Everything You Want (15 page)

“So you and Kieran,” she said. 
“What’s going on there?”

“Oh, I don’t know.”  I offered her a
weak smile as I shrugged.  She was Kieran’s friend, not mine.  If he
wanted her to know the status of our relationship, he could tell her.  I
still wasn’t even sure myself.

“Well, you are seeing each other, right?”

“Sure, I guess so.”

“That’s what I thought.  He tried
telling me you two were just friends, but I didn’t buy it.  Kieran doesn’t
really have much luck with girls as friends.  Besides me, I mean. 
They all eventually turn into girlfriends, although I’m not sure I’d call them
that.  Just girls.  Lots of girls.  I’m sure you know about all
of that, though.  You’re his neighbor, right?”

“Yes,” I answered, my brows knitted
together.  What was she getting at?

“Then you know what I’m talking about.”

“Sure.”  No.  Not so
much.  I had seen/heard girls at his place before, but not that
many.  Not near as many as she was making it out to be.

“I was actually surprised when Kieran
told me you two lived next door to each other.  I figured you wouldn’t
want to date him since you already know what player he is.  I love him, I
really do, but he’s a total commitment-phobe.  He never stays with anyone
for more than a month before he gets tired of them and moves on.”

I pressed my lips together, not sure what
to make of this conversation. 

“I’m not trying to be rude or stick my
nose in your business.  I just thought you should know.  If it were
me, I know I’d appreciate the warning.”

I nodded, forcing myself to smile at her.

She smiled back warmly and took another
sip of her drink.

“Okay, well, thank you for
the—um—warning, but I need to get going.”  I held up my to-go
sack and she sat her mug down and frowned.

“Alright.  It was really nice to see
you.  We should do this again sometime.”  She leaned forward and
squeezed my hand.

“Uh-huh.”  I did my best to fake a quick
smile and stood up, sliding my hand out of her grasp.  I turned and swiftly
walked out of the door.

What was that?
  I shook my head as I made my way
to my car.  I knew about Kieran’s past.  Obviously she didn’t know
that, but she was making it out to seem so much worse than it was.  What
was the point of that?  Was she trying to get rid of me?  Probably. 
I remembered that first night we all hung out together she was more than
reluctant to show any warmth towards me or Ollie’s new girlfriend.  Maybe
she was just really protective of her wolf pack.  Still, that was…weird.

My phone buzzed in my back pocket and I
smiled as butterflies filled my chest.  I pulled it out of my pocket and
looked down, then frowned.  It was Camden, not Kieran, asking me out for
dinner.  I sighed as I typed out some excuse to Camden.  I didn’t
want to be rude, but I also didn’t want to tell him I was seeing somebody, yet. 
I told him I had plans, which I did, sort of.  Plans that included
watching TV, baking a batch of red velvet brownies with cream cheese icing, and
cuddling up with two cats and a Basset Hound.

I tossed my lunch in the passenger’s seat
of my car and headed back home, still a little freaked out from my encounter
with Alisha.  I thought about texting Kieran, but I shook my head. 
Maybe she was just a strange girl, or maybe she was just really trying to scare
me off.  Either way, I didn’t take her words seriously.

Whatever.

Kieran

Wow, I was an idiot.  I was
convinced this was going to be the longest weekend of my life.  It wasn’t
that I wasn’t having a good time with Kiera.  We were having fun, just
like I’d promised her, and I was glad that I’d came.  That didn’t mean I
wasn’t missing Marissa like crazy, though.

I’d agreed to go to a local nightclub the
night before in an effort to cheer Kiera up, which was a bust.  Lots of
guys asked her to dance, but she wouldn’t talk to any of them and she just kept
mumbling about how she missed Skylar.  I knew what she really meant was
that she missed Rob.  She was getting better, though, I could tell. 
She laughed at all the jokes I cracked about the people who were either too
young or too old to be there, and the excess of inappropriately tight
clothes.  At around eleven we’d just decided to get out of there and went
for frozen yogurt instead.

