Page 76 of Sweet Girl
Chapter Twenty-five
Kylah
I ran out of Van’s dorm room and down the stairs faster than I’ve ever run before. In fact, I missed a step on my way down and nearly collided into a guy coming up on the opposite side. I may have mumbled an apology, but I’m not a hundred percent certain.
All I know is that my heart shattered up in that room and I seriously wonder how I’m still alive and breathing.
Pushing through the building doors, I have to move to the side as a group of kids are walking in, all laughing and chattering. I wish I were them right now – high on life and happy. Instead, I’m devastated. I’m left hanging by a thread, unable to make heads or tails of what I just witnessed.
My plans for my first Valentine’s weekend with Van have been completely obliterated. I had enlisted my brother to help me get into the dorms because I don’t have an access badge. Showing up unannounced was risky enough, but to do it without certainty that I could get in the building was a difficult prospect. Cade was happy to help, knowing how much it meant to me. We’d planned on meeting right after the game at his place and then he’d bring me over to campus.
I brought a picnic dinner of sorts – filled with decadent chocolate desserts, white-chocolate covered strawberries, because Van loves white-chocolate – and a bottle of bubbly. Cade bought that for me since I’m not legal.
The picnic basket is still on the floor upstairs in the hallway where I dropped it and ran. So are my hopes that this weekend would be one to remember. My first Valentine’s Day with a guy. With someone I loved and who told me he loved me, too. I believed him. I had no reason not to.
Now all my thoughts are running rampant, thinking back over the last month that we’ve been apart and wondering if I’d been played? Has Van been two-timing me along with Lyndsay? Although I’ve never met her in person, I know it was her. When we first became friends, he shared with me some of their pictures together.
I feel dizzy and unstable, as I finally stop to look around at where I’m at. I’d had no real direction in mind when I came running out of the building. Glancing around at my surroundings, I realize I’m in the middle of the quad, the street lights illuminating the pathway, casting shadows across the grounds.
Catching my breath, the loud pounding in my ears softening to a dull roar, I hear my name called from the not-so-far-off distance. My head turns in various directions to see where the voice is coming from. And then I see him jogging toward me. My brother.
“There you are.” His long legs get him in front of me in three long strides. Due to the shape he’s in he’s barely breathing hard at all, while I am panting like a pig at a marathon.
I don’t say anything. Ican’t. What could possibly be said at a time like this? I’m humiliated beyond words. Van has made a fool of me. He’s exposed how stupid, ignorant and naïve I am. I’d given him my heart and soul, and he played me like a Stradivarius violin.
Cade places his arm around my shoulder and tugs me into his chest. His touch is protective and gentle. God, I love my brother.
“It wasn’t what we thought, kiddo. It looked bad, for sure. But I believe Van. He was ambushed by her. Lyndsay told me she showed up uninvited and tried to put the moves on him. Van had nothing to do with it.”
The tears that had been stuck like a silent scream are now streaking down my cheeks and dripping off my chin onto Cade’s T-shirt.
“But he...she was practically naked in his lap...on his bed.” I hiccup.
Cade turns me to face him and props my chin up with his finger.
“Believe me, sometimes things appear one way but aren’t representative of what’s really going on. Did you ever hear about the time Ainsley showed up at our house party and found a hoops hunnie on my lap?”
I squint up at him, eyes narrowing in disbelief. Cade used to be a player, so it’s very probable he’d have a girl attached to him.
“Seriously,” he continues, unperturbed by my skepticism. “I was wasted, wallowing in my sorrows because Ains had broken my heart. Anyway, the girl sidles up to me, plants her ass down and starts trying to get busy with me. I didn’t encourage her in any way. In fact, I was trying to dislodge myself from her grip when Ainsley walked in and saw us. If I were in her shoes and saw it from her perspective, I wouldn’t have believed my innocence either. But that’s the point. Without the whole story, it can be damning for the innocent.”
I huff out an incredulous breath. “So you’re saying is that I shouldn’t believe what I just saw? That Van he wasn’t getting busy with his ex? He looked pretty guilty by my standards.”
My mind flashes back to the image of the two of them on his bed. My heart quivers in recognition of the hot anger that it sparked inside of me not fifteen minutes earlier.
“Yes, I believe him. Van doesn’t lie. He has more integrity than any other guy I’ve ever known. And I know he’s into you. He wants to fix this, Ky. I can’t tell you what to do, but I think you should give him a chance.”
I’m so confused. My brain can’t disassociate the image of Van with his arm around Lyndsay. Or the panicked ‘caught in the act’expression in his eye. What am I supposed to do with all that? It’s too fresh. The wound is too raw. The humiliation hurts too much.
“Maybe. But not tonight. I need to go home. I can’t see him right now.”
“Okay. I’ll take you back home. Then I gotta get home to my girl.”
He winks as I give him a teary smile. Even though I’m more than reluctant now, it is awfully encouraging to know that true love exists in the world. It may not be in my world this weekend, but at least it’s out there.
****
As soon as I get home, I FaceTime with Kady.
