Gossamer (8 page)

She and Conor emerged laughing. Grant and I looked at each other and shrugged. I climbed out of the car and instantly a wave of nausea rolled through me. My stomach wrenched. He was immediately by my side.

“Are you okay?”

I shook my head and prayed I wouldn’t puke in front of him. I decided drinking was overrated and had no desire to do it again anytime soon.

He held my hand and guided me up the walkway. The sparks in my hand distracted me from my nausea. Lexie unlocked her front door and invited the boys in. Conor and Lexie were still laughing about something off and on, but I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about.

“I’m serious.” Lexie laughed. “Look, I will show you.” She took Conor into the kitchen. I watched them walk off and looked back at Grant. He shrugged, clearly as lost as I was.

“I need to change,” I said, wanting to get upstairs to the bathroom quickly.

“Where’s your stuff?” He asked, and I pointed to the staircase.

“Come on, I’ll walk you up.” He started to usher me up the stairs.

“I thought you were against boys leading me off down dark hallways, into mysterious bedrooms.”

He stared at me. “Kyla, I would never–”

I cut him off. “I was joking. Let’s keep going before I pass out right here.”

He looked at me, grinned and in one fluid motion, scooped me up into his arms. I squealed.

“Wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“No, of course not, now we can both get hurt.”

He laughed. “Well, why do alone what we can do together?”

I studied him. From the moment he took my hand to now, my whole body had never stopped humming with electricity. It seemed the more we touched the stronger it burned, and even weirder, it had never been this strong. It was like drinking caused me to let some wall down and I could feel the full force of this thing, whatever it was, between us. I completely forgot about feeling sick. We reached the top of the stairs and he set me down.

“Wait here.”

I ran into Lexie’s room, kicked my shoes off and wiggled out of the dress. I dug through my bag and pulled out my pajamas. I yanked on my tank top and striped shorts, then raced to the bathroom, twisting my hair up into a messy bun along the way. I brushed my teeth and splashed some cool water onto my face. Then dabbed it dry with a towel, pausing for a moment to take a few deep breaths, ensuring my queasiness had subsided. Once I knew I was okay, I checked my reflection in the mirror and found it pointless since everything was still a bit on the blurry side. I shrugged and flipped off the bathroom light.

I opened the door to Lexie’s room and stepped out. Grant leaned against the wall. When I emerged, he straightened. His gaze quickly raked my body, then met mine. My stomach fluttered. I bit my bottom lip.

“I just wanted to thank you, again.” I looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry I was mean to you tonight. Of course, I probably won’t remember much of it. Sucks for you that you will,” I joked.

He raised an eyebrow. “You will remember some of it, right?”

I blushed. “I don’t drink like this very often, or I do and just can’t remember.” Grant chuckled. “You can just remind me about whatever I forget. Unless its parts better left forgotten.” I smiled, sending him a look under my lashes.

I took a step toward the stairs and gestured downstairs. “I can walk you back down.”

He stepped forward. “Then who would carry you back up?”

“Good point. Lexie’s probably not up for the job, but her couch looks like it might be pretty comfortable.”

He laughed. “It’s okay. You should get to bed.”

“Yeah, I guess. I hope I don’t feel sick in the morning. I promised my dad I’d help him. Why did I drink so much?” I groaned. “Well, I won’t be doing that for a very long time, if ever again.”

“You will be fine. You can’t really get sick...”

I crinkled my nose. “It’s funny you say that. I really don’t ever get sick.” I looked at him.

“Yeah, lucky guess. You just don’t seem like someone who gets sick much. You know you look healthy and stuff.” His words came out in a rush, seeming to trip over each other.
That’s odd.
He looked up into my eyes and stopped.

We stood close now. He reached up and brushed a strand of hair from my shoulder, his fingers leaving behind a trail of fire. I gasped, and my heart rate sped. I stared at the hand lingering on my neck, then met his gaze. He watched me, his normally bright eyes flashing with something stormy as he noticed my body’s reaction to his touch. He abruptly removed his hand and started down the stairs.

As he left, he called back, “See you later, Kyla. Get some rest.” His tone was pleasant but his voice was gruff.

I watched him in disbelief. He had to have felt that. How could he just walk away?

“Grant?” He twisted his head slightly but didn’t meet my eyes. “You do feel it, don’t you?”

His eyes met mine for a second, then he looked down. I could just make out an imperceptible nod before he turned and left me standing at the top of the stairs, completely baffled.

Chapter 6

The next morning I awoke to the chime of a text message on Lexie’s phone. She groaned and put a pillow over her head, trying her best to block it out. I rolled onto my back remembering I needed to meet my dad. I stared at the ceiling debating what to do and finally decided to get up and get it over with.

I pushed off the covers and tentatively sat up. Surprisingly, I felt great. After the dizziness last night, I half expected to wake up still feeling bad. I stood and picked up my overnight bag.

“You’re crazy. What time is it? It’s got to be super early.” Lexie’s muffled voice came from under her pillow. I read the time off of her hot pink digital alarm clock.

“Crap. Actually, it’s already eleven. How did I sleep so long?”

Lexie peeked out from underneath her pillow. “More importantly, how is it you drank probably three times as much as me and you’re all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?”

“Do you feel bad?”

“Not so much bad, as tired and kind of blah.” She finally reached over and glanced at her incoming text. “Ugh, it’s Dylan, and look, he has only sent me,” she scrolled through her phone, “thirteen texts.” My face scrunched in confusion. “He’s apparently been texting me since last night. He’s pretty mad I left with Conor and Grant.”

I flashed back to last night. I remembered driving home with Grant, but everything else was a bit foggy. “Why
did
we leave with them?”

“Dylan was drinking, there was no way I was letting him drive my baby–babies, home.” She smiled sweetly. The first baby she referred to was her car. I think the added baby was me.

