Page 9 of Back To You

Half of me wanted to get on my knees and beg her to listen to me, to give me another chance, but the other half of me recognized that the Annie I knew was gone.

She wasn’t coming back.

So I decided that night that I was going to do whatever I could to make her fall in love with me all over again.

It would be different this time. We were adults. Different people. We weren’t 15 anymore, and I still had to get to the bottom of what happened between us in the first place.

I told myself I would stop at nothing.

Yet, here we are, seven years later, and the closest she’s let me get to her is the night of Drew and Emmett’s wedding almost five years ago when she got drunk, ended up in my hotel room, and told me she was tired of pretending to hate me.

It was the first, and last, time I ever saw her more than a little tipsy.

I wanted to ask her what she meant, but by the time I registered what exactly she was saying, she was sprawled out, asleep in my bed.

I watched her sleep until the sun started to rise and I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I dreamed about how beautiful she was and how I was almost over that wall she had put between us, but she was gone by the time I woke up.

It takes her a second to register my touch on her lower back. She promptly turns to give me a glare and steps outof my touch as she listens to whatever the person on the phone is telling her.

“Okay, I’ll be right over there,” she says before hanging up and turning to walk back into Lenny’s, ignoring me.

“Who was that?” I ask, stopping her mid-step, and I know it was the wrong question to ask as she slowly turns to face me.

One thing I’ve learned about Annie over the years is there is very little I can say that won’t piss her off, but acting in any way protective or worried about her is a sure way to ensure she doesn’t talk to me for days.

“Why do you continue to act like my business is any of yours?” she answers, crossing her arms.

“You seemed upset. Is everything okay?” I try again, hoping she’ll at least tell me what had her so taken aback.

She rolls her eyes before turning to the front door of Lenny’s. “Someone broke into my apartment,” she answers over her shoulder, as if she’s telling me my shoe is untied. “I have to head over there.”

My fists clench at the nonchalance of her voice and the severity of what she just said.

Before I can tell her I’m coming with her, she’s back inside and the door to Lenny’s shuts in my face. I let out a groan because this girlwillbe the death of me, either by killing me with the way she acts or with her actual hands.

“Is everything okay?” I hear Mia ask Annie when I get inside.

“Everything’s fine,” Annie answers as she grabs her purse, but she doesn’t look Mia in the eyes. “My landlord called with a small issue and needs me to head over.”

“What kind of issue?” Drew asks.

Before Annie can give some bullshit excuse, I answer for her knowing I will pay for it later. “Someone brokeinto her apartment.” There isn’t the usual lightness to my voice; I’m not here to make light of things or make a joke in an uncomfortable situation like I usually do.

What if Annie had been home during the break-in?

I can’t even think about it without feeling like I might hyperventilate.

Annie’s shoulders tighten and her eyes whip to mine. She’s pissed, and I knew she would be, but so am I. Not only because this situation is serious and she could be in danger, but because even for how much Annie has changed and evolved into this new version of herself, she still believes that asking for help makes her a burden.

She may not be scared to speak her mind or tell you what you don’t want to hear, seeing as though she refuses to take shit from anyone, but I still have yet to see her ask for help when she needs it.

Years of parents treating her like she is nothing more than background noise and people who were supposed to be her friends telling her she’s paranoid or overreacting when they made a joke at her expense left scars on her that may have healed but have never gone away.

The atmosphere of the bar shifts, and a worried Drew and Mia and a pissed off Emmett and Eddie watch Annie and me as we stare at each other, a silent conversation passing through us, one that has happened many times before.

Her telling me to stop talking, and me not listening.

“You’re not going alone,” I say, staring into her eyes. We’re all around the high-top table, but the world around Annie and me disappears. Annie’s eyes soften for a moment, and she lets me see past that hard exterior.

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