Chapter Eight
“Y ou look like a zombie ,” Seth said, handing me a bottle of water and my pills.
“Blame Toby,” I mumbled.
He chuckled as he went over to the fridge and pulled out a yogurt. “Well, keep your fingers crossed for me. Hopefully the doctor gives me the all clear on my ribs and I can finally go back to work.”
“Are you sure they’re good?” I asked, biting my bottom lip. We had been run off the road in September, and Seth had broken his ribs. From experience, I knew they took forever to heal.
“Yes. I promise. I’ve been fine for a while now. I think everyone was just being overly cautious.” He sighed and stared at the ceiling, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “If I have to sit in the office for another day, I’m taking a nail gun to my head.”
I raised an eyebrow, doing my best not to laugh. “Well, I’m glad you’re finally free from desk duty.”
When I went to grab my bookbag, Seth was there lifting it up for me.
“You know I’m capable of carrying my own stuff.”
“Sure, and so am I.” He grabbed my keys and led me out the door and to my car. Only after putting my bag in the car for me did he hand over my keys. “Have fun today.”
“Yeah, you too. Don’t break any bones on your first day back in the field.”
He snorted. “Boss will probably hang me upside down on a beam if I dared to do that.” He leaned into me and gave me a quick kiss before pulling back. It wasn’t enough though. I grabbed on to his coat and pulled him to me again, kissing him hard. He moaned and stepped forward, getting closer to me. His hands went to my waist as he pulled me forward. His firm lips trailed from my lips to my ear.
“Shit,” he whispered, sending a shiver through me. “Need to stop. We’re stopping.”
“Uh huh,” I said, but then I found his lips again and proved us both liars.
“Okay.” Seth forced himself to pull away. His body moved first, slowly creating space between us, until only our lips remained touching. And then finally, even that warmth was gone.
I blinked, slightly confused, and a little too cold thanks to the weather.
“Go,” he said.
“Right.” I tried to clear my mind as I slowly climbed into my car and turned it on.
Or at least tried.
It stuttered to life and then went silent. I frowned and tried again. The dashboard lit up briefly but my engine decided it didn’t want to work and my poor baby died.
Seth opened my door and leaned in, frowning.
“Try it again.”
I did. It stuttered. Went silent.
“Damn,” I said. “This car isn’t even close to being driven into a car grave yet.”
“Let me check under the hood.”
We got the hood popped open and then Seth disappeared in front of my car. I heard some thudding and tapping.
“Try,” he called out.
I did, only to receive the same results—my car too stubborn to come to life.
Seth came back around. “Well, you need to get to school. Hop in my truck, I’ll take you.”
“What about my car?” I asked.
“I have someone I can ask to come out and take a look. Hopefully, he can figure it out. If not, we’ll have it towed to a garage.”
“Not my car,” I whined as I climbed back out of the driver’s seat.
Seth grabbed my bag and we went over to his truck.
“It’ll be fine,” he said once he was pulling out of the driveway. My Chevrolet Impala looked so sad as we left. “I think Bryan should be free after school. He can bring you home. I’ll check in with my mechanic to see if he can come out while I’m at work. If not, I’ll take a look when I get home.”
“This sucks,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
Seth chuckled. “Right, what are you going to do without being able to drive yourself around like the independent woman you are.”
I sent him a glare.
He only continued to smile while I stewed.
He wasn’t wrong. I was used to being able to get myself around. It was a freedom I loved. As soon as I was sixteen, I got my permit, and I’d lived on the road ever since. Granted, I technically broke the rules because I didn’t have an adult with me when I drove around. At first, I was super cautious, making sure I didn’t break any laws. But once I realized how easy it was, I was able to relax and really enjoy the freedom of having a car.
It meant less time with Lindie. It meant finding more time to myself. It was my freedom. And not having a car felt all too much like that was being taken away from me.
When we pulled into the parking lot, the others were already there, waiting.
“Why does Candy Pop look like she swallowed a lemon?” Toby asked.
“Her car isn’t working,” Seth tattled on me. “She’s pouting.”
“I’m not pouting. I’m frustrated,” I finally said as I climbed down from Seth’s monster truck. Paxon was there in case I fell.
Seth grabbed my bag and held it out to Bryan. “Bring her home after school?” he asked.
Bryan grabbed my bag. “Of course.”
“And now you know why I’m frustrated,” I mumbled.
Toby chuckled. “If that’s our only problem, then I think today is a win in my books. I imagine by the time you get home today, your car will be as good as new.”
“Are you calling Lucas?” Bryan asked.
“Yeah, I think he doesn’t have work today.”
“Who’s Lucas?” I asked.
“One of Aunt Peyton’s husbands. He’s a mechanic.”
I perked up at that. I really liked Peyton. She was confidently beautiful and had a wealth of knowledge. I remembered when I first met her, she was coming out of Seth’s house with Bebe and I thought Seth had been dating her. I was so embarrassed when I found out who she was. She had two husbands and her outlook on love was refreshing to hear about.
I wondered what her husbands were like.
While they talked about my car, I slipped over to Justin. He looked like he was practically sleeping on his feet.
With swim season going strong, I understood what the others had meant about him exhausting himself. From what I knew, he trained in the mornings and evenings for swim practice. Plus, it felt like he was scheduled to have a swim match or meet or whatever every other day. He had two back to back last week. They had both been away, so I’d only gone to one.
They had felt a lot calmer to watch than soccer by a mile. It was a bit more fascinating to watch him swim though. The way his body practically flew through the water, his muscles flexing and his head bobbing up and down. I had never been so fascinated by the male body until I saw him swim for the first time.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Tired,” Justin mumbled and leaned into me.
