Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (13 page)

Evan

In the library during fifth period, while I’m attempting to get ahead of some homework, Kelsie rushes over to my table eagerly.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a free period during fifth?” she asks out of breath. The librarian hisses for Kelsie to sit and to be quit.

Kelsie makes an annoyed face but sits down next to me anyway. She continues to stare me down as she waits for my reply.

I shrug, “I didn’t think it mattered.”

“Well, if you had a phone that actually worked you’d have seen what I just saw.” She pulls out her phone and slides it over to me.

“It’s not totally broken,” I begin to say but stop abruptly when I see the picture opened on her screen. “Where did you get this?” I ask, feeling my stomach turn uneasily.

“
Facebook
, Evan. You know that little social network that you never use?”

“Who posted it?”

“Like, five different people.”

I slide the phone back to her. “It’s her,” I say indifferently, and her eyes grow wide with excitement.

“
This
is who she’s seeing?” She shrieks.

The librarian hisses for Kelsie to be quiet a second time. “Sorry,” Kelsie says back, which only seems to annoy the librarian even more.

“Yeah. She’s with Skylar.” I whisper, turning my attention back to my math homework.

“And you didn’t think to tell me that this morning?”

“I didn’t know she was telling the world,” I return bitterly.

Kelsie shrugs, “Maybe she’s not. She’s not tagged, neither is Skylar.”

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. She’s with Skylar and our kiss was a big mistake.”

“Did she kiss you back?”

I narrow my eyes. “I’ve already gone through all of this with Derrick. I’m done talking about it. Doesn’t change anything anyway.”

“You went to Derrick and not me? Evan, what would make you think that would be a good idea?”

I shrug. “Because I know you Kels, I already know what you would have said.”

“And what’s that?” She asks curiously.

“To leave it alone and not to mess with their relationship. I mean, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Why would I consider doing something like that to them?”

She shrugs, “It doesn’t hurt to just be her friend, though. Becoming her friend doesn’t hurt anyone especially if she’s a lesbian, right?”

“See, that’s what I’m not so sure about,” I say, sitting up in my chair and turning to face her. “She wanted me to kiss her. She told me so.”

“Seriously?”

I nod.

“So when did it change?”

“She stopped the kiss and that’s when she told me she was involved with Skylar.” I lower my head. “I was so pissed, Kels. I would have never kissed her had I known. You know that.”

“I know that, Ev.” She pats my hand. “You should try to be her friend, though. You like her. Isn’t having her around as a friend better than not at all?”

I sigh and shake my head. “Maybe if she was a friend already. But I don’t know her yet, and I think that’s the best way to keep it, don’t you?”

Kelsie picks the phone up off the table and slides it into the side pocket of her backpack. “I guess that’s it then. We’ll find you someone else.”

I squint my eyes as though the words she’s saying cause me physical pain. “I don’t want to look for anyone else.”

Kelsie lays her cheek down on the table and looks up at me with big, sad eyes. “You’re too good of a guy to not have a great girl to spoil.”

I laugh. “If you hadn’t fallen for that doofus, Derrick, you’d be getting spoiled by yours truly day and night by now,” I joke.

Kelsie chuckles, “I bet.” Her face turns sober, “I’m serious though, Evan. You deserve to be happy. What Adrienne did… it sucks. But we aren’t all like her. If Bree isn’t the right one, then let me look. I’ll find you someone who truly deserves you.”

“Not now. Maybe someday, ok?”

“I just want you to be happy, Ev.”

“Yeah, yeah, now get the hell back to where you’re supposed to be and let me finish my math homework in peace.” I give her a playful shove.

She gets up from her chair and throws her backpack over her right shoulder. “Fine. I’m gone, she says with a wink, leaving me alone once again.

I lean back into my chair and let out an exasperated sigh. What do I do now?

Bree

Evan spends our entire evening shift together ignoring me. It isn’t until the end of it, while I’m locking up, that he decides to speak to me.

“Do you need a drive home?” he asks. I can’t be sure by his passive tone if he’s asking because he actually wants to, or because he’s just trying to be polite. Judging by the cold shoulder he’s given me all evening, I’d say it’s probably the latter.

At first I consider saying no because all of my instincts are telling me to keep him far away. But after a few minutes of thinking things over in my mind I decide to take him up on his offer. “If you don’t mind,” I say.

He looks taken aback. He wasn’t expecting me to say yes. Maybe I should have just declined. “Unless you don’t really want to,” I go on, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with my decision to accept.

He shakes his head. “No. I mean, I don’t mind. I asked you, so,” his voice trails off.

Could this get any more uncomfortable?

After I finish locking up, and rushing a few doors down to deposit tonight’s cash balance, he walks to his mother’s battered green
Taurus
and opens the passenger door for me. He’s too perfect. This was a bad idea.

“Thanks,” I mumble, sliding into the passenger seat. He shuts the door behind me and walks around the car to the driver’s side.

