The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden(30)

He leans away and threads his fingers through mine, squeezing my hand. “You’ll be okay, I promise. I’ll be right by you the whole time.”

“Maybe I have time to run back to my room.” I glance at the doors, right as Kayden and Luke come strolling around the corner of the dorm building.

Luke is a little smaller than Kayden, with shorter hair, and a face without scars. He has a plaid shirt on, a pair of faded jeans with a black leather belt and boots on his feet. Kayden’s hair is tousled with stray pieces hanging in his eyes and he has on a hooded black thermal shirt, with dark jeans that ride extremely low on his hips. I bet when he raises his arms above his head his stomach will show.

“Callie, you’re staring,” Seth hisses under his breath and prods me in the ribcage with his elbow.

“What?” I blink at him as I wipe the last of the tears away from my cheeks, surprised how calm I’ve become.

He presses his lips together, containing a smile. “You were staring at a particular someone.”

“No, I wasn’t,” I deny. “Was I?”

He nods his head once and then hisses through his teeth, “You were and your mouth was hanging open.”

“Hey,” Kayden says and his forehead creases at my tear-stained face. “Were you two just arguing?”

I shake my head and glance at Seth. “No, we were just talking heatedly.”

“Okay…” He eyes me with skepticism. “Should we get going?”

Nodding, I step aside so him and Luke can walk between us and lead the way.

Seth pulls his cigarettes out of his pocket and pops one into his mouth as we trail behind them. “Are we riding with them?”

“No.” I swing my gaze over to the rusted single cab truck where no other vehicles are parked. “Not unless they want to ride in your car.”

“Well, let’s offer to drive then,” he says. “And then you can be our DD since you never ever drink. Although, you should try it tonight. It’ll probably calm you down.”

“I drank a beer that one time,” I protest. “And it didn’t relax me.”

“Oh, my na?ve little Callie.” He sighs, retrieving his lighter from his pocket. “One beer isn’t going to do much to you. You need something with a kick. Something potent.”

“We can’t drink at the club,” I say as he flicks the lighter with his thumb. Cupping his other hand around the flame, he lights the end of the cigarette and the paper burns and crinkles. “Remember what happened the last time you tried that at a club?”

He sucks in a breath, inhaling the smoke, before puffing it out in front of his face. “Yeah, excellent point. Don’t want to go back into the holding cell again.”

“You’re lucky it was your birthday and they let you off the hook.”

“I also flirted with one of the officers.” He grins as a thin trail of smoke snakes out of his lips.

“So, who wants to sit on whose lap?” Kayden asks with his hand on the open door of the truck. His eyes are on me and there’s a hint of amusement on his lips. “Personally, I think there’s only one option here.”

I point at Seth’s black Camry parked a few spots down. “I think we’re going to take Seth’s car. You guys can ride with us if you want.”

Luke tosses the keys up in the air like a baseball and then catches them in his hand. “Sounds good to me. That way, I don’t have to be responsible for driving.”

I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t ride with us so Seth could give me a speech of encouragement and I could put my hair up with something because the way it touches my shoulders and the smell of it’s driving me crazy. I have the urge to run back to my room and hack it all off again.

As we walk over to Seth’s car, I comb my fingers through my hair trying to get it manageable and out of the way. I reach for the passenger door, but Luke’s arm extends out and he opens the door for me. Moving to the side, I elude around him like I’m dancing, when really it’s just to keep my distance.

“Thank you.” I catch Seth’s eye over the roof of the car and he arches an eyebrow as we climb in.

Seth slams the door and I jolt in the seat. “Relax Callie,” he whispers as he turns the key and the engine purrs to life. Rolling down the window, he puts his hand outside so the smoke doesn’t fill the cab. “You’re going to be fine.”