“Want to sneak away with me while they talk about my car?” I asked. “I need food.”
He perked up. “I’ll never say no to food.” He wrapped his arm around me and we went inside. I wasn’t sure the others noticed. Somehow, my poor broken car became a huge discussion as the others huddled together to figure out what they could do to either get my car running or what to do while it was getting fixed.
Some students glanced our way as we headed to the cafeteria, but it was vastly different than before Halloween. Toby and Paxon had called out one of the students about his attitude toward me to act as a warning about what they’d do to others if they dared to continue to bully me. It worked, because people kept their comments to themselves and stayed away.
Justin and I grabbed food and claimed a table. It wasn’t long until the others joined us. I was sitting next to Justin, his arm still wrapped around my shoulders as he stuffed an egg and cheese croissant into his mouth. I mostly just wanted the fresh fruit, so I gave him my croissant. He smiled and continued to eat as I picked at my strawberries.
Toby sat next to me and eyed Justin’s arm briefly.
“Busy morning, apparently?”
“Apparently,” I said. “But getting better and better now that I’m here.”
“Perfect. Now tell Justin to stop hogging you.”
“I’m not hogging her,” Justin said, letting his arm drop down from my shoulders. I missed the weight and warmth of it, but only briefly before Toby had his arm there, pulling me closer to him.
“This is better.” He sighed and relaxed against me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Busy morning,” he replied simply as he picked at his hashbrowns.
“Seems we all had busy mornings,” I mumbled.
“Not all of us,” Paxon said.
Bryan snorted. “Are you sure, because it didn’t sound like it when I called you this morning.”
“What happened?” Toby asked.
Paxon shrugged. “It’s normal.”
“What’s normal?” I asked.
Paxon met my eyes and smiled. “Mini-me being Mini-me. He didn’t want to go to school this morning. I can’t wait for Christmas break. It’ll be a good reset for him.”
“Did he talk his way out of going today?” Bryan asked.
“I think if he’d held on for another ten minutes, Dad would have caved.”
“Your dad would let him skip school?” I asked, surprised.
Paxon nodded. “If he thinks we feel overwhelmed and need a mental health day, he’ll let us take it. Cal usually gets like this this time of year.”
There was a tone in Paxon’s voice there at the end, and I tilted my head as I mulled it over. Paxon met my inquisitive gaze and only gave me a small shake of his head, a nonverbal ‘don’t ask’ type of response.
A student walked by and snorted. We all glanced at the guy and my heart jumped in my chest as the boy passing by was looking at me and then between Justin and Toby like he knew.
We never outright said we were in a relationship, but we didn’t go out of our way to hide it either. I let the guys hold my hand or put their arm around my shoulder or hold me against them. They liked carrying my stuff, which meant Bryan currently had my book bag since we had the same homeroom and first period together. And some of them enjoyed kissing my head.
We hadn’t publicly kissed on the lips, but they enjoyed kissing my temple or on top of my head or my cheek. All pretty light displays of affection, I thought.
But while they weren’t talking where I could hear them or approaching me about it, people had to know what was going on between the guys and me. And these moments always embarrassed me. Made me feel like I was doing something wrong, like I was greedy.
I don’t know about being greedy—maybe I was—but I was doing what that felt right and after talking with Seth’s aunt about it, I didn’t want to stop. They were willing to explore this relationship with me and I wanted to try.
Darn did I really want to try. The thought of losing even one of them was enough to send me into a panic attack.
“Ignore him. Kevin’s a tool,” Paxon said as he glared at the back of Kevin’s head.
“Is he a tool who’s going to be in trouble later?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Paxon pulled the blinders off me a while ago. He was more than capable of standing up for me. I had caught him in a school fight just before Halloween. He was lucky the principal didn’t find out. Principal Calgary had a zero-tolerance policy against school fights and bullying.
“I won’t do anything,” he said, but his focus was on his drink rather than on me.
“We should do something,” Toby snapped out. “I should be able to hold Cadence’s hand without people getting all judgy.”
Bryan straightened. “Should we make it seem like just one of us is dating her while at school?”
“No,” I said instantly. “We spend so much time at school and Toby is right. I should be able to hold your hand when I want to without people trying to make a big deal out of it.”
“Just do it,” Justin said. “We don’t have to explain shit to anyone. Let them talk it out themselves.”
“That’s why Cadence got into trouble last time,” Bryan pointed out.
I shuddered. Some of the girls were spreading nasty rumors about me and basically talked some guys from another school into assaulting me because they thought I’d be easy. I could feel their touch on me again and had to suppress the memory. It’s been nearly two months since that’d happened. Yet it felt too much like it had happened just yesterday too. Another thing I was working through with my therapist. There was way too much content for Dr. Arason to work with when it came to our sessions, and I never really knew what we were going to talk about each week until the session started.
“Keep it balanced,” Justin said. “Don’t smack on Cadence, but feel free to hold her hand. Just keep doing what we’ve been doing. They’ll talk if they want to talk. We can’t stop that no matter what we do.”
“The boss has spoken,” Toby said, all too happy about the verdict. He even dramatically yanked me halfway into his lap as he kissed the top of my head and made a loud muah sound to go with it.
I pulled away and shook my head as I took in his big shit-eating grin.
“Right,” I said. “And this is where I go to class.”
When I got up, Bryan joined me. He twined our hands together and led the way through the cafeteria.
“I can carry my bag,” I said.
“I’m good,” he replied simply, glancing at me briefly before pushing open the door and letting me go through.