Read Denying the Wrong Online

Authors: Evelyne Stone

Denying the Wrong (10 page)

BOOK: Denying the Wrong
7.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
Cha
pter 11

Katherine

I picked at my pizza while attempting to carry on a decent conversation. Our waitress wouldn’t stop checking in on us or flirting with Dillon, even though Alissa didn’t bother to hide her displeasure. I wanted to laugh, but my chest hurt knowing Dillon had someone with long blond hair chasing after him. I hadn’t thought about all the girls that would eventually be after him once they found out he was back. He was always a good-looking guy but now that he’d bulked up, he was in another league. Thinking about it was making me nauseous.

Alissa could tell our too-friendly waitress was bothering me, so she kept sending me reassuring winks. I kept my fingers crossed she wouldn’t say anything in front of Dillon. I didn’t want him to know how increasingly insecure I felt.

“I thought you were starving,” Dillon whispered in my ear.

I looked over at him with a smile. “I’m not as hungry as I thought.”

“Please don’t be mad at me because Amy is being over-friendly.”

“I’m not mad at you,” I said, my voice soft.

“You know if a guy ever hit on you in front of me, I would be upset. It’s okay to admit you’re jealous.”

I looked at Alissa who was staring at the ceiling, attempting to hide the fact that she could hear our conversation. “If a guy ever hit on me?”
Does he think I never get hit on?

“Yeah, if it ever happened, I would be jealous.”

“I’ll have you know, I get hit on,” I said, sarcastically. I was hurt he didn’t think any other guys found me attractive.

“Oh, really?” Alissa and Dillon said in unison.

I gave Alissa my shut-up look. “Yes, really. In fact, there’s a guy in my cooking class that hits on me all the time.”

Dillon let go of my hand. His face turned pink and he jumped up from the bench. “I’m going to go pay the bill.”

He shot me a look I had never seen before. I nodded my head, afraid to argue. I looked at Alissa. She smiled at me and broke into a fit of giggles after Dillon stepped away from the table.

“What the hell are you laughing at?” I asked, kicking her under the table.

“You just pissed off Dillon. He gets extremely jealous and I should have mentioned that to you, but I forgot.” Her body trembled as she tried to keep her laughter quiet.

I looked back at the register where Dillon was paying the check. He walked over to the table and said, “I’m going to wait out in the car. They’re bringing a box over to put the leftovers in.”

Alissa grabbed my hand and began squeezing my fingers, bring my attention back to her. “Just give him a minute. It’ll be okay. At least you have a guy that cares about you enough to get jealous.”

“Wait, I thought Scott
was
jealous of other guys?” I’d waited to ask until she brought up the subject.

“He does, but not like Dillon just did.”

“What do you mean?” I didn’t know there were different types of jealousy.

“Dillon got jealous because he loves you.” She held up her hand, knowing I was about to argue that he doesn’t love me because he hadn’t said it yet. “Scott gets jealous because… well I’m not sure why. He certainly doesn’t love me.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I can just tell.” She shrugged. The cashier who was helping Dillon brought the box for our leftovers.

I shimmied out of the bench but Alissa stopped me.

“Don’t be mad at Dillon. Be happy you have someone who cares that much about you.”

That statement made my heart sink. I knew something was going on with her but I never expected her to be unhappy or at the least feel like the guy she’s infatuated with doesn’t love her. “What’s going on? Please tell me the truth and not some load of bullshit that you’re fine.”

“We’ll talk about it later. I promise.” She linked her arm through mine and we walked towards the car. I wanted to stop her and talk more. Not just because I wanted to know what the hell was up with Scott but also because I wasn’t ready to face Dillon.

I opened the passenger side door and bent over, “Is it okay to sit up front with you?”

Dillon laughed out loud. “Yes, it’s okay.”

I got in, assuming his laugh meant he was over whatever it was that made him upset. No one said anything until he parked in front of my apartment.

“I’m going to get out and let you two talk or make-out or whatever it is you do,” Alissa said, climbing out of the back.

“Look. I was jealous she was flirting with you and the only way I knew how to express my anger was to try to make you jealous, too.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” he asked.

“Tell you what? That there was a guy flirting with me? Why would that matter?”

“It matters to me. I don’t want some other guy flirting with the girl I love. Especially in class.”

My heart stopped and my breathing became shallow.
Did he really just say the ‘girl I love’?

He must have noticed the way I was staring and not responding because he put his finger under my chin, lifting my eyes to meet his. “I love you.”

I couldn’t say it back without releasing the tears that begged to be let loose. Instead, I kissed him. I slid my tongue into his mouth and sucked in his breath. The world seemed to stop, until Alissa knocked on the driver’s side window, interrupting the moment.

I jumped out the car, embarrassed Alissa had witnessed my moment of lust. “Sorry. Well, actually, I’m not.” I ran to the other side of the car to whisper in her ear. “He said he loves me.”

“I told you.” She hugged me tight.

Dillon rolled his window down. “Girls, I need to get Alissa home so I can be back in time for dinner.”

“Okay,” we both said, giggling.

~*~

“What’s up, guys?” The Doctor asked, flinging his suit jacket over the back of the couch.


What’s up, guys?
I told you that sounded ridiculous. The kids already think you’re cool,” Mom scolded him. She stood on her tiptoes, giving him a long kiss.

Dillon looked over at me and winked. I found myself still blushing at the thought of my mom having a boyfriend. “Nothing’s up. What’s up with you, dude?”

They stopped kissing and both laughed at me. “Don’t egg him on, sweetheart.”

“Well since you asked, we have another partner starting on Monday in our group. That means I’ll have less cases and I can finally have time to use that lake house I own but never see.”