I smiled back at her. “Good call.” I chewed thoughtfully on my bottom lip. “So, did I make a complete ass of myself last night?”

“Honestly, I don’t think you did. You seemed fine up until the very end. I told you not to drink the punch.” She feigned disapproval. “Of course I have no idea what you said or did riding home with Grant.” She wore a devious expression.

“Sad part is, neither do I.” I groaned. “It’s just a blur. I don’t think it was bad though. I don’t feel like anything bad happened. I finally get alone time with Grant, and I can’t remember it.” Frowning I headed to the bathroom. “I have to get cleaned up and head over to my dad’s office.” I threw a glance over my shoulder at Lexie. “Will you drive me there?” I gave her a pleading look.

“No problem. I probably need to go see Dylan face to face. I don’t like breaking up with him over the phone.”

“You’re breaking up again?”

Lexie shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but all these texts are annoying. He’s too insecure, and he should be thanking Conor for driving me home safely.” She rolled her eyes. “Depending on how our conversation goes, we may break up.”

“Lex, why do you keep doing this with Dylan? Do you even really like him?”

Her gaze drifted for a moment as if searching for her answer. “I like him, but I don’t love him.”

“Well, we are only in high school, you don’t have to love the guy, but if you like him, why do you break up so much?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know. I do like him, but sometimes I think I like the thought of him more than I actually like him.” She let out a sigh. “You and Dylan are the only two people in my life I can count on. My parents hardly even remember I exist, so I have you and him. He pays attention to me.” Her face fell, losing its normal Lexie pizzazz. “It’s sad, isn’t it? I like the guy because he likes me. That’s an awful reason.”

“Lexie, lots of guy like you. He’s not the only one, and regardless, you have me. You do not need a boyfriend.”

“I know, but you can’t be with me all the time and we’re finishing school soon. You’re an amazing person, soon some guy will knock you off your feet and you won’t have time for me anymore.” She put her hands up, “And that’s okay, you deserve all that. So don’t hold back because of me, I just keep Dylan around as a back up, I guess.”

My heart ached for Lexie. Her parents had no idea what a great kid they had. They didn’t deserve her.

“Go get ready.” She gave me a small smile. “Don’t feel bad for me. You know I always deal.”

I looked at her. She didn’t seem to want to explore the topic more so I took the hint and dropped it. I stepped into the bathroom and turned around. “Hey Lex?” She looked up expectantly. “What were you and Conor laughing about last night?”

“You remember that? You spend time alone with Grant and have nothing, yet you remember that.” She chuckled. “It was dumb, but we started talking about my parents. He told me his family didn’t even speak to him, that’s why he lives with Grant, and we ended up having a whose-parents-are-worse game. He didn’t believe me when I said my parents forget I exist and never grocery shop. Once I showed him my empty fridge, well it did have a bottle of mustard, a jar of pickles and a chocolate pudding cup, we decided to call it a draw. Parents who don’t talk to you versus parents who live with you but forget about you.” She shrugged again. “Pretty bad either way.”

I tilted my head and forced a smile, though sympathetic to her situation. “Well, at least you have something in common with him,” I joked. She smiled back, and I shut the bathroom door to jump in the shower.

* * * *

Shortly after noon Lexie dropped me off at the community college where my dad taught. I made my way into the Liberal Arts building and took the stairs up to his office on the second floor.

“Hey, you made it!” Dad sounded surprised.

“I said I would,” I answered with a smile.

My dad walked over and gave me a hug, which is when I discovered he had company. A boy, not much older than me, wearing a black blazer over a plain white tee shirt and jeans, stood off to the side.

“Oh, Kylie, let me introduce you. This is Mathew Brighton. He is a student in my History class. I ran into him studying at the library and he volunteered to help me out, and since I wasn’t sure if you were actually going to make it...” Dad trailed off.

I stepped forward and shook Mathew’s hand. “Hi.”

He extended his hand in return. “Mathew, but you can call me Matt.”

His friendly smile exposed perfectly straight, white teeth. Dark rimmed glasses framed very pretty hazel eyes. His dirty blond hair was a bit messy, but in the I-spent-thirty-minutes-making-my-hair-messy, sort of messy. Actually everything about him had that “I just threw this on
”
look, but was clearly well put together. He was cute in a nerdy way, and definitely had the college boy thing going on.

“Well, now that there are three of us, we should get this done quickly. Mathew’s grading those tests.” He pointed to a stack on his desk. “I’m grading these essays, and you can enter the grades for me on the computer.”

The three of us got to work and after almost two hours passed, Dad looked over at us. “It just occurred to me, Mathew, that I have worked you straight through lunch.”

“That’s okay, Mr. Ashbury. I ate a late breakfast.”

“No, that’s not okay. I’m sorry. Well kids, I can get it from here. You have been a huge help.” He reached into his wallet and pulled out a twenty.

“Kylie, take Mathew down to the food court and get this poor kid some lunch. You guys were such a big help. It’s on me. Enjoy.”

“Professor Ashbury, you don’t need to do that.” Matt held up his hands.

“I insist. You two did a lot of work here. Now take the money.” Dad handed it to me. “And go get something to eat.” He didn’t have to ask me twice. I was hungry and ready to get out of there.

I gave my dad a hug. “Sounds good, see you later, Dad. Glad we could help.” I waved my hand at Matt. “Come on, let’s go eat.”

Matt glanced from me to my dad and back at me as if he wasn’t sure if he should take the offer or not. Finally, hunger must have won out because he said bye to my dad and followed me out of the office.

* * * *

“Well, I would ask you what you would like, but looks like the only thing open today is Triple S Express.” Triple S was a to-go salad, sandwich and soup shop.

“That’s fine.”