Chapter 20 #2
“Where are you going?” she asks.
“I don’t know. I just need to get away from here.” I keep driving, winding through the neighborhood streets.
“Fuck.” I grip the steering wheel. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
“What? Leave?”
“Hit my father.”
“He deserves it after everything he’s done to you.”
“I’ve just made it worse. If I go back there now, he’ll . . . I don’t even want to think about it.”
“You’re not going back.”
I shake my head.
“Briggs.” She reaches over and puts her hand on my arm. “You’re not going back there. You can’t.”
“Where am I supposed to live?”
“You’ll stay with me. At my house.”
“Yeah, right. Your dad would love that.”
“My dad would be okay with it if I asked.”
“And what are you going to tell him? You can’t tell him about my father. He’d kill you if you told anyone, and I’m not exaggerating.” I glance at her. “He seriously might kill you.”
She sits back and looks out the window. “I don’t have to tell him why. If I tell him it’s important to me, he’ll let you stay. He trusts me enough to know I wouldn’t ask unless it was an emergency.”
“My dad will show up at your door, demanding I come home.”
“We’ll figure something out. But you can’t go back there.”
I look over at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Your face. Where he hit you. Does it hurt?”
She rubs her cheek. “It stings a little, but it’s not bad.”
“That bastard.” I slam my fist on the steering wheel. “I can’t believe he hit you.”
“You should slow down,” she says as I round a corner. “There are kids around here.”
“And psycho loners,” I say, glancing at Calvin as we pass him on the road.
“Hey, that’s his house.” She points to it, then looks back at him. “We should go talk to him.”
“Why?”
“He looks sad.”
“He always looks like that. Why the hell is he walking on the road? There’s no shoulder. He could get hit.”
She turns back to the front. “He asked me to prom.”
“No shit?” I laugh. “What’d you tell him?”
“That I already have a date.”
She has a date? What the hell? I know we’re technically not going out, but I didn’t think she’d start dating someone else.
“Who is he?” I ask.
“It’s not a he, it’s a she. I’m going with Charlotte.”
So she doesn’t have someone else. I feel some relief knowing that. I know she’s not mine, but I want her to be. I just don’t know how to make that happen, given everything that’s going on and the fact that she doesn’t trust me.
“You don’t want to go with a guy?” I ask.
“Nobody asked me, except Calvin, but I don’t see him that way.”
“What about me?”
She smiles. “I definitely see you that way.”
“I meant prom.”
“Would I go to prom with you?” She laughs. “I don’t see that happening. If you and I went to prom, the whole school would pass out from shock.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
I’d take her if I could, but I’d have people giving me shit about it until the end of the year. And there’s a chance they’d do something to Ella, thinking it was some kind of prank I was playing, and wanting to take part in it.
“We’ll be in jail anyway,” she says. “We won’t be going to prom.”
“We don’t know that.”
“The text said he’s going to the cops.”
“Doesn’t mean we’ll get in trouble. Let’s not talk about it. We’ve got enough shit going on.”
Ella looks at her phone. “My dad texted. He just got home and wants to know where I am. What do I tell him?”
“Tell him you’ll be home in a few minutes.” I slow down and turn around, heading back to her house. “Why aren’t you working today?”
“I told my dad I needed to study.” She looks up from her phone. “I’m going to ask him if you can stay.”
“I’ll just go home. I can deal with my dad.”
“No.” She turns to me. “Briggs, he’ll kill you. You at least need to give him time to cool off.”
She’s probably right, but there’s no way her dad’s letting me stay there.
Maybe I could stay in my car tonight. I’m not going to Parker’s or Finn’s.
I’ve had it with those fuckers. They don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves.
I guess I used to be like that too, but after the accident, it changed.
I couldn’t just look out for myself. We’re all in this together, but Parker and Finn don’t see it that way.
They just do their own thing, not caring how it affects Ella and me.
Those guys aren’t my friends. They just pretend to be so they can benefit from my popularity.
I pull into Ella’s driveway and park. “You want to go in first?”
“No. Come with me.” She undoes her seatbelt and opens the door.
I remain in my seat. “I think you should go talk to him.”
“And leave you out here? No. I don’t want you going back home.”
I get out of the truck and toss the keys to her as we walk to the door.
“Dad?” she says as she goes inside.
“Hey, honey.” Her dad appears from the kitchen, stopping when he sees me. “Briggs. What are you doing here?”
“Dad, I need to talk to you.” Ella goes past him to the living room.
“What’s this about?” he asks me.
“You should talk to Ella,” I say.
He goes over to her. “I’m listening.”
She glances at me, then back at her dad. “Briggs needs to stay here for a few days, maybe longer.”
“Why would he stay here?”
“He’s having problems with—”
“The noise at my house,” I say, going over to Ella, stopping her before she mentions my father. “We’re having some work done and it’s loud.”
“And they’re doing it at night?” he asks, his brows raised. He knows it’s a lie.
“Dad, it doesn’t matter,” Ella says. “The point is, he can’t go home. Can he please just stay a few days? He’ll sleep on the couch.”
Her dad’s eyes bounce between Ella and me. “What’s going on here? You two are obviously hiding something from me, so what is it?”
Ella steps up to him. “Dad, you know I wouldn’t ask you to do this unless it was really important. Please, I’m begging you, let him stay here.”
“His father is the reason we’re losing our house. And you invite this boy to stay with us?”
“Briggs didn’t take our house. He had nothing to do with that.”
Her dad looks at me. “Does your father know you’re here?”
“No. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell him.”
“I’m guessing that means you two had a fight.”
Ella looks at me, her eyes begging me to tell him more.
“Yes,” I say to her dad. “He has a bad temper. He needs time to calm down.” I rub my hand over the bruise on my neck.
It’s faded, but you can still see it. I drop my hand and notice Ella’s father looking at my neck.
It’s what I wanted. I couldn’t tell him what my father does to me, but I could give him an idea.
Concern replaces the anger on his face. The guy doesn’t even know me, and yet he shows more concern for me than my own parents.
“How long have you two been . . . fighting?” he asks.
“Ever since my mom left,” I say. “It’s been about a year.”
He nods, then turns to Ella. “I need to ask you something and you need to be totally honest.”
“What is it?”
“Before I even consider this, I need to know about you and Briggs. You told me there was nothing going on with you two. Were you lying to me? Have you been seeing him behind my back?”
Shit. If Ella tells him the truth, there’s no way he’ll let me stay.