10. Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
Alec
After leaving my aunt’s house, I drive straight to the closest Deli to grab Summer a sandwich and a bag of chips, then park in my usual spot at one of my favorite hilltops. It’s high up and farther into the woods, giving a beautiful view of the horizon.
Since my parents died, this has been the only place I enjoy coming when I need to think.
We both sit in silence while Summer scarfs down her sub. From the looks of it, she hasn’t eaten much in a few days, and that doesn’t sit well with me.
Why should I care?
I’m only hanging out with her to get her to fall for me enough to fight for my charges to be dropped. Once my charges are dropped, I’ll be able to see my sister more often without being arrested. Having Summer wrapped around my finger will only cause Charles Raleigh to give up everything for his precious, perfect angel.
Summer finishes her sandwich, crumples up the wrapper, and stuffs it into the plastic bag it came in. “Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome. You should probably eat more often,” I state.
She laughs. “Yeah, well, it hasn’t really been the greatest few weeks. I often forget to.”
My jaw ticks, and I wish I could explain why. Could it be because, deep down, I actually care?
Damn it. I refuse to accept that.
I stare out the window in front of us. The vibrant green foliage and bright blue sky stretch out in the distance. Crinkling fills the car as Summer opens her bag of chips. From my peripheral, I see her stuff a few at a time into her mouth. My lips shift upward on their own accord, and I let out a low chuckle.
“What?” she says, her voice muffled by the amount of chips she shoved in her mouth.
I shake my head. “Not a thing. Finish eating.”
She finishes chewing the handful of chips in her mouth before saying, “I didn’t realize you had a sister.”
A small ping hits me in the center of my chest causing an ache that is almost unbearable. “She’s my world.”
“And you don’t see her often?” She shoves another chip into her mouth, chews, and swallows.
“What makes you think that?”
She shrugs. “Going by the interaction you both had, it’s obvious.”
Frowning, my eyes move to my lap. “Unfortunately, I don’t.”
I get this strange urge to explain to Summer the reason behind not being able to see Callie, but that would require spilling the truth about her father and how corrupted he is. It’ll only ruin my chances of getting my charges wiped clean. No matter how hard I try to push this feeling aside and focus on my mission, I can’t.
Something inside of me is screaming at me to tell her about my life. Except, I have to leave out that her father is the one who fucked my life upside down.
With my hand on the steering wheel, I reach my arm over to the glove box where I keep my unopened packs of cigarettes and pull one out. My arm feathers against Summer’s knee, causing my heart to flip.
Clamping my teeth together, I bat the feeling away and tell myself it’s nothing.
The crinkling of the plastic wrapper fills my ears as I pull the tab and flip the box open, grabbing one with my teeth.
“When I was 18 years old, I was arrested. Snuck into a bar and got in trouble for being underage.” I pause for a second, studying the way her eyes shift. Her eyes don’t hold concern, though. It’s different than that. It’s as if she’s intrigued, which makes me even more curious about her.
I want to leave it at that, but I know that doesn’t explain why I can’t see Callie. “On my nineteenth birthday, I ended up throwing a small party at my aunt’s house. Her and Caller weren’t home for the weekend. They went on vacation.”
She cuts me off. “Why didn’t you go with them?”
I huff. “I wasn’t allowed to.”
Summer slowly plops another chip into her mouth, waiting for me to continue.
“Initially, the party was only supposed to be a few friends.” I stop, patting my thighs for my lighter, but it’s not there.
My blood heats, aggravated that I can’t light my cigarette. I pluck the butt from my mouth and hold it between my fingers. “James, my bass guitarist, invited others, who invited others, and so on. It ended up being a really big party.”
I start to search the center console for a lighter, hoping I left one there at some point, but there isn’t one there.
Where the fuck did I put my lighter?
I sigh with aggravation. At the same time, Summer reaches into the cupholder on the passenger side and pulls out a lighter I didn’t know was there. Without hesitation, she hands it to me.
With a long breath, I grab it, thank her, and place my cigarette between my teeth before flicking the lighter. My lips press against the filter, sucking in a mouthful of smoke and blowing it out the window.
“Little did I know, my aunt had the neighbors keeping watch over the house. I was too naive to think she’d go that far, but I was wrong. She never really trusted me much. The neighbors called her and then called the cops. They arrested me for consumption of alcohol and being under twenty-one.”
Summer watches me intently, finishing the rest of the chips before tossing the empty bag with the rest of her trash. “Were you released?”
I nod. “They kept me in the holding cell until my aunt came back into town.”
