Distraction (13 page)

"Did you leave any for me?" Tristan
'
s deep scruffy
voice sent a wave of euphoria through me, followed by the uncertainty of where
we stood at the moment. Without turning, I took the few steps to the cabinet
and poured another mug for him. When I turned around, I didn
'
t smile and
neither did he.

I tried not to look at him, but I could feel his eyes on me.
Just before I took the plunge to ask if we were okay, Kellie walked into the
kitchen.

"Hey, Elle, do you mind if we talk?" Kellie
'
s voice sounded
scratchy. Her brown hair surrounded her face in a tangled mess and her eyes
were bloodshot. I gave Tristan a brief glance, then nodded and followed Kellie
back to my room.

Next to my bed, Kellie tucked her hair behind her ears. She
stood sideways, which made seeing her expression effectively difficult. I
figured I might as well get to the bottom of this.

"I
'
m sorry, Kellie, for everything. I should have kept a closer
eye on you, or made you stop drinking before things got out of hand last night.
I–" She cut my apology off, whipping around to face me full on.

"Okay, say I believe that." She placed her arms
stiffly by her sides. Her eyes weren
'
t sweet or innocent as she glared
at me. "Say I believe you didn
'
t intentionally want me drunk. And
let
'
s say I didn
'
t notice you keeping tabs on me all night, as if I didn
'
t know you were
ready to give Tristan a nice little recap the first chance you got."

Okay, she took me completely by surprise and my mouth opened
to speak, but my words were lodged somewhere in my throat. My mind had trouble
processing her many accusations.

"You didn
'
t shove the bottle of Jack down my throat. I get that, but I
'
m on to you."
Oh, my God, this was crazy, and the way her eyes blazed with somewhat accurate
indictment didn
'
t make me feel any better.

Then, a small creak in the wood flooring gave and Kellie
'
s face smoothed from
the serious scowl.

"
I don'
t want to come between you and Tristan. I know you two have
been friends since you were kids. I just want you to know, I don
'
t want anything
to change. Even after we
'
re married."

Who the hell did she think she was, and why the hell would
Tristan want to be with someone as delusional as her? The theme song for psycho
ran through my head.

"Listen, Kellie, I appreciate everything you
'
ve said here. I
don
'
t want to come between you and my best friend either, so as
long as we
'
re all on the same page, everything’s cool." I had to
lie because I was seriously a little more than freaked with her sudden mood
change.

Kellie opened her mouth, but a knock on the door interrupted
her.

"Kellie, do you mind if I talk to Elle in private for a minute?"
Tristan stood in the doorway with a melancholy look in his eyes.

"Sure," Kellie said. She walked over to Tristan,
kissed him on the cheek, and then closed the door behind her when she left.

Tristan and I were in new territory. We
'
ve never fought,
argued, nothing. "I heard what you said." I open my mouth to speak,
but Tristan waved off my attempt as Kellie had. "And I want you to know
how much that means to me, and I
'
m sorry for being such a dick last night. I didn
'
t mean what I
said and I know that doesn
'
t make what happened any better, but I want you..." He
hesitated. Something shifted in his eyes, regret, maybe? He finished. "I
'
ll always want
you in my life...as my best friend. Forever."

I had to jump over this agonizing hurtle. Instead of rushing
in for a hug, and pretending we were fine, I stood my ground. "I
'
m glad to hear
that, but things are going to change." This time I held my hand up to stop
him. "You
'
re getting married and you
'
ll have Kellie
to turn to, to talk with when you aren
'
t sure what you should do, and that
'
s okay. That
'
s how things are
supposed to be. I
'
m not saying we won
'
t still hang out or we won
'
t be friends,
but just not like we are now." I didn
'
t wait for his
answer, because putting the unspoken truth of how our relationship would change
into words nearly broke me. I walked to my door, opened it, and headed straight
to the bathroom.

In zombie-like motion, I undressed, turned on the water and
got in. In the shower, the hot water mixed with my tears as I washed my hair. I
ended up staying under until the water ran cold.

Tristan and Kellie were gone by the time I finished my ice
cold shower. When I got out, I dressed in comfy clothes and watched TV on the
couch. Ginger came home, but didn
'
t stay long and Tisha said she
'
d be at her
parents for the rest of the weekend. When Alyssa showed up, she and I made
plans to hang with Bret and Eric. The guys invited us to a big Frisbee golf
game. I liked Eric, and figured I might as well move on and stop dreaming of a
future that was never mine to wish for.

After our plans were set, I headed to my closet and changed
into something a bit less depressing. I heard my cell ring in the living room,
but didn
'
t rush to answer, knowing Alyssa would grab my phone for me.

"
Elle,
Tristan's on the phone," Alyssa yelled as I grabbed my
shoes. I ran out to the living room.

"
Thanks,
" I told her, taking my phone from her. "Hey."
Tristan immediately began yelling. I peeked up and seeing Alyssa
'
s glare, I
headed to our room for some privacy. Tristan rambled on about Kellie and his
dad working together behind his back. When he finished, I barely caught his
goodbye.

