Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (9 page)

Oddly enough though, she doesn’t seem to annoy Derrick at all. I guess that’s what falling in love is like. Being with someone and all of their little quirks aren’t even bothersome. At least that’s my guess anyway, judging by how I see my two best friends with each other.

“You know I can’t control what she does,” Derrick says, interrupting my thoughts. He reaches for her hand, but she playfully swats him away.

I chuckle. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“So?” Kelsie asks impatiently.

“So, nothing. We haven’t really had a chance to talk. I’m working, in case you forgot.”

She sticks her tongue out at me. “Yeah, yeah. Keep making excuses, Evan.”

“Hey babe, let’s get some snacks for tonight. Maybe order a movie or something?” Derrick says, starting toward the rack of chips.

Kelsie thinks about that for a moment. “Yeah, that would be cool. Evan you want to join us after you get off work?”

From the corner of my eye, I see Derrick at the chip rack shaking his head and mouthing the word ‘no’. I smile. “Nah Kels, thanks, but I’ve got all this extra homework for Chem class to do. Next time.” I glance at Derrick and he gives me a thumbs up. Obviously Derrick has something
more
planned than simply watching a movie and eating snacks.

Kelsie joins Derrick at the chip rack. “Oh, I love junk food so much. I hope you don’t mind if I get all big and frumpy when I’m old. I’m too much of an addict to stop now.”

I hear Derrick laugh as they head toward the cash. “You’ll be hot no matter what, babe. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

I peek around the counter and watch Kelsie, with the most serious look on her face, say to him, “You are so sexy right now.”

I shake my head.
Ladies and gentlemen, my friends.

They walk out the door and a few minutes later I get a text from Derrick that I can barely see through the busted screen.

Derrick:
Kiss her

If only it were so easy.

Skylar

Bree’s mom is more than happy to have me as company while Bree is gone to work that night. We spend the first few hours after I arrive making and freezing meals while we chat about our favorite television shows. I love spending time with Alice. I always feel so much at ease when I’m around her. She makes everything wrong in my life a distant memory. I can’t help but smile the entire time I’m with her in spite of how horrible my day has been.

“I honestly was thinking of trying that show,” Alice says when I tell her that I’m loving
Orange is the New Black.
She pours spaghetti sauce into another mason jar adding it to the collection of already filled jars on the counter.

“I’m not sure it’s your type of show,” I say with a laugh.

There is a loud knock at the front door and I jump, startled.

“Are you expecting anyone, dear?” Alice asks as she wipes her hands on her apron and heads toward the front door.

I shake my head, looking at my cell on the table to see if I had missed a text. There’s no text.

“Skylar,” Alice calls from the foyer, “the door is for you, sweetie.”

I walk over to the door curiously. Alice leaves it open a crack and begins back toward the kitchen. She gives me a quick wink as she passes, and I am instantly puzzled. Who could it be? She wouldn’t be acting this way if it were Spencer. We haven’t told her about his sexual orientation, but I have a feeling she already knows, she’s never really warmed up to him over the years.

I take a step out onto the porch and feel my feet freeze in place when I see Parker sitting on the swing in front of the bay window. He looks up at me carefully. I reach for the doorknob and pull the door closed as fast as I can so Alice can’t hear our exchange. My eyes are wide and my entire body begins to tremble. He shakes his head at the sight of my visible fear, but I can’t help reacting the way that I do. Who he is scares me now.

We stare at each other for a long time while I try to find my voice.

“Why are you here?” I eventually whisper.

“You won’t talk to me whenever Bree is around,” he says, defensively.

“That’s because there is nothing to say,” I hiss. “It’s been over a year, Parker. A fucking year! You think I want to talk about it? I don’t even want to remember it!”

“I’m sorry,” he says, raising his voice slightly. “Ok? If you’d just let me explain… please,” his voice trails off.

I shake my head. “And what the fuck do you expect me to do with your explanation? You think that changes anything?”

He takes a deep breath, holds it for a moment, and exhales loudly. “I know it was all my fault… I was hiding from my past and—”

“I don’t care.”

“Sky…”

“No!” I exclaim. “I don’t want anything to do with you. And for a while you seemed to have accepted that, so I don’t know why you've decided all of a sudden that you need to dredge this up again, but save it. I just want you to leave me alone.”

He gets up off of the porch swing and takes a step toward me. I counter his step with a backward step of my own. My eyes drop to the wooden planks of the porch.

“Does Bree know?” he asks quietly, and I jerk my head up to glare at him. He wants to make sure I didn’t tell anyone, that’s what this is all about.

I clench my fists. “Bree doesn’t know any of it. She thinks it was you who attacked me,” I spit angrily.

He hesitates but only for a moment. “Is she your girlfriend now?”

I nod, a bit confused by the question. Is this about him protecting his secret or is it about him seeing me kiss Bree today? “Yes. She’s been my girlfriend for a while now,” I confess.

He takes another step toward me, and this time I manage to stand my ground in spite of the urge I have to move away. I put my hand up to his chest and firmly push him back. “No.” I shake my head. “You have to leave.”

He lifts his hands in exasperation. “Fine. I’m gone. I was never even here.”

“Exactly.”

