The Resolution of Callie & Kayden(12)

I’m unsure how to respond. Dylan and I have been getting along okay, but right now he’s showing a lot of emotion directed toward me. It’s strange and unfamiliar, especially since I spent a lot of time thinking that he hated me when I was a kid, after he took off when he was eighteen and left me with our dad and mom, never so much as even calling to say where he was living. It’s something we haven’t really talked about too much either, although my therapist thinks it might be healthy for us to do so. However, I don’t want to go down that road yet – open up those old scars that are still trying to heal.

‘Okay … thanks for letting me know,’ I say awkwardly as I lock the car door then shut it because it’s too old school for a key fob.

‘Yeah, no problem,’ he replies, sounding uncomfortable himself. I hear someone say something in the background and he quickly says, ‘Oh, and Liz wants to know if you’re bringing anyone here for Thanksgiving with you.’

I want to tell him I haven’t even fully committed to coming yet, but instead say, ‘I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know soon.’

‘Okay, but just so you know, we’d love to have you and Callie here if she can come.’ He sounds like he means it.

Again, I’m a little thrown off by this weird I-care-for-you thing he’s got going. I keep my composure, though, and say goodbye before heading back to work, even though I have ten more minutes of break time. I try not to think about Tyler too much, yet I can’t help it. Because what if he really does know.

Knows where my father is.





Chapter 5


#134 Invite Someone to Prom **coughs** aka Halloween Party.



Callie


‘Really?’ I say to Seth as I read what he just wrote on my whiteboard. Seth and I have been creating this to-do list since the beginning of freshman year when we first became friends. There’s no rule to what goes on there, it just needs to be something we think at least one of us has to try. This whiteboard version actually starts at one hundred since the list got so long we had to transfer some of them onto a piece of paper.

‘Yes, really.’ He taps the marker against number one hundred seventeen. ‘It isn’t any weirder than this one.’

‘Hey, I totally did that the other day.’ I snatch the marker from his hand and draw a line through number one hundred seventeen.

‘You’re so weird,’ he says as I put the cap of the marker back on and toss it aside.

I roll my eyes at him. ‘That’s the pot calling the kettle black.’

‘Totally,’ he agrees, his gaze drifting to the window. ‘So are you ready for this?’

My face bunches up in confusion. ‘Ready for what?’

He taps his finger against the whiteboard right where he just wrote one hundred thirty-four. ‘Duh, what you’re going to do today.’

Shaking my head, I sink down on the bed. ‘I’m not doing that.’

He puts his hands on his hips and stares me down. ‘You so are.’

I fold my arms and aim a challenging look at him. ‘Am not.’

‘You have to,’ he insists. ‘The concert is tomorrow and I already told Greyson you were coming.’

‘Fine, I’ll ask Kayden,’ I tell him, defeated. ‘But not in some weird, cheesy prom way like people do in high school.’

‘You so are, Callie Lawrence.’ He grabs my arm and jerks me to my feet so hard I stumble. ‘This is something you so need to do.’

I give him the nastiest look ever. I get that he thinks I need to relive my high school days, since they sucked big time, and I want to, but at the same time … ‘I’m afraid I’ll be living in the past if I do it.’

His determination softens, but he still pulls me to the door, throwing my coat at me in the process. ‘Nope. Not at all.’ He opens the door and steers me out into the hallway with him, navigating us around a group of people loitering in the hallways. ‘See, this is you and me walking away from the past and heading to the future.’

‘You’re speaking metaphorically, aren’t you?’ I ask as we reach the elevator and he presses the down button.

‘I had my Philosophy class today,’ he admits as the elevator doors slide open and we step inside. ‘Now, would you pretty please do this with me?’ His finger hovers over the button of the ground floor, waiting for me to agree because in the end, regardless of how pushy he is, he’ll always back down if I ask him to. That’s the thing with Seth and why he’s such a good friend.