When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(38)
“I don’t know how he is with other girls, but I can assure you that he was a gentleman,” she looked around the room trying to distract herself. I nodded in response and Kennedy changed the subject. “I don’t think you came here to talk about Craig. Tell me something, anything.”
“What do you want to know?” I smile at her question as she watches me patiently. I’m not the easiest person to talk to. She’s about to find that out.
“Tell me about your family,” Kennedy suggests innocently. I freeze immediately. Now I am the one avoiding all eye contact. I sit up moving off of the bed.
“Anything else, but that,” I look back at her. I can see the concern etched across her face.
I’m being too obvious.
Chapter TwentyOne
-Kennedy-
Graham’s pacing around my bedroom looking at everything that comes into his focus except for me. Now I know how he must feel when I avoid his eye line at all cost. He’s blatantly avoiding my part of the room for a reason. I just don’t know what it is. Watching him pick up different picture frames scanning his eyes over the photos of my family, and of me and Violet I wonder how bad it would have to be for him to feel the need to hide it. He places them all down in their rightful spot. It’s when he turns his attention to me that I’m scared for him. His eyes seem empty.
Graham seems to be your typical all-American boy who lives a life of perfection. He’s gorgeous and talented. He comes from a respected family in the community. His family’s wealthy beyond comprehension. Something about that makes him appear to be untouchable to everything, as if the rest of our everyday worries aren’t capable of touching him. He’s invincible.
“Are you okay?” I ask him worried by the look in his eyes. He has a story hidden behind the perfect shade of brown that makes me want to know everything he’s willing to divulge to me.
“Out of everything you could have asked me you brought up my family,” he shook his head as if he’s trying to erase a horrible nightmare, as if the thought of even bringing up his family tore a gaping hole in his perfect world.
“You don’t have to tell me anything that you don’t want to. I just assumed it was an easy enough question.”
“There’s nothing easy about my family, Ken.” A pained smile crosses his face before he continues. “I want to be that guy that you think I am and be able to explain these things to you, but I don’t know how. My family is complicated and it’s a subject I’d like to avoid if that’s okay. I don’t talk to anyone about them.”
I reach out my hand and he comes across the room meeting me. He grabs ahold of my outstretched hand sitting down on the edge of the bed directly next to me. I don’t release my light grip. He doesn’t seem to mind, but continues to look at our linked fingers. It was foreign for the both of us.
“Graham, look at me,” I request. He listens peering up at me. “Don’t feel obligated to tell me anything. I only want to know the things you want me to know. I’ll take what I can get.”
“I want to be honest with you.” Graham’s voice is low as if someone would overhear our conversation. He begins rubbing small circles on my finger with his thumb. The feeling of his skin against my skin sends shivers through my body causing my breath to deepen. No one’s ever touched me like that, as innocent as it seems.
“I appreciate that and if you want us to be friends then I don’t expect anything less from you. That doesn’t mean that it has to happen tonight. You don’t need to talk to me about them.”
Graham stands forcing the release of our hold on each other. I feel something missing immediately once his warmth is gone. “I think I better get going. It’s already a quarter to midnight,” he says. I walk him out of my room through the darkened house. I don’t want him to leave, but I know he needs something and being around me isn’t it. We don’t say anything to each other when he walks out of my front door. I want to call out to him. Something stops me.
Knowing what to say to him is the most difficult. He froze up when I asked about his family. There’s a pit in my stomach as I think about our conversation tonight. I try everything to push this horrible feeling away. I lock the door and head for my room thinking about how upset Graham had gotten over something that seems trivial to most.
The house seems emptier now with Graham being gone. Staying in the house without my parents now feels strange. The only other time they have left me alone is when my brother was still living here. They went away for the weekend and the entire time I hung out working on a history paper while my brother hooked up with his girlfriend in my parent’s bed. There was no surprise when they trusted me to be here alone this week. I’ve never gotten into any real trouble before.
I scan my massive movie collection that is lined up on my larger bookshelf searching for something to watch. I intend on watching a raunchy comedy after the odd conversation I had with Graham. I know falling asleep would end up being a chore tonight. It’s a toss-up, but I ended up throwing in The Hangover. Before climbing into bed I rip off my sweatpants and throw on a pair of shorts.
I doze off just as they are waking up from their night of mayhem. I am woken up by a tapping on my window. Naturally, panic sets in. Goosebumps rise up to greet me as I hover under the blankets. In my twisted morbid head I assume someone is going to break in and murder me. That makes sense right? Of course a real murderer would knock on your window before punching out the glass. I need to stop watching Criminal Minds with my dad. I’m too jittery to handle shows like that.