When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(36)

Chapter Twenty



-Graham-



I don’t know where to go. Where do you go with a girl you barely know? Somehow we still managed to form a connection through all the misfortune. It may not make any sense, but there’s a connection there somewhere.

I drove around for a while. I don’t think either Kennedy or I knew where I was headed until we pulled into her driveway. I knew taking her to my house was out of the question. My dad would be in his usual drunken stupor by now. He just got back from a business trip earlier today. He’d be stressed. When he’s stressed he tends to nurse the bottle a little too hard.

“We’re going back to my place?” Kennedy asks looking out the window with a scared gleam in her eye.

“Is it okay? It’s just…I don’t really want to go back home just yet,” I explain. She nods nervously. I run over to her side of the car to help her with her crutches.

“These things are so uncomfortable.” Kennedy says to herself as she heads towards her front door putting the key in the front door swinging the steel slab open.

“I’ll show you a trick,” I gesture towards the kitchen as I follow behind her. “I’ll just need two dish clothes and duct tape.” She pulls open a drawer full of different towels. I bend down to grab a few. As I turn around I almost think I catch Kennedy ogling my ass.

“Duct tape should be in the side drawer over there.” Kennedy motions to a long drawer beside the refrigerator quickly turning around towards the island with a blush on her cheeks from being caught. There is a small urge to call her out on it.

Kennedy jumps up on one of the kitchen stools at the breakfast bar as I work on wrapping the crutch with the dish towels securing the fabric with the tape.

“Here, try these out now,” I hand the crutches into Kennedy. She’s eager to take them from me. After a lap around the kitchen table she turns towards me with a smile on her face.

“Oh my gosh,” she praises me while she continues to walk. “How did you know to do that?”

“I’m a boy and I used to be a little boy who thought he was Batman. I had plenty of time to master the use of crutches.” I admire her still walking around with much better ease.

“Thank you, this is going to make my life much easier.”

“It’s the least I can do.” Once the words are out of my mouth I instantly regret them. That’s the funny thing about words, once they come out there’s no way to put them back in. Kennedy catches on to what I am insinuating and moves past me heading straight to her bedroom without saying another word to me.

I remember the first time I came here, we spent the whole night in there and I managed to apologize more than I ever thought was possible. The look on her face just then reminded me of that night. I am starting to think that she doesn’t want my apologies. Every time I make an attempt at one she goes surly and gets frustrated.

I find Kennedy’s room empty. Her bathroom door is tightly closed shut leaving only a stream of light to escape at the bottom. I suddenly feel uncomfortable, out of place standing in her bedroom. Trying to be Kennedy’s friend is becoming impossible. I am starting to think that’s the whole point.

“You know you can take off your shoes and get comfortable, right?” Kennedy walks out wearing a pair of sweatpants that have PINK written across the butt and a tank top. She has this amazing body. She’s thin with just enough of that curve to peek your interest. You can’t blame me for looking. It’s impossible not to at least sneak a quick peak.

“I wasn’t sure you wanted me to stay after the way you stormed off on me out there,” I say pretending to be offended with how she reacted. She looks up at me as she bends down to grab a bottle of lotion from her bedside table. She squeezes the bottle releasing a small amount into her hand. I’m transfixed as she rubs the lotion into her palms and up her arms. I can smell the coconut scent from where I’m standing across the room.

Kennedy thinks about what I say before sitting on her bed and patting the spot next to her encouraging me to sit down, “Sorry about that. It’s just…”

“It’s just what?” I sit down turning to look her in the eyes.

“Can I be honest with you?”

“You haven’t held back this far,” I stifle my laughter.

Kennedy shifts her body closer to mine. Not knowing if it’s intentional or not, I choose not to move. Her leg brushes against mine and as she turns to look at me I can’t stop from noticing how close we are. I’d just need to lean forward an inch or two to connect my lips with hers.

“I shouldn’t like you, but…” she trails off focusing on spinning the plain silver band that sits around her right ring finger. Her long hair is falling across her face blocking my view of her. Instinctively I brush the strand behind her ear giving her no choice but to look over at me from the contact. She swallows hard enough to make it obvious. “Everything in my head tells me to run the opposite direction of you, but I can’t help but believe that what I said was true. I think there’s more to you then you let on.”

“You should, you know? Run the opposite direction of me. I’m not a good person. I’m not someone you should waste your time on,” I plead with her knowing very well that I hope she won’t listen to me in the end. She tries to protest me. I interrupt her before she can say anything. “Kennedy, stop making excuses for me. I ran you over with my car. I was too drunk and too stupid to think anything bad could happen. Now you’re here saying these things when in reality I am the guy that everyone knows me to be. There’s nothing more and nothing less to me. I’m not the guy you think I am.”