hang out with you to get a piece of ass.”

His eyes were blazing and his nostrils flared as he stared down at me. I stared back at him, narrowing my eyes and trying to gauge whether he was teling the truth. He seemed to be. I closed my eyes, shook my head and looked down, hanging my head.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. I took a deep breath. “I’ve been around a lot of jerks in my life. I guess it’s just second-nature for me to expect the same of every guy I meet. You don’t seem like a jerk, but your question caught me off-guard.”

“I wasn’t implying anything,” he said firmly. He put his hand under my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “I was just asking because I want to know you better. No judgment.”

“Yeah?” I said, looking away from him again, this time out of embarrassment. “Wel, you should know that there were a lot of rumors started about me that basicaly didn’t have any truth to them.”

“Realy?” he asked, and he seemed discomfited by the fact that someone would do that. If only he knew that the manipulative bitch who started the rumors was the girl he’d tied himself to. What would he say then?

“Connor, I’ve only had sex once – with one guy,” I said, feeling my face flush as I said it. I usualy didn’t come right out and say things like that, but I felt the need to hit my point home. I also didn’t seem to have as many wals around Connor as I did with other people. “And, I’m not much of a drinker. My tolerance kind of sucks. That’s the truth.”

He smiled at me, as he reached out and fingered a lock of my hair that had blown across my face. He smoothed it back into place. I looked up at him, standing so close to me, his hazel eyes staring down into mine. He was close enough to kiss. My heart started beating faster in my chest as I caught his gaze. It had a slight burn to it. My heart started hammering in my chest, and for a few seconds, everything we were arguing about and everything he suddenly assumed about me flew out the window.

Connor suddenly reached out and touched the side of my face with his finger, right near my eye. “You have the most beautiful eyes,” he said softly, and I nearly melted.

“I’m not going to sleep with you,” I said softly, feeling the need to clarify that point.

“I’m not asking you to,” he said, tilting his head down slightly. Ever so gently, he pressed his lips to mine. I could hardly react before he puled back. “I think you’re pretty amazing, Abby.”

Oh my God. He kissed me. Connor kissed me.