I look down at the cigarette between my fingers. I didn’t think retelling this story would leave me with so much pain and anger.
“What else happened?”
I bite my bottom lip, dragging it between my teeth until it pops out. “When I turned twenty, I was pulled over for speeding. To be fair, I was late for work, and I was only going five miles over the speed limit. The officer who pulled me over asked to search my car, and I knew if I said no, he would assume I was hiding something. I gave him the OK to search it, and well, somehow, there was a bag of heroin in my glovebox. The bag wasn’t even mine. I’ve never touched a single drug in my life.”
“Do you know whose bag it was?”
I shake my head. “Nah. I’m positive I was set up. When I went to court, they put me on probation for a year. Right before probation ended, I guess I was one of the lucky ones… in the wrong place at the wrong time. A couple of guys got into a fight behind my work, and I tried to break it up. My boss called the police, and due to my probation, I was searched. Somehow, another bag was found in my jacket pocket.”
Summer’s eyes fall. “Was that bag yours?”
“No. I think it was planted there. My parent’s overdose was enough for me to never want to try drugs.”
She nods in understanding, but the glossiness in her eyes shows that I might be reminding her of something that upsets her. I don’t like that, so instead of continuing I let the silence linger on as I finish my cigarette.
“What happened with your aunt?” Summer breaks the silence.
I try to shove the vivid memory that creeps in, but it consumes my thoughts anyway.
***
“Alec Sokolov.” I clench my hands into tight fists when the guard steps up to the cell, my nails digging deeper into my palms. “You’re free to go,” he says, pulling out the ring full of keys and searching for the one to unlock the holding cell I’m in.
“I told all of you the bag is not mine.”
He chuckles. “That’s not why you are being released.”
My jaw clenches. “Then why am I being released?”
“Your bail was paid.”
My eyes narrow, shock consuming me.
That’s all he says while I follow him down the hallway and up the stairs into the lobby of the police station. He swipes his ID card, and a loud beep goes off before he turns the knob and opens the door.
I stiffen, standing in the doorway, looking at my very angry aunt Jules. Her hands are resting on her hips, all the while her foot taps against the hard floor.
This is going to be splendid.
Her eyes morph into hatred the longer she stares at me. I should be used to this by now.
“Let’s go, Sokolov. We need to close this door off,” the guard says.
I nod, pinching my lips together, and moving toward Jules. She doesn’t bother to say anything to me, which doesn’t surprise me. She’ll wait until we’re out of the station before she gives me her opinion. That’s what she always does.
Aunt Jules doesn’t give a shit about what happens to me, which is why I am confused as to why she would bail me out. Was it because of Callie?
I know Callie is with the neighbor across the street. Jules would never take her to the police station.
Jules finishes with the officer at the front desk, grabbing the plastic bag with belongings in it. She pushes the bag in my direction and lets go before I have a good hold on it. The bag slips from my fingertips, but thankfully I catch it before it hits the ground.
Appreciate that.
She walks past me in complete silence, refusing to make even the slightest eye contact. I follow her to her car and climb into the passenger side, turning my focus out the window while she drives back to the house.
We’re halfway there when Jules breaks the silence. “Samantha called me.”
I nod, already figuring that part out myself.
“I can’t keep doing this, Alec.”
My stomach tightens. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Three arrests. Underage drinking, and caught twice with heroin. Twice, Alec. Do you even consider the possibility of what will happen to you if you keep this up? What Callie will have to see?”
Here we go. The same conversation she throws at me every single time.
“I’m telling you, Jules. It was not mine. I was set up.” I raise my voice in defense, feeling like that’s the only way I can get through to her thick skull.
I’m so tired of looking like the bad guy.
Jules shakes her head. “If you don’t get your shit together, Alec, I won’t be there next time.”
My stomach churns, but it doesn’t stop me from spitting fire. “Then don’t be. I can handle myself.”
With a huff of a laugh, she flicks her blinker on and pulls down our road and into the driveway. I get out of the car, slam the door, and stride into the house without another word.
Nothing I say will matter.
It never does.
Hours go by before I need to head downstairs and grab something to eat. Dread slams into my gut; the last thing I want is to be remotely close to my aunt. She’ll only point out all of the bad things that have happened to me instead of praising me for the good.
And I don’t deserve that. Not after everything I’ve done… like taking care of Callie when she was waking up from night terrors every night so Jules could sleep and making sure Callie was dropped off at daycare on time.
Jules’ soft whispers have me stopping at the top of the stairs. “He is not safe here, not with Callie. Something needs to be done before it’s too late,” she hisses.
