Page 7 of Sweet Chaos
“I never minded it when you talked.”
I laughed. “Could have fooled me. You told me you didn’t have time for my teen drama and shit.”
He took another drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke out of the side of his mouth and huffed out a laugh before he spoke. “You remember that.”
“Why do you think I stopped texting and calling? You injured my pride.” It had been more than my pride. Those words had hurt my foolish teenage heart far more than they should have. But he didn’t need to know that I’d cried over him.
I opened the plastic lid of my shake and tossed the cigarette into the cup, the dregs of the milkshake dousing the fire and making it sizzle. I replaced the lid and tossed the cup in one of the takeout bags.
He gave me a sidelong glance. “Funny. I used to have a hoodie just like that.” He smirked.
I stifled a groan. What were the chances I’d be wearing his UC San Diego hoodie tonight? The same hoodie he’d given me the night I snuck in to watch his underground fight. I took it off and handed it to him.
He waved it off. “Keep it. You ruined your sweater for me.”
“You were bleeding. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Not ruin your sweater.”
“You got in that fight because of me.”
“I wanted to kill those assholes for messing with you.”
He’d gotten into a fight over me,afterbeating his opponent in the underground fight. I remembered thinking that nobody had ever fought for me before. That was the night I’d fallen in love with Dylan, two months shy of my sixteenth birthday. It was also the night I realized that he would never be mine and I needed to forget him.
“You told that guy he’d be breathing out of a tube if he even looked at me again.”
“Fuck. You shouldn’t have been there.”
It was true. I shouldn’t have been, and Dylan was so angry when he found out I’d taken a bus and walked. The cops busted the fight that night. It was in an auto repair and collisions garage on the outskirts of San Diego—bareknuckle boxing, betting, drugs, underage drinking, it was a den of inequity and there I was, in a place I never should have ventured to. It was my first brush with the law and I’d been so nervous, but Dylan had gotten us out of there. Grabbed my hand and held on tight, dragging me down dark alleys and ducking into a park until we lost the cruiser on our tail. It was the last time I’d been alone with him. The last time I’d really spoken to him until tonight.
He eyed me as he crushed his cigarette under the sole of his high top. It felt like he was seeing me for the first time, his eyes hooded as his gaze lowered to my mouth. I licked my lower lip at the same time he did. Then he shook his head. “Let’s go. I’ve got shit to do.”
And just like that, I was fifteen again.
I jumped off the tailgate and gathered up our trash then jogged across the parking lot to the garbage can where he picked me up a few seconds later.
The ride to my apartment was quick and we rode in silence.
When Dylan turned onto my street, and my apartment came into view, I sat up straighter. A van was parked in front—a van I’d know anywhere. I painted it two summers ago.
Why hadn’t he told me he was coming back?
I slunk lower in my seat and whipped off Ollie’s beanie, tucking it in my bag. “Keep driving.”
To my surprise, Dylan did as I asked. Minutes later, he pulled over and parked on the next street over from mine.
“The fuck is going on?”
“Nothing.” I finger-combed my hair and searched my bag for a hairbrush. Ugh, what was I doing? I slumped in the seat and cleared my throat, feeling like an idiot. Dylan’s gaze was focused on me, waiting for an explanation. “I overreacted. You can take me home now. Sorry about that.”
Dylan, of course, wasn’t buying it. “We’re not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
“That was my ex-boyfriend…” I shook my head. “I mean, my friend… back there in the van.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder.
“Which is it? Ex-boyfriend or friend?”
“Both. I wasn’t expecting him. I just needed a minute to pull myself together. It’s all good now.”
