CROSS (A Gentry Boys Novella)(38)

“Why don’t you file that away in the drawer filled with things you should never say to any girl?”

His lips twitched. “I was just heading out for a walk.” Then he got a good look at my face and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

The world started to turn strange colors. A handful of ink blots appeared, melted together, and grew. The muscles that kept my legs standing up decided they were tired of working. I would have collapsed completely if Stone hadn’t been quick enough to grab me. I heard him shouting my name with alarm as I floated over to the Gentrys’ ugly orange couch. Once I was there I realized Stone had carried me. He peered down with worry all over his face. Then he disappeared. When he reappeared he was holding a glass of water.

“I’m fine,” I muttered weakly as I tried to sit up. “Just got too much sun.”

Stone put a cool palm to my forehead as I drank the glass of water. “Do you have a headache?”

“No.”

“Do you need to vomit?”

“What? No.”

He sighed and took his hand away. “I was trying to remember the symptoms of sun stroke.”

I handed the empty glass back to him. “I don’t have sun stroke.”

“You might. Maybe I should call your dad.”

“Don’t you dare!”

“Sun stroke and heat exhaustion aren’t things to f*ck around with, Erin.”

“For the love of god, Stone, shut up about the sun stroke! Sun stroke isn’t what’s wrong with me!”

“Well, what is wrong then?”

I sat up and perched on the edge of the couch, my hands clenched in my lap. Stone sat beside me. I could feel him watching me but I couldn’t meet his eyes when I said the words. “Con said…”

He tensed. “You talked to Con?”

“Yeah. He ran away from me this morning and looked upset so I walked down to Carson’s to see him at work.”

“And did you see him?”

“Yes.” I winced, remembering the sheer awfulness of that encounter. “Stone, I need to know. Did something happen between you and Con?”

He coughed. “We had a fight.”

“About what?”

“I really don’t know.”

“Yes you do,” I whispered.

He exhaled heavily, painfully. I glanced over at him and saw his eyes were tightly shut as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Con thinks…” Stone said haltingly. “He thinks that we’re, ah….I mean that you and me…”

“Fucked around,” I finished.

Stone opened his eyes and looked at me apologetically. “I swear I don’t know why he thinks that. Something’s going on with him. I don’t know what it is and it might not even have to do with us. But seeing us hanging out together is messing with his head somehow.”

I took a deep breath, trying not to cry. “I saw his face, Stone. It was like we didn’t even know each other anymore. Just like that. I hear about all these couples that grow apart and shit but that can’t happen to us. I love him so much.”

Stone’s face was full of pity. “I know you do. And I know that he loves you too. It’s not like this is the end for you guys. Contrary to his behavior today, Conway isn’t an *. We’ll get this straightened out, Erin.” He patted my back awkwardly. “I know my brother.”

“I thought I knew him too.”

“You do,” Stone said with finality.

The knock on the door made us both jump. Stone got to his feet and went to the window, pulling the curtain back.

“Oh,” he said with surprise, “I think that’s my cousin’s truck.”

I shrugged, not caring much about his cousin or his cousin’s truck. For the first time I realized Stone was probably not far off when he mentioned that I looked like shit. Plus there was a rising tide of panic swelling in my head. With every breath I tried to surf above it but I wasn’t succeeding. I was drowning.

Stone held up one finger and moved to the door as I slumped back onto the couch. With a sense of detachment I saw that the snap on his jeans was undone, for whatever male-centered reason that I didn’t care to dwell on. Maybe he’d been jerking off before he answered the door. I didn’t give a damn.

There was more than one person at the door. I heard voices, all deep, all male. Stone’s voice was mixed in there. If he was going to invite company inside they might be startled to discover a girl lying on the couch looking like she’d just had either a very good time or a very bad one.

“What am I doing here?” I asked the empty room. The dark wood wall paneling had no answer. I shouldn’t be just sitting in Conway’s living room. I needed to find him. I needed to make Stone come with me and right this wrong or else that terrible swelling tide would overtake me and I’d need to do something to let the pain out.

Stone might have been right to worry about my health because when I stood up the room swayed in an unhealthy, watery kind of way. I heard Stone bidding farewell to someone as I lurched toward the door.

Stone was standing there alone as a pickup truck drove away from the curb.

“We need to go,” I said, my heart pounding in my ears as I tucked my shirt in. “We need to find him.”