When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(45)

“What happened?” Violet saddles up next to me eager to hear the gossip.

“It’s just we were hanging out at his house the other night. He started to kiss me and when it was getting too intense for me I pushed him off. He got this predatory look in his eyes. They were just off somehow, you know what I mean?”

“It’s probably because he’s used to girls dropping their panties at his every word. He seems into you. I mean, I have never personally seen him actively pursue a girl. That’s gotta be worth something.”

“I don’t see it going anywhere. Not now that…” I stop myself before I say too much. The look on Violet’s face proves that she caught on. Maybe I wanted her to.

“Now that what?” she asks with a raised eyebrow. Her curiosity is peeked.

And I can’t be more thrilled. I can’t keep it a secret anymore. It’s been killing me to not tell Violet what has been going on with me. We never keep anything from each other.

“If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone? Like this cannot be repeated, even to Dan. You have to swear, Violet,” I stick out my pinky for her to swear on it and she quickly comes to my side to make the childish pact.

“I swear on all my shoes, even the Jimmy Choos mom bought me for my birthday.” This is the best kind of promise she can make to insure me she is being serious.

I tell her everything. Well almost everything, I left out the whole Graham running me over when he was drunk and him showing up to my house with the black eye. I allow her to think that I accidently elbowed him still. Those secrets will go to my grave with me.

Now thinking about it, the whole story doesn’t add up without those bits of information. Violet doesn’t seem to question it either way. I tell her about how jealous he seemed to get at the pizza parlor when Craig touched me and how he came up with a lie to be able to drive me home. I told her how he held me all night and then the way he kissed me the next morning. Then even though it’s completely embarrassing I explained what happened in the bathroom, but instead of taking advantage of the situation he gave me a brotherly kiss on the forehead. That was a hard part to relive. Being kissed on the forehead is a sweet gesture if it comes from your boyfriend, not the boy that was making out with you a few minutes before.

Violet stares at me with a shocked expression snapping me out of my day dream. “Are we talking about the same Graham? Graham Black, right?” Violet looks back at me with confusion. She’s trying to understand with her eyes wide with wonder as if I just told her unicorns actually exist.

“Trust me, I know how this sounds,” I say as we make our way through the mall. I’m carrying most of Violet’s bags. The girl has a serious shopping problem. 65% of this will be donated with tags still on it by the end of the season.

Neither of us say anything else until we are sitting in our booth at the restaurant. The silence only makes my mind wander to Graham. I wonder what he’s doing right now. I kick myself for even allowing him to take up space in my head.

Violet stares at her menu. Every few minutes she looks up at me as if she’s contemplating what I told her then quickly scans her eyes over the menu that she knows by heart. All Graham is known to be is arrogant and manipulative. The guy I just described is sweet, gentle, and understanding.

“Are you going to say anything? You know what you are getting. You get the same damn thing every time,” I demand an answer from her, anxious as to what she’s going to say. Her opinion means a lot to me. I need her to be on board. On board for what? I’m not sure.

Violet bites her lip trying to hold back what she wants to say. “Okay…umm…” she stutters out.

“Just spit it out please. You’re making me nervous.” I sit patiently tapping my foot on the floor. It’s a nervous tick that I think I inherited from my mother. She always does it when she has to tell my Dad bad news.

“Just give me a minute to think about it,” she says with a knowing look on her face. I could see the truth tidal wave through her eyes. “Holy shit, Kennedy. You totally like him.”

BINGO, there’s my best friend.

“It’s more complicated than that,” I begin to explain. “Something happened that sort of pushed us together and I’m not going to tell you about it, so please respect that. We just kept saying that we would try to be friends and it was okay for a little while, for like a day actually. It really worked, but I kept finding myself wanting to be near him more. It’s like something’s pulling us together and it’s out of my control. I know how stupid that sounds to you, but it’s how I feel. I almost thought he felt it too.”

“Dude, he stayed the night at your house? Where were your parents?” Violet shrieks making her eyes widen in excitement. She’s bouncing around on her side of the booth like a child.

“Out of everything I just said you are focusing on him staying the night, really? You can’t be serious.”

“Okay, what’s going on now?” Violet’s curious nature takes hold making it impossible for her to stay focused on one question.

“Absolutely nothing. He hasn’t even talked to me since Monday. I told him to quit playing games with me and we haven’t spoken a word since.”

“Are you nuts? That’s Graham Black like future major league baseball player and you just told him to kick rocks,” Violet yells. The couple behind us turns to glare at us. “Girls would give their right tit to have a few minutes and you got to spend the whole night sleeping next to him. That’s unheard of, Ken. Like seriously legendary. I think I should ask for your autograph.”