***
“Alec…”
I shake my head to push the memory out and give Summer a soft smile.
Her eyebrows furrow. “You OK?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Just talking about everything is…”
“Hard,” she cuts me off, frowning. “I know the feeling.”
“It’s hard to imagine how life could have been.”
Her lips press together, and she looks down at her hands resting on her lap. “So, why do you have to sneak around to see your sister?”
“My aunt filed a restraining order after my last arrest. Claimed I was too dangerous to be around Callie. She refused to give me a chance to prove to her that everything that happened wasn’t my fault.”
She stares blankly at me. “What about Terry?”
The corner of my mouth tilts up a little. “Terry was a really good friend of the family. She saw a lot of potential in me growing up. She’s been conflicted with my aunt and the restraining order and believes that my ‘mistakes’ won’t reflect my future self. Terry hates broken families because she came from one. So, she started sneaking me inside after my aunt left for work. As the years went on, my time with Callie has been cut shorter and shorter because I was almost caught a few times. And, well, if I’m caught, Terry will get in trouble too.”
“With Callie being so young, she hasn’t told your aunt that you’ve been coming by?”
I sigh. “Callie is a smart girl. Never would I brainwash her to lie to my aunt. If she does tell her, then it is what it is. But surprisingly she hasn’t. Terry often tells me that Callie misses me and wishes I could come home.”
I feel a pinch in my heart, and I give Summer a sad smile.
Summer frowns and looks at me. The sincerity in those beautiful hazel eyes flips a switch inside of me. This is the first time I’ve spoken about my past out loud.
“I’m really sorry you had to go through all of that. It’s unfair.” She shifts in her seat to face me, leaning her back against the door. “Did you try to fight it? Maybe prove your innocence?”
I laugh sarcastically, but I didn’t mean to. “Of course, I tried, but come on, who would believe someone who was found with heroin on them?”
“I swear, the system is so fucked up.”
Your father is what’s wrong with the system. At least that’s what I want to say, but I can’t. Saying that out loud to Summer will ruin my entire plan.
Something inside of me shifts. I expected Summer to be stuck up, or exactly like her father. Corrupted and ignorant. But she’s far from that, and it’s making me a lot more curious about her and damnit, I shouldn’t be.
“Tell me about you,” I ask anyway.
She smiles. “What do you want to know?”
“Well, you were walking around in your pajamas. If I had to guess, you didn’t brush your hair.”
She gasps, flips the visor down, and eyes herself in the mirror. Her hands reach to her head, patting her hair down. “Oh, come on. My hair isn’t that bad, and my pajamas are cool.”
I chuckle and watch as her finger combs through her hair before her eyes move to mine.
She sighs and looks down. “My father dropped a rather large bomb on me this morning.”
My eyebrows raise to my hairline… this has my full attention. “What happened?”
Summer laughs sarcastically, but it’s sadness that fills the air between us. “I found out my mother cheated on my father. I guess she was depressed and I never knew. When medication wasn’t helping, she started using.” She looks out the window, twirling her thumbs in her lap.
“Do you blame yourself for not being there?” She looks at me with sad eyes, and doesn’t say anything. “It’s not your fault, you know. There’s no way you could have known she was depressed. Parents are pretty good at hiding it.”
Her tongue runs along her bottom lip as she stares out the window again. More silence grows between us. I want to say more, but I’m not sure what else I could say to make her feel better.
She breaks the silence, keeping her focus out the window. “My mother was murdered, and well, they want to close the case.” She sighs, shaking her head. “It hasn’t been long enough for them to close it. I just… something isn’t right. I have this feeling inside of me, nagging at me. I feel like it might be up to me to figure it out.”
I wasn’t expecting that at all.
“Anyway, enough about me.”
She stares at me again, and I can’t help but take her in, looking at her in a way I shouldn’t be—a way that wasn’t part of my plan. But I think it’s too late.
“Hey, Alec,” she says, bringing my attention back. “Will you teach me to play?”
My lips curl, the corners reaching ear to ear. “I’d love to,” I reply eagerly, but when I go to ask her when a good time would be, her phone goes off, and she glances down at it.
Her eyes pull together. “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
I force a smile, slightly disappointed that this moment is over too soon. She opens the door and bends down enough to look at me one last time. “Thank you for today.”
“Anytime.”
She smiles, showing a small sliver of her teeth, and then the door slams shut, leaving me cursing to myself. Despite my efforts to push these feelings away, I am falling for Summer Raleigh.