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The waves inside me? Yeah, they were crashing hard, and I knew bad shit was going to happen unless I got the hell out of there.
I yanked around and headed for the front door, ignoring my mother’s pleas and my sister’s shrill screams. Her meltdown was going to be epic. I suppose it was a good thing that my dad had already left for his repair shop, because I was pretty damn sure heads would have rolled.
I ran out the front door and didn’t stop running for twenty minutes, and by that time, I found myself at Baker’s Landing, which was a nice piece of property owned by my buddy Nate’s grandparents. Chest heaving, I slid down near the edge of the large pond and then fell back, arms crossed over my face to block out the sun. My knee was throbbing, I was thirsty as hell, and, well, just plain old pissed off.
I don’t know how long I lay there, but I do know that when I realized I wasn’t alone anymore, I was still in a bad mood.
A shadow crossed my face, and I sat up slowly, glancing to the side.
“Hey.”
It was Everly.
I didn’t answer, but I did move over a bit when she plopped down beside me. For a long time, the two of us stared out at the water, watching the swans who’d called this place home for years glide across the pristine surface.
“It’s pretty out here,” she said. “I have a place I like to go to, to just chill and think. The old mill, but it’s not nearly as nice as this.”
“How did you know where I was?” I asked, ignoring her attempt at conversation. She picked at the grass, which made me notice her dress. Which made me notice all that smooth skin, because the dress was definitely on the short side. And here I thought church girls always dressed like old ladies.
“Your mom told me you might be here. She said that when you got upset, you liked to come to this place.”
“Yeah, well, my mom should just keep her mouth shut,” I retorted angrily.
“Really?” Everly asked. “She’s your mom. She’s supposed to be up in your business.”
?
??Whatever,” I muttered. “I’m sick of it. All of it. The doctors who keep telling me things are looking up and then bam, a seizure. I’m sick of how scared my parents are every time I leave the house. How my dad likes to pretend that things are the way they were before when they’re not. Nothing is ever going to be the same again. I’ll never be the same again.”
I had to stop talking, because I could barely catch my breath. The anger inside me was leveling off, but it left me jumpy.
Silence filled the space between us, and then she spoke softly. “Are you okay?”
“You’re joking, right?” I asked, a nasty tone to my voice.
Everly shook her head. “No.” Her voice lowered. “No, I’m not.”
“Everly, I’m so far from all right that I wouldn’t recognize it if it came up to me and said hello.” I paused, frowning. “I was almost there. I thought there was a chance, you know?” I sighed. “But now I’m the guy who had a seizure in the library.”
I glanced up and found her dark blue eyes settled on me. I wanted to look away, because this girl was freaking me out a little. It felt as if she could see inside me, and with all the crap going on in my world, there was a lot of stuff I didn’t want anyone to know.
I yanked on some more grass and tossed a handful into the air, feeling more of the anger leave me as the blades fell back to the ground. “I like to go to the football field and watch the cheerleaders practice too.”
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“When I don’t come here. Sometimes I’d rather watch a bunch of girls jumping around than a pack of swans swimming across the lake.”
A hint of a smile twisted the corner of her mouth, and for the first time today, I felt a little bit of lightness.
“She did say that as well, but I was pretty sure you were here.”
“Oh yeah? Why is that?”
“Because school’s out and there is no cheerleading practice.”
Right. I didn’t answer but focused on the swans.
“About Thursday,” she said softly.
