When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(18)

I make a good attempt to help her by grabbing her books. She pushes me off before I even have the chance to lift my hand up. The rest of the hour is spent with Kennedy trying to catch up with what she has missed and her trying to avoid me. There is a few times where her eyes meet mine then they are followed by her abruptly turning her head.

It is obvious. She has nothing to say to me, but at the same time her eyes say something different. Kennedy has no intentions of hearing anything I have to say. That doesn’t stop her from being curious about me either. If I know anything about girls then I am right about this.

The class bell rings and everyone gets up to make it to their next class except Kennedy. She waits for the room to clear out and so do I before moving, telling Mark I’d meet him in the locker room. Kennedy is collecting all of her notes and putting them inside of her book as I study her from my seat.

I break the silence just as she stands to walk out. “Please talk to me,” I ask sounding more sincere than anything.

“What is there to talk about?” Kennedy answers. She doesn’t even bother to look me in the eye when she speaks. That’s not a good sign, right?

“I think you know what we need to talk about, Kennedy.”

“About how you ran me over with your car when you were drunk and I let you leave me in the middle of the road basically broken or about how you haven’t even bothered to check in on me since said accident? Which one do you want to start with because as far as I’m concerned we don’t have anything to talk about?”

Okay, I’m an even bigger asshole than I thought.

It’s all a bit clearer to me as to why she is upset. It’s too late now. I can’t exactly turn back the time and if I could, I would have already done that to stop the night of the accident from happening in the first place. I don’t have anything to say to her. I wish there is something to stop her from leaving me standing here, but there’s no fix all to this. Instead I just watch her walk away once again.

The last hour of school goes by in what can only be described as slow motion. I avoid talking to everyone, even Amanda who basically throws herself at me after school. She offers something that I never would usually turn down, but for once I know sex isn’t going to alleviate what’s ailing me. A blow job couldn’t pull me out of this funk for fucks sake.

I go to baseball practice with my head in a fog. Standing on the pitcher’s mound is my place of comfort and solitude. Today’s different. Kennedy’s words play on a constant loop in my head as I throw out every pitch.

Nothing has ever distracted me from baseball.

Until her.





Chapter Eleven



-Kennedy-



“How was your first day back at school, honey?” My father startles me once I walk in the front door. I wasn’t expecting him to be home from work this early. He is lounging on the couch wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt, like he just got done working out.

“It was fine. What are you doing home from work so early?” I look him over as he flips through every T.V. channel, never stopping on any one in particular. He is clearly avoiding looking me in the eye.

“I just…” he pauses to think about what he is going to say. “I just had a few things to do around the house, so I bailed out early.” I can tell he is lying. I push it to the back of my mind. Whatever he is hiding is probably for the best. I don’t have the energy right now after my first day back to school to worry about anyone else’s problems.

I stand in the entrance to the living room thinking about how Graham wants to talk about what happened. I’m not sure if I am prepared to do that. I don’t have a good reason for what I did for him. I don’t know how I’d even begin to explain it to him when I don’t fully understand it myself. I have the tendency to avoid confrontation. I inherited that little trait from my Dad which explains why he is still refusing to look in my direction.

“I have a lot of homework to do,” I say hobbling back to my bedroom leaving my father flipping through the channels.

I throw my backpack onto my bed before going into my bathroom to wipe away all of my make-up. It is one thing to be all dolled up when I went to school. It seems pointless to sit around in my room with a thin layer of make-up on my face. I take a moment to stare at myself in the mirror when I am changing into my favorite Notre Dame sweatpants. They are the only thing that could fit over my cast beside gym shorts and skirts.

I stand looking in the mirror at the bruises that cover a large portion of my body. The ones on my arms are on the minor side. As you get closer to my ribs they get larger. I push on the largest one that is taking up most of my right side and wince at the pain that it causes. I carefully slide the tank top over my head to avoid the pain that lifting my arms causes. Grabbing my crutches I make my way back to my bed where comfort awaits me.

I grab a DVD off of the bookcase and slide it in the player before throwing myself on top of my bed. Studying is the last thing I really want to do considering the embarrassment I caused for myself this afternoon with Graham. Why can’t I stop thinking about him?

I’m not sure what I expect or want Graham to say to me. Believing that he owes me something is ridiculous, even I know that. He doesn’t owe me anything. Maybe I am looking for some sort of remorse. Some sign that he is who I think he was. In the small amount of times that I have talked to him and the glances that we have exchanged I thought I saw something in his eyes that is worth knowing. I’ve been wrong all along apparently.