Back to You (22 page)

“
Me too. But
Brady?”

“
Hmm?” He asks pulling
back out on to the main road.

“
You better treat Brooke
right. If you hurt her and I find out, I will kick your
ass.”

“
I promise, I will run
away, far, far away before you kick my ass.” He gives me a wicked
grin and says “but honestly, I won’t hurt Brooke. Now I will say
the same thing. If Lucas makes you sad or cry I will hunt him down
and kill him then take his body and hide it in that spot we were
just at, where no one will find him.” I don’t see that happening.
Brady may be a pretty broad guy, but if it came to it I think Lucas
could take him. But I don’t say any of that to Brady.

“
I have another favor. I
want you to make an attempt to be friends with Lucas. Get to know
him, so we can all hang out together. I don’t want to leave him
out.” He thinks about it for a minute and says “Okay, I will do my
best.”

“
Thank you.”

We drive in silence, until
my phone buzzes. I pull it out of my purse and look at the
screen.
Sarah

“
Hey I’m with Brady. See
you at home.”

“What? Are you freaking
serious? Did he kidnap you?”
I laugh out
loud at that comment and Brady looks at me, head cocked to the
side. “What’s so funny?”

“
Sarah thinks you
kidnapped me.” I say. “By the way, you’ve missed a lot that’s gone
on. But I can fill you in at a later date.” He nods, as we reach
the school parking lot. It’s deserted. I unbuckle my seat belt, and
reach for the door handle and then turn to Brady.

“
I’m glad we talked. A
huge weight has been lifted. I love you Brady.”

“
I feel the same way. Love
ya Abs. Now get home before your sister sends out a search warrant
for your kidnapping.” I smile, get out and shut the
door.

Chapter 21

I get home and find my mom and Sarah in the
kitchen. Sarah sees me come in and smiles. “Well, how was the talk
with Sir Brady?” I approach the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water
and sit down at the kitchen table. My mom is cooking dinner; her
famous beef enchiladas she makes once in awhile. I prefer the
chicken ones, but these are really good too.

“
It went really well. I
feel so much better now that he knows about everything. It was a
big weight that has been lifted.” I take a drink of my water, both
Sarah and my mom staring at me. “What?” I ask, feeling slightly
uncomfortable. I hear a knock at the door and get up feeling
grateful for the interruption. These two are doing my head in. I
open the front door, Brooke is standing on the other side, with her
arms crossed in front of her, and looking really
nervous.

“
Hey.” I say.

“
Hey Abby.” We both stand
there in silence, staring at one another. She clears her throat
before she speaks. “Can we talk?” I open the door wider for her to
come in.

“
Hi Brooke, it’s great to
see you.” My mom comes out of the kitchen to greet her politely.
“We’ll talk later.” She says to me walking back to the
kitchen.

“
Hi Brooke.” Sarah shouts
from the kitchen. “Hi Sarah.” We walk to my bedroom and close the
door. I sit on my bed and she slides on into my desk
chair.

“
I talked to Brady and he
told me you guys settled everything.” She looks nervous, fiddling
with her hands not looking at me. “I’m really sorry, for
everything. You know, I’d never intentionally hurt you. I wanted
you to know about us but Brady wanted to tell you and then you
walked in and caught us and I just, I’m sorry.” She looks at me
through her long eyelashes. I sit cross-legged and put my hands in
my lap. “I’m sorry too.”

For a moment she looks confused. I guess
Brady didn’t tell her everything. “Okay, I guess you should know
I’ve been secretly dating Lucas.” She stares at me, unreadable
expression on her face. I just continue. She can yell at me later.
I stand up and pace around my room.

“
You know the party we all
went to? Well, Lucas was there. After you left with that guy, Matt
I think? Anyway, Brady was really drunk and high, so Lucas took me
home. Although we went to IHOP for some food and we had a great
time.” I’m still pacing and Brooke is still sitting there
dumbfounded. “So, to make a long story short, he and I have been
sneaking around. I wanted to tell you but I didn’t know how to tell
you. I know I’m a horrible person and I feel awful for keeping it a
secret. I’m so in love with him though Brooke and sometimes love
makes us crazy.” I stop pacing and look at her.