He crashes down the steps and storms halfway down the walkway before turning around abruptly. “Whatever happened to you telling me that it didn’t matter who I am out here?”

I don’t blink as I stare into his eyes. “I was wrong,” I reply coolly.

He nods slightly, not taking those piercing blue eyes off of mine for even a second. I see a flash of pain emerge on his face and then it disappears just as quickly. He continues down the walkway and kicks one of Alice’s potted plants into the road. I startle and bring my hand to my mouth in surprise as the pot smashes into pieces.

He jogs across the street, and I sit down on the bottom step of the porch trying to calm the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Just as he jumps the chain-link fence across the street into the park, Spencer pulls into the driveway in the new red
Camaro
his stepdad bought for him last week.

“What the fuck was that?” Spencer asks, getting out of the car and heading over to me. He peers across the street where Parker is now disappearing out of sight over the horizon.

“I took care of it,” I say, dismissively.

Spencer raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. He lights a cigarette and hands it to me before lighting himself another one. He takes a seat beside me.

“Was it Parker?” he asks after a few minutes.

I nod once. “It was.”

“Did he hurt you?”

I shake my head. “No, he didn’t touch me.”

He clears his throat uneasily, trying to decide if he should pry any further. “Should I be worried about him coming around again?”

I sigh. “You know he didn’t hurt me like Bree thinks he did, right?”

Spencer runs a hand through his perfectly styled brown hair, messing it up completely. My answers are frustrating him. “So you say. But I saw the bruise on your face that night, and your ripped clothes. Someone hurt you.”

I take a long drag of my cigarette and wait a moment before exhaling. “Someone did,” I say. “But it wasn’t Parker.”

He sits in silence for a moment, trying to decide if he should ask me something further and after some contemplation, he does. “Do you know who did?”

I shake my head.

“But Parker does?”

I nod.

He takes in a sharp breath and I can tell that he’s trying to determine if he should ask me the question that neither he nor Bree had ever bothered to ask me before, because they were both so certain they already knew.

“Were you raped?”

There it is. Finally. They just assumed it, and I never said any differently. I couldn’t. Not right then, not when I was too scared of what would happen to me if I did.

I shake my head as a single tear rolls down my cheek. “Parker… stopped him,” I say, brushing the tear away quickly and I can tell that Spencer was not expecting that response at all.

His eyes grow wide and his mouth drops open, as my confession seems to sink in. He gazes at me, almost angrily. “Why didn’t you tell us that?”

“Because it’s better this way.”

“By whose standards, Skylar?” he demands, growling my name. He rarely ever calls me by my name. “Parker’s a rapist in this scenario! Do you know how many times I’ve almost punched that guy in the face? He wouldn’t have even deserved it.”

“I think he would have. He’s responsible for that night. For dragging me into a fucked up world filled with fucked up shit, and I want nothing more to do with him. Having you and Bree thinking he was a monster kept him and his scary life away from me.”

“And that’s fair?”

“It’s not fair but it was necessary. I can’t be around him.”

“Why?”

“Because I just can’t.”

“Because you were in love with him,” Spencer accuses.

“No.” I shake my head stubbornly. “He scares me.”

“Now. But you loved him then.”

“I was in love with a lie! Whose side are you on anyway? I am in love with Bree. She’s the real thing. Parker… isn’t.”

He takes another puff of his cigarette before butting it out on the concrete by his foot and chucking it into the grass. “Are you going to tell Bree the whole story?”

“Oh, that’ll go over really well. ‘By the way Bree, not only did Parker Michelson not attack me the night you and I first kissed, but he and I had a secret relationship for nearly a year before that at
The Misfit Mansion
where we were both members.’ She’ll
really
love that.”

“It’ll come out either way,” he reminds me.

“Are you going to tell her?” I throw my cigarette butt in the grass next to his and turn to look him in the eye.

He shakes his head sadly. “I haven’t told her anything yet. Why would I start now?”

“I love her, Spencer.”

He nods. “I know you do. That’s why you can’t keep lying to her about your past. She will find out sooner or later. You’re scared to lose her, I get that. But you will lose her anyway if you aren’t honest with her. I know you know that.”

I think about earlier and how she reacted to Evan Daniels’ presence, her body blushing, and her nervousness around him. I’m already losing her and I haven’t even started to tell her about my past yet.

“I’m just not ready yet.”

“Yeah, I know,” he returns solemnly, then lets the topic go.

Bree

All night at work I go over and over what I wanted to say, what I should have said, and what I didn’t say to Parker. I imagine kicking him, punching him, and slapping that smug smile on his face so hard it leaves a handprint. I wish Skylar had reported him back when the attack happened. I should have made her. The regret of not encouraging her to do so, lingers in my mind every time I see his disgusting face.

As I replay our earlier exchange in my mind I wonder why, all of a sudden, he’s taking a much keener interest in intimidating her lately. I can’t be with her every second of the day and that scares me. I’m afraid of what he might say or do to her if he sees her without me. Hell, I’m scared of what he could do to the both of us even if we are together. There has to be something someone can do for this type of harassment!

I walk over to the front door and lock up ten minutes before I should. After the lock clicks, I give the door a good kick.

“What are you doing?” Evan asks with a chuckle when he notices me kicking the door.