Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (28 page)

“Get me my black bra in the bathroom, will you? We’re misfitting tonight.”

Spencer smiles brightly. “Love you, babygirl.”

“Love you, too,” I say. He’s trying so hard to keep my spirits up, the least I can do is hold myself together long enough to give him a worry-free night of misfitting at the mansion.

Evan

A few hours after the dreaded fiasco with her mother and Skylar, Bree and I head over to my house to watch a movie. It was an easy call to make, because the likelihood of anyone being home would be slim, and we’d finally have a few drama-free hours to ourselves.

Unfortunately, as soon as we are through the door, it becomes blatantly clear that both Ellie and Mom are, in fact, home tonight.

Great.

We turn the corner out of the foyer and into the living room where they are sitting on the couch, sharing a blanket and eating popcorn. They are watching some sort of teen show on TV and don’t notice us right away.

Here goes nothing.

I clear my throat and wait for their reactions.

Ellie sees Bree first and a smirk creeps up on her face. I can’t be sure of why she seems so amused. She knew about my interest in Bree, but I don’t understand why she would care if I was bringing her here to meet them.

My mom looks at us curiously for a moment, and then pauses the TV. “Evan,” she says. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Bree,” I say and then after a small pause I add, “my girlfriend.”

My mom’s lips curl up into a tiny smile.
Oh God, no.

Ellie stares at Bree, appearing to be shocked into silence upon hearing that Bree is now my girlfriend. Even though this is strange, it’s honestly fine by me since I can’t begin to imagine what she’ll say once she finds her voice again.

Bree waves at them shyly and then takes my hand into hers.

“So happy to meet you, Bree,” my mom says. “I’m Jenna, and this is Evan’s sister, Ellie.”

Ellie looks Bree over and then shoots me a quick sideways glance. There is something about Bree being here that’s bothering her, and judging by the look on her face, she’ll be voicing her concerns any second now.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” she blurts out bluntly.

I shoot her a dirty look. I’m not exactly shocked that she said it since Ellie isn’t known for keeping her mouth shut too often, but I’m still embarrassed that she would say it in front of our mom. “You didn’t just seriously ask her that,” I snap. I turn to Bree apologetically, “I’m so sorry. My sister doesn’t think before she speaks.”

Ellie shrugs. “What did I say?”

Mortified doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling right now. I can feel my face turning a nice dark shade of pink. I look back at my mom and her smile has faded into a confused look of curiosity.

“Not anymore,” Bree says to Ellie calmly. “Skylar and I broke up.”

I’m proud of Bree for keeping herself together under the scrutiny of my sister, but that information was a bit more than I was planning on having my mom know about her, and all I can do is shake my head over and over as I attempt to keep my breathing steady.

Bitch.

Ellie’s eyebrows raise and a moment later so do my mom’s. No one says anything for a few moments and the silence is deafening.

Mom’s curiosity morphs into a look of deep concern though, and I immediately feel horrible. I know what she’s thinking.

“I really hope my son had nothing to do with that breakup.”

“Mom!” I exclaim, shocked that she would voice what she was thinking. I don’t want her to know that I stole Bree from Skylar. She’d be so disappointed in me if she knew. And I hate it when she’s disappointed. It pisses me off. But now that she’s basically implied it, likely fishing for details, I can’t expect Bree to lie for me.

This is a total disaster. I cringe and look to the ground angrily.

“I’m just saying that I’d be upset to find out I raised a boy who would do that.”

I look to Bree. This is all up to her and I don’t expect her to lie about it but I’m secretly hoping she will. I squeeze her hand.

“We broke up on our own,” she tells my mom. “Evan had nothing to do with it.”

Ellie doesn’t look convinced at all, but Mom seems happy with the answer. “That’s good,” she says. I let out a small breath of relief, keeping it as discreet as possible so that she doesn’t know I was worried about what Bree might have said.

“We-ell,” I say, tugging on Bree’s hand and starting down the hallway. “We’re going to watch a movie in my room.”

“I bet,” Ellie scoffs and I see from the corner of my eye that my mom nudges her in the shoulder. They both giggle.

Kill me now.

“Be good,” my mom calls out after us, laughter in her voice. I shake my head, keeping quiet and picking up the pace. “Oh,” she calls out just as we are about to enter my room. “You have mail. I left it on your bed.”

“Ok,” I say dismissively, just wanting her to stop talking.

Once we are inside my room I shut the door and lock it. “We should have come in the friggin’ window,” I say, not being able to hide how mortified that whole introduction has made me. “I’m really sorry about that.”

Bree laughs. I love the sound of it. “It’s fine,” she says. “I don’t have an awesome mom like that or any siblings so it was a taste of something new for me. How old is your mom anyway? She looks really young.”

And the inevitable question.

“She’s thirty-three,” I say. “She had me when she was fifteen.” I don’t like having to tell people that bit of information for the first time because so many people are quick to judge my mom for it. The ‘irresponsible teenaged mom’. Not that I think Bree will judge her, but I can’t help the way the topic makes me feel.

Her eyes grow wide with surprise. “Seriously?”

I nod. “Yeah, she was eighteen when she had Ellie and then a year later our dad decided family life with my mom wasn’t for him anymore so he fucked off. It’s been just the three of us ever since.”

She looks at me with the same look everyone else does when I tell them the story. Pity. “Evan…I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”

I shrug, “It was a long time ago,” I say, taking a seat on the bed and pulling her to me, attempting to both lighten the mood and change the subject.

She laughs, allowing herself to tumble on top of me. She sits her knees on either side of my body, straddling my hips, and as I look up at her beautifully flushed face gazing down at me I think she might want to do something more than just make out tonight. My heart feels like it jumps into my throat as I consider that as a possibility.

