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9 Everly
WILL WAS WAITINGout front to pick me up after school the next day.
I didn’t like that.
When I saw him standing there against the side of his car waiting, the girls smiling at him as they passed, I quickly turned to go back inside, but I wasn’t quick enough.
“Everly,” he called out, stopping me. He jogged up to me with a smile. “Hey, I thought I would pick you up from school, and maybe we could grab an ice cream cone or something.”
Was this guy serious?
“Where’s Erik?” I asked, feeling unsure.
His smile dropped. “I told him I had you, so he left with some blonde chick. My bad. I didn’t think it would be a problem. I thought we could use the time to get to know each other, so things weren’t so weird back at the house.”
Again, he was trying.
It was the least I could do.
I nodded and started toward his car. He followed, and when I reached his car, he moved in front of me and pulled the door open for me.
It was odd, but again, I smiled in appreciation and climbed inside.
Once I was in the car, my anxiety peaked.
What if he was kidnapping me?
What if he took me out to the middle of nowhere and raped and murdered me?
It happened every day.
The fact was, I didn’t know this guy. It was awkward.
Thankfully, he did as he said he would and drove us to a local ice cream shop. I ordered a simple vanilla cone. Sitting at the small table across from him, I licked at my ice cream and looked around the shop.
It was a cute place. It had been around for many years, and there were black and white photos of the family who owned the place over the years—beehives and cat glasses as far as the eye could see. The pictures popped against the bright colors of the rest of the décor.
When I turned to face him again, he wasn’t eating his ice cream. Instead, he was watching me eat mine. Quickly, he turned his head and went back to work on his dessert.
“Does Mom know you picked me up?” I asked, suddenly feeling as if I were doing something wrong.
He nodded and swallowed. “Yep. She suggested it.”
Of course, she did.
She loved making my life uncomfortable.
When we pulled up to our house, I had never felt so relieved. I climbed from his car, literally because he had it lowered, thanked him for the ice cream, and disappeared inside before he even closed his car door.
When Friday came, Will was once again waiting outside for me. I didn’t want to go through the awkwardness again, so I lied and told him I had a ride. Thankfully, Zada was still there and went along with my lie.
“Okay, well, I’ll see you back at the house. It will be just the two of us tonight, so maybe we can watch a movie and pop some popcorn.”
“What do you mean, it will be just the two of us?”
“Oh, Erik has plans, and your mom’s going out with the girls.”
The last thing I wanted to do was spend the night with Will. It wasn’t anything against him, but it was awkward. Thinking quick on my feet, I came up with a reason not to be home.