My mouth dropped open. “You have a lake house?” I’d always pictured myself sitting by the water, writing all day. The houses we drove by up north always looked like the perfect setting for any genre I would decide to take on.

“We should all go up there sometime,” the Doctor responded. “Now, explain to me why I always see Dillon over here but I have yet to meet the best friend?”

“Am I not enough to keep you entertained?” Dillon joked.

“She’s busy with her new boyfriend. Well, I think he’s her boyfriend. She hasn’t really elaborated on what’s going on,” I said.

“You two have been attached since birth,” my mom said in her lecture tone. “You need to sit her down and demand answers.”

“Easier said than done, Mom. She did mention the other day that she doesn’t think he loves her. Why would you want to be with someone that doesn’t love you?”

“This is Alissa we’re talking about,” Dillon said, helping me put the last of the food on the table. “She always loves a challenge.”

“You know, as the best friend, maybe I should sit him down and have a chat.”

“No. No way,” Dillon said, pointing his finger warningly at me. I bit it.

“Why not?” Mom asked. “Is he not nice or something?”

“We really don’t know. He’s like this mysterious guy that no one seems to know anything about.”

Dillon nodded in agreement. “Which is why she shouldn’t talk to him. Talk to Alissa about it. Make her talk to you.”

“Let’s talk more about this lake house.” I didn’t want to talk about Alissa anymore. The more I thought about her in a relationship, or whatever it was, the angrier I got. She deserved to be happy.

~*~

I took a few days to think about Alissa’s situation. She wouldn’t come over to hang out and I suspected it was because she was avoiding the conversation she promised me, so I decided the best way to get answers would be to talk to the man in question, myself.

In my head, I went over what I wanted to ask Scott. During the bus ride, I sent Dillon a text telling him I was going to the library and would call him later. Lying to him made me feel awful, but I didn't want to chance him trying to stop me from talking to Scott. I had to get it out of my system, and I was actually proud of myself for being assertive.

I walked straight to the front desk and asked the woman to page Scott for me. He came up to meet me two minutes later.

“Katherine, I wasn't expecting to see you today.” His smile gave me the creeps. It looked fake and devious.

“Sorry to drop in like this, but I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things.” I batted my eyes, hoping he wouldn't get too suspicious.

“Sure. Why don't we go to the back room?” He led the way. My hands got sweaty.

The back room was empty and it looked bigger without a crowd of people. Scott pulled two chairs down and we sat by the stage.

“I don't mean to be rude, but there will be some people showing up soon to use the room.” His manner was so calm, it made it really tough to work up the nerve to ask questions. He motioned for me to sit in the other chair and said, “So, what can I do for you, Katherine?”

I cleared my throat a little and wished I had brought some water. “No problem. As you know, Alissa is my best friend. She has changed since she met you.”

“For the good, I hope.” His interruption made it pretty clear he wanted to stay in charge of this conversation.

I leaned towards him remembering my speech teacher saying that was body language for ‘I'm not scared of you.’ “Do you love Alissa?”

He cleared his throat and smirked. “Isn’t that something that I should be talking to her about?”

“She hasn’t told me what’s going on and I want to make sure everything is okay.”

“Maybe that’s because what’s going on between us is private.”

Okay, that’s not going anywhere. Time to change the direction.

“What are your thoughts about everything that has been going on lately?” I kept direct eye contact but my assertiveness was slowly dissolving.

“What do you mean by everything?” He leaned towards me, copying my move.

“Well, you're here to help kids, right?” He nodded in agreement. “There’s been a noticeable rise in kids getting into trouble and even dying.”

“Noticeable how?” He raised an eyebrow. “Because you just started noticing or because it happened to be some kids that you knew?”

“The drug overdoses. Matt getting seriously hurt. Kids at the other school drinking too much and dying. It seems weird to have happened all at once.”

“It happens everywhere, Katherine,” he said very cynically. “I'm not sure what you're trying to ask me but if you want my opinion, I will give it to you. All of those kids had issues before anything happened to them. I’m a huge believer in fate and Karma. Karma always punishes. Fate determines what happens to us in certain situations. Kelly had bad Karma and her fate was her body giving up after so much drug use. Matt was too drunk to be able to handle his also-drunken dad in a horrible situation. He didn't die, but he's going to have a long road to recovery.”

He stopped to take a couple of breaths, repositioning his body. I wasn't sure if he was getting angry or if he was really passionate about it. I sat there quietly, not at all like I’d planned. I didn’t know what to say in response.

“What I do here is teach these kids how to protect themselves. I can't control what they do outside of these walls, but I can at least help them feel better about themselves.”

I nodded in agreement. “So, you don't feel responsible at all for these kids?” My forehead started sweating along with my hands.

“Asking me to feel responsible when bad things happen to bad people would be like asking me to feel responsible for when good things happen to good people. I let Karma deal the cards.” We both looked at each other for a couple of seconds, but I broke the contact by looking down. I felt silly for even coming here and was about to say just that when Alissa and a few others entered the room.

Alissa caught sight of me and her face fell, looking worried. “What are you two talking about?”

Scott stood up and put his arm around her. “Just having a friendly conversation.” He kissed her cheek reassuringly.

The back door opened, and in walked Walt. Fear jolted through me and I immediately grabbed Alissa's arm. “What is he doing here?” I looked at Alissa and her face turned white.

She looked up at Scott and then back to me. Neither of them spoke. Walt just stood there holding his bag like he was getting ready to run away. “What the hell is he doing here?” I screamed.

“I was going to talk to you about this but I didn't see you all week,” Alissa said in almost a whisper.

BOOK: Denying the Wrong
7.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Bundle of Joy? by Ariella Papa
Home for the Holidays by Johanna Lindsey
Life Shift by Michelle Slee
Survival of the Ginnest by Aimee Horton