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"Hey."
She says it like it's easy. Like last night and the past few weeks didn't even happen. Like she couldn't hate me if she tried.
"Hey," I reply. "You busy?"
Nodding her head, she gives me an apologetic face. "My boyfriend is upstairs, and we've been having this sex marathon. It's really time consuming. Carter is really needy."
The disappointment leaves the second I realize she's kidding, and I couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling out of me if I tried.
"You're a menace, you know that?"
She grins. "I'm an angel. Just ask my dad."
Peyton's coughing fit starts, and it must be a bad one, because it echoes through the whole house. If that isn't hard enough to hear, he screams at someone to get away from him before coughing more. Paige flinches at the noise, and the playful mood she was in before is gone.
"Is everything okay?" I ask her carefully.
Her fingers mess with the string on her sweatpants as she stares at her feet. "He's uh...he's getting worse. The doctors are trying to help, but he's hard to help when he's like this. I can't really blame him."
Well, I was going to try to take her out. Maybe to dinner or just back to my place to hang out and make up for being a dick the last few weeks, but something better comes to mind. I take off my jacket and wrap it around her before opening the door.
"Let's go."
She looks up at me like I've lost my mind. "Where are we going?"
I lead her out the door. "You'll see."
THE TWO OF US are completely drenched by the time we get inside my parents' house, but I knew no one would be home. Paige hasn't stopped asking
me what we're doing since we left her place, but I'm yet to tell her anything. She'll figure it out soon.
"If you think I'm going to sleep with you, I've got news for you."
Looking back at her as I walk toward the dining room, I stick my bottom lip out. "You mean we didn't come here for one of those sex marathons you were talking about before?"
"Ha, ha," she says sarcastically. "Seriously, what are we doing here?"
The minute I get into the room, I start clearing things off the table, and I can see on her face the minute that it clicks.
When we were younger, if things got hard or there was just something we needed to get away from, we would wait until it rained and then we would lay down on my dining room table and stare out the oversized sunroof my dad had installed. For some reason, watching the rain hit the glass always made it feel like it was washing away all our problems.
"Oh my God. We haven't done this in years!" she says as I finish clearing everything off and motion for her to climb up.
The two of us lie beside each other on the hard wood, neither one of us saying a word. It's everything I needed and didn't realize until now. I don't think it can wash away all my problems, but if it washes away hers even for a minute, that's okay with me.
"Thank you," she tells me after at least a half-hour.
I look over, only to find her already looking back at me. "I'm really sorry. About your dad, and for how I was acting."
Shaking her head, she turns away and back to the sunroof. "I deserved it."
"You didn't."
A part of me considers setting the record straight—telling her she wasn't alone in what she was feeling. That we were more than just two friends who fucked around from time to time. But I can't. I'm the furthest thing from what she needs right now, and if I fuck this up and make her leave again, I'll go back to how I was. I can't handle that.
Instead, I'll keep my mouth shut.
ONE THING I DIDN'T realize I missed was playing video games with Carter. I guess over time, I just started pushing him away. Granted, he really needs to stop trying to control my life, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the time we spend together where he's not a total douchebag.