“
When did you and Sarah
become all chummy?” I flinch, surprised by her lack of concern for
anything else but our conversation. I sit on my bed across from her
and stare into her eyes. “Are you okay? After all that I told you,
you ask me that question?” She relaxes and leans back against my
desk, crossing her legs. “It happened after she told me she’s
moving in with my dad.” She gives me a confused look.
“What?”

“
Yeah, that’s another
topic to cover but first I want to get this all out so there are no
more secrets. I’m sorry Brooke. I love Lucas, bottom line and I
should have told you. Also I had sex with him.” Her eye brows rise
in shock. “Are you serious? Abby Lewis is no longer a virgin?” I
laugh. “Nope, I’m a big girl now.”

“
Oh my God, that’s crazy!
How was it? Oh goodness you have to give me details.” I bounce on
my bed in excitement. “Really? So are we cool again? You don’t know
how much I’ve wanted to talk to you about this.” She sits on my bed
next to me and grabs my shoulders. “Of course. We will always be
friends. I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you Abby. I truly am. I
didn’t want to hurt you. You know I love you. It wasn’t planned.
But I really care for him, Brady.”

“
I know and I have to
admit you guys looked cute together. You’re better together than I
ever was with him. Besides, I’m happy with Lucas.” A smile spreads
across my face so wide, my teeth start hurting. Brooke hugs me
fiercely. I hug her back. I’m really happy for her and glad to have
her back. All this time avoiding each other because, of boys, seems
miniscule.

We talk for a couple of hours. I tell her
all about how Sarah and I squashed our differences and how she’s
really surprising me in her changes and about my dad. I go into
detail about how Lucas and I started and the day we spent together
before we spent it in his bed. She sits there, listening for the
most part and saying things like “Ooh” and “ahh” and asking
questions. It feels like old times, having fun and talking about
your biggest crushes. She seems genuinely excited for me, which
makes me more excited.

“
Well, how cool will it be
if we can like double date?” She asks with a huge smile.

“
I think it would be
awesome. We just have to make sure the boys get along. You know how
they can’t stand each other much.”

“
Please, I will take care
of that. Lucas will not be left out anymore, rest assured sister!”
She starts jumping up and down in excitement and I can’t help but
join her. “Oh my gosh this is so cool. I am so happy for both of
us! We are going to have so much fun together, the four of us.” I
nod in agreement. Brooke can be a little overly excited about
things sometimes but I love her enthusiasm.

Once she leaves I enter the kitchen and warm
up my dinner in the microwave. “Wow, so what’s with Brooke? I could
hear squealing in here.” I grab my hot plate out once the timer
goes off and sit down at the table.

“
Apparently she likes the
idea of me and Lucas.” I answer, taking a small bite of my
food.

“
Why, so she can date
Brady?” I shake my head and take a sip of my soda.

“
Well, she just likes the
idea of us going on double dates together. She’s excited so I’m not
going to take that away from her. We are all past this now.” I burn
my tongue and drop my fork onto my plate. “Dammit! That shit is
hot!”

“
Maybe you should blow on
it before you stick it in your mouth, genius.” I snicker at her and
take another drink. “Thanks, I’ll try to remember that next
time.”

“
By the way, there is
supposed to be some really big family gathering of some sort this
weekend. I don’t have all the details but dad said he wants you to
invite Lucas.” I grit my teeth. I can only imagine how that’s going
to go down. The door bell rings and Sarah and I look at each other
for a moment. “Are you expecting someone?” She asks me.

“
No, not that I know of.”
She gets up to answer the door while I sit there and finish my
dinner. Then Sarah enters the kitchen again, with Lucas. “Look what
I found at our doorstep. You need to keep him on a leash, don’t let
him get away Abby.” She says laughing as she leaves the room. Lucas
bends down to kiss me briefly before plopping in the chair next to
me.

