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ChapterSeven
ELSY
This cannot be happening. I glance down at myself to at least make sure no intimate parts of me are showing. My face is already rushing with heat as both Keaton’s parents and my own stare at us with wide eyes. Why do I suddenly feel fifteen again and not twenty-one?
“You can’t just burst into my bedroom.” I’m the first one to break the silence, but someone needs to.
“We wanted to check on you,” Nora, my mom, says. She’s got her hand pressed to her neck, and she’s not sure what to do at this moment. The embarrassment is written all over her face.
I know the Walkers adopted me years ago after they fostered me for a bit, but I still find myself sliding between calling her “Mom” and Nora. I think it’s because I can still remember parts of my parents. There aren’t a lot of memories, but their faces are branded in my mind.
“Keaton?” Dr. Lone calls to his son. “Is everything okay?”
There’s no missing the concern in his voice, and my irritation only grows. Oh, I can’t show up at the gates of your home, but you can let yourself right into my bedroom?
“Yes.” Keaton runs his hand through his short hair and it’s then I notice that it’s already unruly from my fingers holding on to it. Oh god, I wonder what I look like right now. “I mean no,” he says and drops his head.
“No?” I hiss. The one word is a sharp slice to my already wounded heart.
“I mean—fuck, I don’t know!” He shouts the last part, his voice gruff and animalistic. It makes my insides flutter while everyone else takes a step back. My body wants to be closer to his.
Keaton turns his back on all of us so he’s facing the large window in my bedroom. There’s a bench in front of it that I spent many nights as a teen sitting on while I was on the phone with Keaton.
I can still see the side of his face, and I notice his eyes are closed tightly. He tries to even out his breathing, and as he does it, I slip off the bed. There’s something pulling me to him and on instinct, I follow it.
“Can you give us a moment?” I ask them all as I place my hands on Keaton’s back. The tension begins to melt off him, and his muscles relax under my touch. “This is kind of my bedroom.”
“Of course,” my parents are quick to say but Keaton’s not so much. I stare at Dr. Lone and dare him to tell me no. I’m not scared of him even though the rest of the world kisses his ass.
“You said when Keaton wanted to see me, he would.” I remind him of his own words. Ones that I could never forget. They were burned on my heart the day he said it.
“You said that to her?” Keaton turns back around.
“It was—”
“We’re not doing this right now,” I cut Dr. Lone off because I sense that tension and anger rising around Keaton.
“Keaton?” Dr. Lone tries again. I know he’s trying to get him to leave, so I step back, putting some space between Keaton and me.
“Key?” I don’t know why I have the need to challenge this, but I do. As pissed as I still am at Keaton, deep down I have this possessiveness. He’s mine, and I need to prove it.
“Leave us,” he says to his father, and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
“Come on, leave them be.” Shelly grabs her husband's arm and leads him out of the room. My parents follow after them, and Nora closes the door behind her, but not before giving me a small smile.
“Did you really think I wasn’t going to pick you?” Key asks, his voice low and soft.
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” I admit.
“I’ve made you doubt me. I hate it.” His shoulders drop.
“That makes two of us.” Tears start to well in my eyes, and in a flash, Keaton is in front of me. His big hands cup my face, and he’s so close all I see is him.
“I would never have left you unless I didn’t have a choice. You have to know that deep down. I know you do. There’s been no one else, not even a single date.” He states it as a fact because he knows me. Even if I have changed in some ways, there are some things that will always remain the same. They are a part of who I am, and Keaton will always be somewhere inside me.
“Tell me, Key, where have you been?”
“In a prison of sorts. One my father and I made for me.” He takes his hands away from my face, but one of them wraps around my wrist instead. He doesn’t want to stop touching me.
