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“Maybe girls aren’t his thing?” I offered, not even believing myself, as I said it. A few shook their heads, and I propped my head on my hand, letting long strands of hair fall over my face in an effort to hide from his intense stare.
Because he was staring, almost like he was trying to figure me out, as if a detailed analysis of my face would somehow give him the answers he sought. Occasionally he’d glance away and I could take a breath before I felt his stare once again.
I debated getting up and leaving, but was afraid he’d follow me and the last thing I wanted was to deal with him face to face again. After a long twenty minutes, the bell finally rang and I followed Leah and her friends out of the cafeteria and back to our hall, the weight of his gaze following me all the way out the door.
I spent the rest of the day turning over what happened at lunch and had almost convinced myself I’d imagined him staring. It didn’t make any sense for him to stare at me because I was obviously not one of them and Leah had made it clear they stuck to their own.
During my last class, I received a few curious glances from another girl, one I didn’t recognize from my earlier classes. She looked like she wanted to talk to me when class ended, but I practically ran from the room. I was beyond tired and didn’t want to deal with anyone else that day.
I jogged down the steps of the school, grateful to see Dad’s Land Rover waiting. It was the only thing he’d taken when my parent’s divorced and that was only because Mom hadn’t wanted it. She’d had no compunction about taking the house and everything else, even though she was the one in the wrong. Anytime I brought it up to Dad, he made excuses for her and I was waiting for the day when he finally wised up and placed the blame squarely where it belonged.
I jerked the door open to see Dad smiling at me, crinkles at the corner of his brown eyes, which happened to be the exact same shade as mine. I was fond of calling them shit brown, but Dad would always correct me saying, “Chocolate brown sounds better, even if it is the exact same shade as shit.”
“Bunny! Good first day?” I slammed my door shut and rested my head back, thinking how I wanted to answer him. My roving gaze paused when I saw a familiar group of people collected by some parked cars. One of them was the girl who’d tried to talk to me in my last class, but the others were the ones I’d seen at Caleb’s table. Scanning them, I didn’t see Caleb or Coach Dom, but there was no doubt in my mind, it was the rest of the group. They appeared to have ridden together in several cars and I couldn’t help frowning at the oddness of it all.
“Bunny?” Dad prompted and I pasted a smile on my face.
“Different. It’s not Ellison Academy, that’s for sure,” I joked, referring to my old school.
“Better, worse?” He dug, putting the car in gear. My eyes drifted back towards the group involuntarily and I saw the girl lift her hand in a wave. I averted my gaze as if I hadn’t seen her, but I knew she knew better.
“I don’t know,” I finally answered him. “I don’t know.”
“Well, I have some good news,” he boomed cheerfully and I rolled my head toward him. “We don’t have to share a room anymore.”
I grinned, lifting my head. “Really?”
“Yep,” Dad continued proudly. “Annnnnd,” he dragged out and I waved my hand for him to say it already. “I have a job.”
“What? That’s great!”
“And so do you,” he added in a muffled rush and the smile on my face froze.
“What was that?”
He glanced over at me with a semi-apologetic look.
“We both have jobs.”
“Okaaaay,” I drawled, taking a deep breath. I knew Mom had done a number on Dad and his finances. It was my decision to live with him and if that meant I needed to work, then so be it. “Doing what exactly?”
“Housekeeping,” he said gingerly, eyeing me like I was a bomb about to detonate.
“Housekeeping?” I repeated in disbelief. “Dad,” I started before he stopped me.
“I know, I know. It’s not what you signed up for when you came out here, but the deal was too good to pass up,” he continued excitedly.
“Deal?” I was starting to get a bad feeling about whatever it was Dad had done.
“Yeah, I bought the motel,” he told me proudly, a huge grin on his face. Somehow, I kept a smile on my face as I absorbed what he’d just said. Dad had bought a crummy old motel in a tiny Idaho town….and he was incredibly excited about it. It was the happiest I’d seen him since Mom had admitted to cheating on him with his boss, and even I wasn’t heartless enough to crush his happiness even though all I wanted to do was shout, “What the fuck?” at him.
