The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden(10)

Seth shakes his head, tugging a jacket out of the machine. “Moms are not my thing. You know that.”

“What did he say?” my mom wonders.

“Nothing mom.” The dryer beeps. “I have to go. I’ll call you later.”

“Hold on sweetie. I just want to say that you sound really happy.”

“I am happy,” I lie through a thick throat, because I know that’s what she wants to hear.

Seth drops his hang-dry only shirt on the edge of the basket, puts his hands on his hips, and narrows his eyes at me. “Don’t lie to your mother, Callie.”

“What’s going on?” my mother asks. “I can hear a bunch of noises.”

“I have to go.” I press the end button before she can say anything else.

“My mom is not like your mom.” I open the dryer door and scoop the rest of my clothes out with my arms. “For the most part, she’s nice. Well, at least when I’m behaving.”

“But you can’t tell her things—really important things.” He flexes his arm that was in a cast when I met him. “Just like my mom.”

“You told your mom.” I bump the dryer door shut with my hip. “It just didn’t go well and I don’t tell my mom, because it will crush her. She’s such a happy person there’s no use cursing her with dark thoughts.” I drop the clothes into the basket as one of the washing machines chugs and bangs against the cement wall. “We can try that new restaurant, if you really, really want.” Picking up the basket, I prop it against my hip. “I’ll add it to my list of new things I’m going to try.”

He grins from ear to ear. “I love that list.”

“I do too… sometimes,” I agree as he gathers a stack of clothes. “And you were brilliant for thinking of it.”

The list was made in the shadows of my dorm room when he admitted to me how he broke his arm and where the scars on his hands came from. He’d been walking home from his last day of school and a bunch of football players had drove up in a truck. They jumped him, beat him, and tried to break him into a thousand pieces that they could dust under the rug. But Seth is strong, which is why I told him my secret, because he knows what it’s like to have something ripped away from you. Although I omitted the gory details because I couldn’t say them aloud.

“I’m a very brilliant man.” He steps aside to let me through the doorway first. “And as long as you hold onto that notion, you’ll be okay.”

We laugh and it’s real, but a dark cloud hovers over us once the sound is stolen by the wind.

Kayden

“This room is the size of a box,” I remark, taking in the very small dorm room. We’re in the Downey residence hall, one of the four buildings they stuff the freshmen into. There are two twin size beds and a desk in the far corner. I can cover the space between the beds in two strides and the closet on the far wall barely holds three boxes. “Are you sure you don’t want to get an apartment? I saw some that are really close to campus on my way in.”

Luke rummages through a large box labeled “Junk.” “I can’t afford an apartment. I need to find a job just so I can buy my books and stuff.”

“The scholarship didn’t pay for that?” I grab a heavy box and drop it onto the mattress of my bed.

He balls up some tape and throws it on the floor. “That only covered tuition.”

I peel the tape off the top of the box. “I can help out… if you need some extra cash.”

He shakes his head quickly with his attention immersed in a box. “I’m not a charity case. If you want an apartment, then go get one. You don’t have to stay in the dorms just because I am.” He pulls out a headless bronze statue and his face reddens. “What the hell is this?”

I shrug. “I didn’t pack your boxes man.”

“Well, I did and I didn’t put this in there.” He chucks it across the room and it dents the wall. “God f*cking dammit, she’s trying to mess with my mind.”

“Don’t let your mom get to you. You know she’s just trying to get you to come home so she doesn’t have to deal with things on her own.” I pick up the broken statue and step out into the hall to toss it in the garbage just outside the room.

On my way back, I spot Callie walking in my direction with the guy she was with earlier and she’s smiling again. I pause in the middle of the hallway and wait for her to reach me, forcing the traffic of people to move around me. She doesn’t notice me, but her friend sees me and he whispers something in her ear.