Come Back to Me (Sunset Cove #2)

Then

The slam of the front door throws me off balance, practically launching me off the living room sofa.

Ugh, nevermind.

It’s just my idiot brother, Blake. The strange thing is he has a friend with him. Well, he has a lot of friends, but the boys he usually hangs out with don’t look like this.

He has dark brown eyes along with messy, dark brown hair. Oh, and he’s quite lanky.

There’s something about him that makes butterflies swirl around in my belly. I’ve never felt this way about a boy before. I’ve always been disgusted by them.

My brother is the main reason why. He sets the gold standard for being mean and annoying.

Most of the boys I go to school with are like him, but there’s something about the boy standing in front of me that feels different. He’s not like the other boys I’ve met.

I can feel it.

“Are Mom and Dad home?” Blake asks me, staring down at the hardwood floor as he tends to talk to me without looking me directly in the eyes.

It’s his way of talking down to me and exuding all this power he’s convinced that he has over me.

I fold my arms in front of my chest. “Do you see them anywhere?”

“Don’t get smart with me.”

“Shut up, buttbrain.” I roll my eyes.

Blake crosses his arms. “Answer the question, brat.”

“Dad’s upstairs in his office.”

The brown-haired boy observes us bicker, his eyes bouncing back and forth from me to Blake.

“Now, was that so hard?” Blake makes an ugly face at me. “I’m going to go into the kitchen and get some snacks. Violet, you can go into your room. We don’t need you lurking around.”

“You’re such a weenie!” I raise my voice and scrunch my face at Blake, grunting.

He always knows just what to say to get under my skin.

“And you’re a pain in the butt.”

The cute boy interrupts our screaming match by getting in the middle of both of us. “Okay, that’s enough.”

Blake rolls his eyes at me and walks into the kitchen, and I hear him rummaging through the cabinets to find snacks like a bear going through trash cans.

I turn my attention to Blake’s friend. “Sorry about my brother.”

“It’s okay.” He sticks out his hand, sliding it into mine. “I’m Grayson, by the way.”

Sparks of electricity come out of our hands. I see it, but I’m not sure if he does. I mean, how could he?

“I’m Violet,” I say.

“Like the flower, right?”

“I guess so.”

“Did you know that violet isn’t a common color in nature?”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t know that, but now I do.”

“Yeah. It means you’re one of a kind. Anyway, it was nice to meet you. Guess I’ll see you around.”

Will you marry me?

My cheeks heat up. “Yeah, it was nice to meet you, too.”

Grayson brushes against my shoulder as he walks past me.

Oh, I’m never washing this shoulder again.

I can’t stop smiling. My head turns toward the kitchen, sneaking glances at the boy I just met.

My brother’s new friend.

It’s going to be hard to stay away from him.

One of my favorite TV shows has reruns playing, so I grab my remote and cozy up underneath my blankets. This all happens as the door to my room bursts open, making my eyes grow wide.

My brother walks in, stopping in front of my TV.

I wish I could punch him in the face right now.

“Hey, you’re in my way!”

“Sorry,” he says.

Wait, that’s not Blake blocking my view…it’s Grayson.

I look up to find him staring at me. “No, I’m sorry…I thought you were Blake. He’s always coming into my room without my permission.”

My heart is beating so fast, and the butterflies have returned. I’m not sure if I like this feeling.

I turn down the volume on the TV, so I can hear him better.

“It’s okay. I should’ve knocked.”

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you talking to me when you could be hanging out with my brother?”

“He asked your dad if he could take his bike down to the grocery store to get more soda.”

“How do we not have any soda? The fridge is always full of drinks and food. I think it might explode one day.”

Grayson laughs.

It’s the kind of laugh that starts in somebody’s belly and hurts in the best way possible.

Ah, I made him laugh.

“You’re funny,” he says.

“Thank you.” I can feel a shade of pink adding color to my face, and I can’t hold back my smile. “Since Blake won’t be back for some time, do you want to talk for a little while?”

“Sure. There’s not a lot for me to talk about though. I live in Breakwater, which is on the other side of town. I’m sure you haven’t heard of it.”

“I have heard of it.” I cross my arms and turn my body around, so I can properly face him.

His mouth parts open before it closes, his lips flattening into a cute frown. “I wasn’t expecting that. Most people who live on this side of town don’t know a lot about where I live. They live in their own world and don’t realize other people exist outside of it.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not like other people.”

I’m so happy he can’t read my mind because the way his words are scrambling in my brain right now is so embarrassing.

I don’t know how to act around Grayson because he makes me a little nervous.