I bring my hand to her face and she seductively licks my fingers one after another. This is actually happening!

Oh my God.

But she’s a virgin or at least she is with guys, and a virgin is something I’ve never experienced before. Adrienne was far from that when I lost mine to her, and she’s all I’ve ever been with. What do I do to make sure Bree’s comfortable? What if I hurt her?

I can’t do this. There’s no way I’m ready for this type of responsibility!

I sit up and gently move Bree over to sit beside me. “I’m just going to take a look at this mail my mom left on the bed,” I say as casually as possible, reaching for the thick envelope sitting beside us.

She looks me over with mild confusion but brushes it away quickly, plastering on a soft smile instead. “Is it from a college?” she asks.

I nod.

The letter is from Hudson University, which is my first and only pick due to the fact that it’s only six hours away and a fast flight back to my mom and sister if they need me. I wasn’t even planning on applying at all, but my mom insisted that I stop worrying about her and Ellie and just do it. So I eventually gave in and applied.

I turn the envelope over and see that it’s already been ripped open. Ellie and Mom just couldn’t wait till I got home. I smirk, I’ll have to yell at them about that later.

I pull out the contents of the envelope and quickly read over the front letter. The minute I see the words
‘very pleased’
,
‘academic scholarship’
, and
‘welcome to the fall session’
I smile.

“I got in,” I say with a goofy grin. I had a feeling it was an acceptance letter because of how thick the envelope was, but it doesn’t feel real till you see those words. Now it’s real. I’m going to Hudson on a full academic scholarship!

It must have taken my mom medication not to blurt this info out to me as soon as I walked in the door. Of course, me walking in with Bree probably threw her for a loop, considering it has been quite a while since I’ve brought a girl home.

I wrap my arms around Bree in an excited hug. “A full scholarship,” I say to her with a laugh.

Bree hugs me back and then reaches across the bed to turn the envelope over. “Hudson,” she says. “Congratulations.” She kisses me softly on the cheek and I can sense there’s something that she isn’t telling me. Something’s bothering her.

And then it dawns on me. We are a new couple and we will both be going our separate ways in the fall. We haven’t talked about this yet, about what we will be doing at the end of the summer. Will we be breaking up or will we attempt a long distance relationship? This is a bad time for that discussion, though. Tonight is already a mess; we don’t need to add more to it. I shouldn’t have opened the letter while she was here.

“I’m sorry, we’ve never even had the school talk yet. I should have waited to this,” I say, feeling terrible.

“Oh my God, Evan no,” she says shaking her head, “you’re happy, you should be happy! This is the school you wanted and you got in.”

“Did you get accepted to the school you wanted?” I ask, still feeling uncomfortable about the topic.

“I got an early acceptance in December, actually. I’m already enrolled and everything,” she tells me and then looks like she’s about to add something else but hesitates.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing. I was just waiting for Skylar’s acceptance, but I guess that doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Oh,” I say and then after a moment I go on. “What school?” I ask if for nothing more than to bring her away from thoughts of Skylar. But, to be honest, thoughts of us being apart come the fall is pretty depressing too. Especially if Skylar will be there with her and I can’t be. I don’t really like the idea of that at all.

She shoots me a weak smile. “Hudson,” she says and then waits for my reaction.

“Hudson? My Hudson?” I laugh. “Are you serious?” I ask, not being able to contain my excitement.

“Going for my bachelor of science,” she says with a chuckle, apparently just as blown away by this as I am.

I shake my head. “This is like fate, right? I mean, this has to mean something.”

She throws her head back and laughs loudly. Her cheeks grow rosy, and her beautiful head of curls bounce with each gasp of breath. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t get all
girl
y on me there.”

I laugh. I guess I had that one coming. “Will you be staying in residence or off campus?” I ask.

“Residence.”

“Wow. This is crazy. And awesome!”

“It really is,” she says, leaning in and kissing me softly on the lips. Her tongue pushes its way into my mouth and within an instant, my body—most notably my crotch—reacts. I’m suddenly right back to the problem at hand. She makes me want to do so many dirty things to her in so many dirty positions. I need to take a step back to collect myself.

“So, what do you feel like watching?” I ask, pulling away from the kiss and reaching for the remote control on the nightstand. I need to change the subject and I need to change it fast.

“Whatever you’re in the mood for,” she says, sliding her hand up under my shirt and running her finger over one of my nipples. My stomach does flip-flops. Could she want sex tonight? Should I just come out and ask, or does that make me a total jerk?

I flick on the TV and choose a random channel before turning back to face her. “Are we planning something… um, special tonight?” I ask. I take in a tiny breath and hold it as I anticipate her response. I really hope I’m not reading her wrong. I don’t want to offend her by implying that having her in my room automatically means I expect to have sex with her because that couldn’t be further from the truth.

She lays her head on my shoulder and takes my hand into hers. “Do you want us to do something special tonight?” she asks, glancing up at me and smirking. She bites down on her lip the way she knows I can’t resist.

Oh my God.

“I do,” I say, my voice cracking slightly.
So embarrassing
. I quickly go on. “But only if you want to.”

She nods. “I think I want to.”

“Ok,” I reply almost breathlessly. I lick my lips and then lean into hers for a kiss. But knowing what this kiss is leading to makes it completely petrifying. I know that I need to be a gentleman. I need to be soft, and kind, and it needs to be special. I’m so scared that I won’t know how to do all of those things. Adrienne never needed or wanted any of those things from me.

I pull my t-shirt up over my head, and then gently lower her down onto my bed. I position myself next to her and pull her to me, pressing her body close to my bare chest. I reach for her shirt and begin to unbutton it, but I catch myself hesitating, so I pull my hands away. Why am I being such a wuss about this? What’s my problem? It’s not like I haven’t done this before. I have plenty of times.