Once he’s out of the parking lot and heading toward my house, he turns to look at me for a moment but still doesn’t say anything.

I glance up slightly, mostly with my eyes. “Thanks for offering a drive,” I say finally because it just feels like something needs to be said here… to fill up space. And I know that thanking him for a drive is not what he’s expecting, but it’s all I can manage at the moment.

“You’re welcome,” he replies.

I try to decide how to begin talking to him in a way that doesn’t make it seem like I’m just doing it to be nice. I really want us to be friends. And not only because Skylar wants it, but because there is something about him that makes me certain that he’s meant to be a part of my life.

“Could we maybe start over?” I finally decide to ask in a small whisper.

He sighs loudly but doesn’t reply. I shift uncomfortably in my seat and then continue with my request. “I really like you—”

“Don’t,” he interrupts.

“Don’t what?”

“Just don’t.”

“What do you want from me?” I ask.

“Nothing. I just want to pretend last night didn’t happen,” he says.

“Ok,” I reply. “We can do that.”

“Oh and, by the way, I saw the pictures of you and your girlfriend on
Facebook
today. Great added insult to injury, thanks for that,” he says bitterly. He’s angry with me.

I sigh. “I thought we were pretending last night didn’t happen,” I say, attempting to lighten the mood, but it doesn’t seem to work.

“Yeah ok. Do you think Skylar will be able to pretend like it didn’t happen?” he returns with a sneer.

I look down at my hands and chip away some nail polish from my left thumbnail. I don’t want to look him in the eye.

“Does she even know?” he asks. “Did you tell her?”

“Of course,” I whisper.

He shakes his head. “This is crazy.”

“Why?”

“Because it just is.”

I begin to wonder what it is that Skylar wants to come out of this friendship she insists I need to have with him. How does she expect me to get to know Evan without leading him on? Or maybe that’s her plan. Maybe she wants me to hurt him.

“Ok. Look Evan, I’m going to be honest with you. Skylar not only knows about last night, she thinks it meant something to me.”

“Oh,” he says and there is a long pause. “Do
you
think that?” he asks finally.

I shrug. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t. I know I liked it. I liked it a lot.”

He nods, pursing his lips together slightly. “Ok,” he says uncertainly.

“She’s insisting I get to know you better.”

His eyes open wide but his expression remains the same. “Better how?”

I smile. “Not
like that!”

“What? No, that’s not what I meant,” he laughs, and it’s nice to hear.

“Like friends,” I say. “She wants us to be friends; spend some time together, get to know each other. Do you think that would be something you would want?”

He sighs and his beautiful smile fades from his face. “Why? So I can fall for you even more and then not get to be with you?”

“You’ve fallen for me?” I ask quietly. I can feel the blush begin to take over in my cheeks.

He shrugs. “Since the minute you bumped into me and broke my phone, you’ve been all I can think about. I’ve been hurt before though, I know how this story ends.”

“That’s the last thing I would ever want. I don’t want this to end badly.”

“Then why?”

“Because you make me second guess myself, Evan. Because when I’m near you, my body reacts to you. Because no guy has ever made me feel this way, and I need to know what that means.”

His cheeks begin to flush now, and he turns away quickly. I can’t believe I just confessed that! What am I doing? This is wrong… so very wrong.

We sit in silence for a while. I don’t know what else to say and it’s obvious that I’ve rendered him speechless. I’m an idiot.

“Would you like to meet my friends tomorrow night?” he asks finally, turning to look at me. He smiles slightly and his eyes seem to smile too. I like the hope I see in them.

I give him a little nod. “I’d really like that.”

Evan

“Out of bed lazy ass,” Derrick bellows as he pounds on my bedroom door Saturday morning. I reach over for my phone on my bedside table and peer through the cracked screen for the time. 9:37. Way too early.

“Go away, Derrick,” I groan as I roll over and cover my head with my blanket.

“Coming in buddy, so you better be decent,” he says and without any more notice, walks into my room.

“What part of go away don’t you understand, Derrick? Who the fuck let you in the house anyway?” I ask with my head still under the covers. I hear him chuckle, but he doesn’t reply.

I remove the blanket from my head. He puts two coffees down on my desk and a paper bag full of what smells like breakfast sandwiches beside the coffees. In his hand he’s holding the new
PS4
game he’s been talking about buying since it had come out at the beginning of the week.

“You’re sister let me in. Jeez, Ev, just get up and stop whining. We got zombies to kill.” He tosses the game at me and plops down in my desk chair.

“You seriously can’t go annoy Kelsie for a few hours?” I grumble.

“Nope. This is our day, bud,” he says with a huge grin and I roll my eyes.

“Lucky me,” I mumble, but he knows I’m not as annoyed as I’m letting on. I’m just not a morning person. That’s probably why he brought the coffee.

I get out of bed and pull on a pair of jogging pants and a dirty t-shirt from off of my floor. My hair is sticking up in all directions, but I don’t even try to fix it. Instead, I reach for one of the coffees on my desk and begin sipping it.