Page 19 of I Would Stay Forever
“Has it happened before?” I asked curiously. I knew Tiffany had made out with other guys a number of times, but I didn’t know most of their names.
“Not with her, but I’ve seen him make moves on other guys’ girlfriends loads of times,” Dean said. His hand on the back of the booth dropped, brushing the bare skin on my back, and I shivered at the touch. I wasn’t sure why, since his hands weren’t even particularly cold. “I think he sees it as a game. Getting the off-limits girl and all that.”
Even though he was talking about cheating, the words reminded me of Zoey talking about Dean at volleyball practice earlier—even hotter because it’s forbidden.I studied Dean’s profile as he looked around the restaurant again. I wondered if he liked the idea of something forbidden. Then I shook my head, trying to forcefully push the thoughts out of my mind. That was something I shouldn’t have been thinking about, especially not in relation to Dean.
I was so distracted watching him that I didn’t even notice when the girl from the takeout counter appeared at the end of our table, bag in hand.
“For Novak?” she asked. Even though she must have known the order was for me, her eyes were trained on Dean. He gave her his usual smile and she looked like her knees started wobbling.
“Yes,” I said forcefully when Dean said nothing. I took the bag from her grip and let it go without so much as a glance at me.
“Thank you…” Dean studied her name tag. “Bella.”
I was honestly pretty sure she was going to throw herself at him when he said that, but I didn’t wait around to find out. Ielbowed Dean hard in the back. “Excuse me, you’re blocking the only exit.”
Luckily, he listened immediately and slid out of the booth, allowing me to slide out as well. I thought he would stick around to chat her up, but he surprised me by taking the bag out of my hands, flashing the girl one more smile, then turning and walking out ahead of me. I thought Bella would be offended at his blatant dismissal of her, but she just sighed dreamily and wandered off.
I hurried to catch up with Dean since he had my food and hadn’t bothered waiting for me. His legs were longer than mine and I only caught up to him as he was nearing the mall exit. He barely spared me a glance as I reached him, like it hadn’t occurred to him that I might not catch up.
He pushed open the heavy glass door and stepped aside, holding it open for me. I mumbled athank youas I stepped into the humid air outside. It was a shock to my system after the air conditioning inside, which was turned to such a low temperature that I felt like I might freeze.
“Where are you parked?” he asked as the door shut behind us. I slipped my sunglasses onto my face, then walked toward the far end of the lot where the bike racks were sitting on the grass between the parking lot and the sidewalk.
“My bike’s over there,” I said.
His mouth twisted in a frown. “You don’t have your car?”
“No. I, uh…” I cleared my throat, trying to come up with a believable excuse for why I would choose to bike around instead of driving when I had my own car. Mum had accepted my excuse about wanting to enjoy the summer weather while it was here, but I doubted Dean would. And I needed to come up with a better excuse soon anyway with winter coming up. Even if I wanted to pass my car off to Ainsley or Imogen, they couldn’t even get their learner’s permits until December and their fulllicenses until next summer. That was a long stretch of time that I would have to make excuses for. “I didn’t want to deal with mall parking. It’s always so hectic here and I don’t trust anyone not to dent it.”
There, that was a good excuse. One that only worked for going to the mall or other crazy areas, but it was something—and it was much better than saying that driving my car around made me want to throw up because all I could think about when I was in it was that night. Of anyone, Dean would probably be the one person to truly understand, but I didn’t want to have to admit to him. I didn’t want him to see that he’d been right when he said I wasn’t over it.
“And what were you planning to do with the food? Put it in your basket?”
That had been my exact plan, but I would have felt like an idiot if I said so when he was so obviously making fun of me, so I just stared straight ahead without saying a word. Dean huffed and muttered something under his breath, then sped up, leaving me in the dust.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Follow me and find out!”
I rolled my eyes at his antics but sped up to a jog anyway to follow after him. The parking lot was filling up as it got later in the afternoon and people started coming for dinner or after work shopping. If Dad were still around, we would have gone for dinner tomorrow to celebrate the end of the first week of school. That was always one of his traditions. I guess we could still do it without him, but I wasn’t sure any of us would want to.
I lost Dean a few times as I paused for cars to pass or watched bustling families move by. When I passed a family with four young kids—three girls and one boy—I stopped walking with even meaning to, my eyes trailing after them as they walked inside. Two of the girls were holding the mom’s hand while theboy walked ahead. The third girl was being carried on her dad’s shoulders and playing with his hair. My mouth went dry. The world started spinning around me, faster and faster as if I were being thrown back in time to when my family looked like that.
All I wanted was a break from this pain—from the heartache and the what if’s and the knowing that life would never go back to being the same.
“Lavender.” A hand waved in front of my face, blocking the family from view and I blinked. I turned my head to find Dean standing right next to me.
“Sorry, I was just…” I trailed off as I realized that not only was Dean standing next to me, but he was holding my bike by his side, the bag of food now sitting in the basket. So that’s where he’d been walking off to in such a rush. “I’m pretty sure I locked that.”
He held one hand up and opened it, letting a Parkhurst Prep lanyard hang from his fingers. My keys all clanked together as they swung in the air. I gaped at him.
“You really should keep better track of your things,” he said. “I took it off you as soon as you said you had your bike and you didn’t even notice.”
“So you’re a pickpocket now?” I asked. I went to grab the lanyard but he moved his hand away, making the keys swing even more.
“I prefer to think of it as taking advantage of a situation,” Dean said. He pulled the lanyard back up so he could clench the keys in his hand again, taking away my chance to grab them back.
“And why exactly did you need my keys and bike?”