“
Hi.” I say taking another
bite but not before blowing on it first.

“
Hi. How was your
day?”

“
It was pretty
interesting, good. Oh and my dad wants you to come to some family
gathering this weekend. Sarah just told me. You don’t have to go if
you don’t-“

“
Of course I’m going. I
want to support my girl around her judgmental family.” I smile and
hold his hand. “I’m sure they’ll love you.” I wrap my arms around
his neck and tilt my head to look at his green eyes. He kisses me
sweetly on the lips. I break away after a few minutes. I go to the
sink to wash my plate and put it away.

“
Oh hi dear, I’m glad you
ate. Hi Lucas.” My mother walks in the kitchen with a pile of
laundry to wash.

“
Hey Angie.”

“
Do you need help with
that mom?” I ask, rinsing my cup out and setting it by the sink for
future use.

“
No, honey I’ve got this.
You go hang out with your boyfriend.” We take our cue to leave and
go to my room. I sit on my bed exhausted.

“
Wanna watch a movie?” He
asks as he stands in my doorway.

“
Sure, pick one. But don’t
just stand there like I’m going to bite.” He comes in and looks at
my DVD collection. He sifts through them skeptically and I get up
to close my door.

“
You have a great
collection. It’s hard to choose one. Chick flick or
comedy?”

“
Um, how about the Wedding
Singer?” I ask. I love Adam Sandler movies. And that is one of my
favorites. Drew Barrymore is so cute in it too.

“
Sounds good to me, the
old lady is cool.” It makes me smile that he likes the old lady.
She’s so cute when she dances and sings in that one scene. I always
sing along with her. I hope I’m that cute when I’m old and wrinkly.
He takes the DVD out of the case and slips it into the player. I
get in my bed under the covers and he grabs the remote and lies
down beside me, turning the TV on and pushes play. He wraps his arm
around my shoulder and I lay my head in the crook of his arm. I
entangle my legs with his, feeling the warmth from his body. Within
the first half hour my eye lids get heavy with sleep and soon
enough I can’t fight it anymore. I doze off.

“
Babe, I gotta go.” Lucas
nudges me awake but I don’t budge.

The next thing I know, I’m awoken to the
sound of my alarm clock. I stretch and thrust the covers off of me.
I sit up and a yawn escapes me.

“
Get up Abby.” My mother
peeks in the door frame.

“
I’m up.” I slowly make my
way to my closet for clothes.

At school I yawn a lot
like I haven’t slept in days.
What is
going on with me?
I wonder. I get through
my classes pretty easily and even though I’m exhausted, I manage to
get my assignments done.

“
Abby, I need some help
with one of these questions. It’s so confusing. ” Chelsea taps me
on the shoulder. I look at her then down at her paper. After I
explain the question to her until she figures it out, I sift
through my English book, after I have finished my History
assignment.

When the bell rings, I get up to leave.
Chelsea catches up to me and walks beside me. “Hey, so I heard
about you and Lucas. How did that happen?”

“
It’s a long story. But
one day I will fill you in.” I wave bye to her and hit my
locker.

“
Hey beautiful.” Lucas
says from behind me.

“
Hey, sorry I fell asleep
last night. I guess I was really tired.” I say, as I put my stuff
away and close my locker. With no homework, I decide to leave my
bag and books in my locker for the night.

“
Oh it’s okay. I loved
watching you sleep. You look quite angelic.” I lightly tap on his
chest. “Please, that’s so cheesy and totally untrue.” I say but
happy to hear his sweet comments. I hug him and he wraps his arms
around me protectively.

“
Seriously, you looked
beautiful sleeping. Come on, let’s walk to the parking lot
together.”

“
Thank you Lucas. I love
when you say stuff like that.” We walk hand in hand to my car. He
stands in front of me and reaches up to tuck some of my hair behind
my ear. He leans down to kiss me and for a moment I forget where I
am.