A few minutes later, I went back to Alyssa. "Hey, I
'
ve got to meet
Tristan. I
'
ll catch up with you guys later, okay?" If I didn
'
t get over to
Tristan soon, he
'
d do something he
'
d regret.

"He
'
s a big boy, Elle. Let his fiancée take care of his shit and
get on with your life." Alyssa stood in front of me. Her face turned red
with her hands tightly fisted, but her reaction softened just as quickly.

"Sorry, fine, whatever, go. I
'
ll let Eric down
easy, but you owe me. Got it?" I hugged her in response. On my way out, I
heard her yell, "Don
'
t forget you owe me!"

When I pulled up to the address Tristan gave me, I had to
slam on my breaks to keep from nearly being hit by a black range rover
screeching out of the driveway. I caught a quick glance at Kellie
'
s blotchy face.
Tear streaks ran through her makeup, but she didn
'
t notice me as
she raced down the street. I parked my car and walked to Tristan
'
s front door. Before
opening it, I took a deep breath, then let myself in.

"Kellie, I told you to get out of my fucking house."
Tristan yelled when I closed the door behind me. "I said–" Tristan
stopped when he noticed me.

"Things on the rocks already, huh? You should
'
ve moved the
couch to the other wall. Would've made things more feng shui," I joked.

"Hey." Tristan looked and sounded defeated. I
ignored the need to console him.

"So I guess you didn
'
t take the news
well?" Tristan
'
s look of surprise made me laugh, and I raised my hands in
front of me. "Listen, I found out last night what she did, so lay off, and
don
'
t you dare throw that pillow."

Too late. I tossed it back then dived behind a stack of
boxes. I gathered a round of arsenal and threw them one right after the other,
only missing him once.

"Okay, I give." Tristan
'
s surrender didn
'
t fool me. I
picked up something blue before I stood, keeping my hand shielded behind my
back, and found him mirroring me.

"I
'
ll stop if you stop," I said, attempting to coerce him.
His lips curled up in a sinister grin. He threw a wadded up shirt at me, but I
dodged his assault and hurtled toward him, shoving the blue whatever I held in
his mouth.

The momentum when our bodies met tumbled us both to the
floor. We laughed. When I looked up and noticed how close our faces were, my
breathing stopped, but his seemed to increase. Clumsily, I worked myself off
the floor, holding out my hand to help him up.

"What the hell?" He took the blue material from his
mouth. His cheeks turned pink. A pair of panties. Kellie
'
s panties.
Reality just dropped back in my lap.

"Okay so when did you ditch the boxers and go all girl
panties on me? I can see now why you turned down the football scholarship here."
I lowered my voice to a whisper, "I
'
ll keep this our little secret."

Tristan
'
s brows furrowed. "Did you really know what she and my
dad did?" Tristan
'
s wounded expression made me want to comfort him, but again I
held back.

"Yes. I told you I found everything out last night, but
she was right." His shock resembled my own. I could not believe what I was
about to do. "Listen, stop acting like a baby. Kellie and your dad both
love you and that
'
s why they did what they did. You shouldn
'
t be upset with
them. Call your dad and Kellie and make things right. I
'
m sure she
'
ll forgive you."
I had to look away, and pretended to sift through an open box beside me.

"She loves you and you love her. That
'
s supposed to be
worth saving."

"
Elle.
" His soft tone worked at my already unstable emotions.
His light touch against my shoulder only intensified those feelings, but I didn
'
t turn. I
couldn't.

"Go ahead and call." With my shoulders squared, I
finally turned, meeting his perfect light brown eyes with my determined ones.
"I
'
ve got a double date with Alyssa that I
'
m missing. Are
you finished throwing your fit?" Something shifted in his eyes, but the
emotion cleared before I could understand the meaning.

"Fine, wouldn
'
t want my messed up shit to keep
you from your hot date." He laughed, though it seemed forced. "Thanks
for coming, Spud. I can always count on you to be here for me. I
'
ll call Kellie.
You know, she got a little pissed when I called you to come over." Tristan
took his phone out. I almost told him not to call her, but reneged when he
answered the person on the other end of his phone.

"Kellie, I
'
m sorry."

"See ya." I gave him a double thumbs up and dashed
outside to my car.

When I pulled up to the Frisbee golf course, Alyssa said Eric
left when I didn
'
t show. Great, I decided to move on with my life, do the
right thing by keeping Tristan and Kellie together, and this was the thanks I
got. Life really sucked sometimes.

Chapter
8

Tristan

Kellie had been riding my ass about Elle, and the shit she
and my dad pulled behind my back fucking pissed me off. I didn
'
t give a shit
that Kellie was pissed when I called Elle. I wanted to talk with her instead of
arguing with Kellie. Of course, she didn
'
t understand.

Last night I fully prepared myself to walk away from Elle,
until I found her in the kitchen this morning. Later when we talked, she told
me our relationship would change. I knew things with us would be different.
Hell, she had said what I planned to say–only I couldn't. I couldn't walk away
from her either. Thing is, with Elle, everything seemed easy–being with her,
talking to her. I didn't need to pretend in order to make her happy.