He studies me, his eyebrows furrowing. “You’re definitely not.”

I’ve never met a boy like Grayson before. He seems more mature compared to the other boys I know. Not to mention, he watches my entire face when I talk, which shows me that he’s actually interested in what I have to say.

I’m not used to people wanting to hear what I have to say. My mom doesn’t listen to me. She doesn’t really see me for who I am and who I want to be. She treats me like I’m a mini version of her, dressing me up like her and making me act like her.

I don’t want to be her.

I want to be me.

Is that not enough?

He points to the TV, taking his gaze off me. “So, you like this show, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s one of my favorites. It makes me wish that magic existed in real life.”

He grins at me. “Sometimes you don’t need to make a wish for something to come true. You just have to believe in whatever it is you want to become real.”

“Are you sure that you’re twelve years old?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I wouldn’t be in sixth grade if I wasn’t.” He chuckles. “Okay, it's your turn now. Tell me something nobody knows about you.”

My mouth drops open as I look around my room.

There are posters of Selena Gomez, Ross Lynch, and Demi Lovato that I ripped out of teen magazines and plastered onto the walls.

“Um, that’s a hard question.”

“Why?” He raises an eyebrow.

“Nobody has asked me that before.”

“Well, I’m not nobody.”

You’re not. You’re somebody.

Particularly, he’s somebody who is going to get me into a lot of trouble with Blake. There’s no way I’m going to be able to stay away from Grayson. And there’s nothing my brother will be able to do to get rid of me.

“Okay, well, what’s your favorite color? I’m going to guess that it’s pink,” he says.

“How can you tell?”

“It’s like it threw up all over everything in here.”

“Be careful. It might throw up all over you.” I put my hand over my mouth, laughing and feeling my hot breath hit against the inside of my hand.

“Do you think I’d look bad in pink?” He places his hand underneath his chin.

“I don’t think so.”

Grayson moves from the bed over to the doorway. I look back and forth between him and my TV, unsure of who or what I should focus on.

He looks at me, but in a way that any normal person would. “I should make my way back to Blake’s room. He’d probably freak out if he saw me talking to you, right?” he asks, shrugging as his features fall flat.

“His brain might short circuit. I’m convinced he wasn’t wired right when he was born.”

He laughs, making the number of butterflies in my belly multiply. They’re starting to hurt, but it’s a good kind of hurt. At least, I hope it is.

“He’d probably beat you up if he heard you say that,” he assumes.

“Yeah, I’m used to it though.”

“Does he hurt you?”

I shake my head. “No, just your average brother and sister fighting. That’s all it is.”

“You go to Sunset Cove Middle School, don’t you?”

I lower my eyebrows. “Yeah, why?”

“Are the kids nice to you there?”

“Some of them are nice. The boys aren’t though.”

“What do you mean?”

“They say mean things to me.”

“What kind of mean things?” Grayson presses, his chest rising and falling.

“They say that I’m ugly and disgusting because I’m a girl.”

He crosses his arms, rolling his eyes and letting out a loose breath. “Don’t listen to them. You’re not ugly, and you’re not disgusting. They’re ugly and disgusting for saying those things to you.”

Tears sting my eyes as I look away. I don’t want him to see me cry.

The teasing at school has gotten so bad that I eat lunch by myself in one of my teacher’s rooms. I can’t risk running into those boys. The girls are just as bad, if not worse. I hate when I’m at school, and I hate when I’m home.

The only place I’m happy is my bedroom because I have books I can escape to. Reading is one of those things I’ve always been good at. Books are my happy place and my safe space.

Grayson walks back towards the edge of my bed, putting a hand on the top of my shoulder. “If any of those boys say something mean to you, you tell me. I’ll teach them a lesson. Nobody should treat a girl like that, especially when that girl is you. Okay, Vi?”

Ah, he just gave me a nickname! Breathe, Violet. Don’t show him how excited you are. It could scare him away.

I take a deep gulp. “Okay, Gray.”

“Remember what I told you. You’re special, Violet. They’re jealous of you.”

“Why would they be jealous of me?”

“Because you’re a better person than they are.”

I hear the sound of a door slamming shut and feet shuffling against our hardwood floors.

Blake’s home.

“You need to go before my brother finds you in here.”

“I can handle your brother. I’ve handled things much worse than him.” He pauses before he walks out the door. “I want you to know I’m always here for you, Vi.”

How is it that it doesn’t feel like I just met this boy? It feels like I’ve known him my entire life. I’ve never felt like this about anybody before.

And that scares me.