Page 27 of Next to Everything We Wanted
CHAPTER 8
Sienna
What the heck just happened?
I was frozen on the couch with a bowl of popcorn in my lap, my eyes stuck on the door that Ivan—well,Gavin—had left out of a minute ago. The twins were looking in the same direction.
After a few moments of silence, Emma finally spoke up. “What happened?” She faced me, her eyes as huge as saucers.
I shrugged. “I know just as much as you do.”
“He lied.” Adam crossed his arms over his chest, his bottom lip sticking out. “His name isn’t Ivan. It’s Gavin.”
“It’s called a stage name,” I said. “Some people don’t want to use their real names when they make music. I guess he didn’t want us to know, though it’s not like we’ll go around telling everyone.”
“We won’t!” Emma said, pretending to zip her lips. “We’re good at keeping secrets.”
My gaze went to the popcorn bowl in my lap, my heart still hammering in my chest. It didn’t look right seeing it half-empty. We were supposed to clean the whole thing out together. We were supposed to finish the movie.
No. We weren’t supposed to spendanytime together. He was only here for a place to stay while the rain cleared up and to treat Adam’s wound. We weren’t friends.
So why did it feel like someone had punched me in the chest?
Was smelling like a wet dog around him not bad enough?
“Let’s watch the movie for a little longer,” I told the twins. “Then we can make dinner for Dad.”
They nodded, but I could tell their hearts weren’t in it anymore. Mine wasn’t either. We’d been having a fantastic time after the disaster in the rain, but all the fun had left out of the door. Literally.
After a few minutes, Emma turned toward me again. “Will he come back?”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure he went home.” Part of me wished I had a way to reach him to know if he got home safely. There was his social media account, but no way did I have the guts to DM him. I felt like a stalker just from liking every post—not that he posted often.
“Will he come back another day?” Emma asked.
I frowned. “It was just for tonight.”
“What if he liked us and got nervous?”
“He sings in front of at least a hundred people every week, Emma. I don’t think he’d be nervous in front of three wet people and a wet dog who all smell like . . . wet dog.”
Bailey barked in agreement, beating her golden tail against the carpet.
“Everyone gets nervous, Sienna,” Adam said, facing me with a look in his brown eyes that I couldn’t pinpoint. “Even someone as brave as you.”
My heart pinched with his words. “Maybe it was too much for him at once.” I tossed a piece of popcorn into my mouth. “It doesn’t matter. He’s gone. Let’s not waste the rest of our evening, okay?”
The twins nodded before Emma turned the movie back on.
For the rest of the night, I couldn’t focus. I finished watching the movie, made a late dinner for Dad with the twins, and studied for my finals. I failed to distract myself with music. No matter what, the thing with Ivan—Gavin—was a broken record in my mind.
Ivan Hicks had been inmy house, sitting inches away from me. Sure, he’d smelled like wet dog, but he was smoking hot, even in my dad’s baggy clothes. And he was so freaking nice, so fun to talk to. He called the un-glammed version of mecute.
But he wasn’t Ivan Hicks. He was this Gavin person who I knew nothing about. Then again, I couldn’t know everything about someone by watching them perform every week. My starstruck brain had convinced me that I knew more about him than I actually did.
“Why are you grabbing the dog food for the cats?”
“Crap.” I sighed, putting the dog food back on the shelf.