Today I was taking her to the mall to go
shopping, one of her favorite activities.  She wanted to take Skylar, but
my mother insisted on keeping him.  We were browsing in one of Kiera’s
favorite stores when I caught sight of a blonde out of the corner of my eye.

She looked familiar.  She looked
like…
No
.  I could feel my heart constricting and my breath caught
in my throat.  It was her.  It was Becca.

Her hair was shorter, but she looked
basically the same.  I wondered if I should go talk to her.  I really
didn’t want to.  I turned to sneak out of there, but it was too late.

“Kieran?” I heard her call out from
behind me.

I turned back and pasted the realest
looking grin I could manage on my face.

She was smiling brightly, genuinely, as
she walked towards me.  Before I knew it she had me enveloped in a tight hug
and I couldn’t help my surprise.  All these years I’d thought she hated
me.  Our break-up was ugly, as was the majority of our time
together.  She didn’t even visit me after my accident, which hurt more
than I wanted to get into.  Of course that was years ago.  I hadn’t
seen her in almost four years.  She smelled the exact same. 
Familiarity washed over me as I held her in my arms and I waited for the aching
to take over and fill my chest, but it didn’t come.

When she released me, she was still
smiling.  “Oh, wow, Kieran.  It’s been so long.  What are you up
to now?”

“Uh, well, I teach ninth grade.”

Her eyes widened.  “That’s
great.  I heard you moved to Memphis.  Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

I noticed the white gold band shining on
her finger and expected to feel a pang of jealousy, but I felt nothing. 
It was just a ring.

“What are you doing back?” she asked.

“I’m visiting my sister for the weekend.”

“Oh, I thought she was in New York?”

“She’s back.”

“Oh, that’s nice.  Are you guys
still close?”

“Yes.”

She reached out and touched my forearm
lightly and the electricity I used to feel from her touch was absent. 
“Kieran, how are you?  I heard some things a while back…” she trailed off.

“I’m great,” I said, confused.  She
was looking at me so strangely, her blue eyes filled with worry, her forehead
creased in concern. I hadn’t heard from this girl in years.  During my
darkest time, her absence had told me exactly how she felt about me.  I
thought she’d written me out of her life a long time ago, but it was clear as
day that she still cared.

“I heard about your wreck.  I wanted
to visit you in the hospital, but I thought it would just make it worse.”

Maybe she was right; maybe it would have.

I just nodded.  I didn’t want to
talk about the accident, especially not with her.

“Well, you look good.  Are you
seeing anyone?”

“I am.  She’s great.”  I
couldn’t help but smile, thinking about Marissa.  “You’d like her.”

Becca’s eyes lit up.  “That’s so good
to hear.  I bet I would like her.”

We stood there for a second and it was
almost nice.  She was happy for me, and for the first time I was okay with
what happened between us.  I was over it.

“Well, listen.  I’ve got to get
going, but it was so good seeing you.”  She squeezed my shoulder gently.

“You too,” I said.

I watched her walk away and my heart felt
like it was flying.  Somewhere along the way I’d let her go, and was just
now realizing that I was free.

Kiera came up behind me. 
“Hey.  What was that about?”

“Nothing.  She was just saying hi.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered
honestly.  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Kiera raised an eyebrow at me and I
laughed.  “What?  I am so over her.”

“It’s been four years.  I should
hope so,” Kiera said teasingly and hooked her arm around mine as she led me out
of the store.

Marissa

I heard the footsteps on the stairs
almost immediately.  I jumped out of my chair and flung the door open,
stepping outside my apartment.  He was already at the top, walking towards
my door instead of his.  He dropped his duffel bag on the ground as I
leaped into his arms.

“Oh, I missed you,” Kieran mumbled
against my ear.

I nodded against his chest.  “How
was your weekend?”

“Fantastic.  Would’ve been better if
you’d been there.  Come with me next time.”

I looked up at him.  “To meet your
family?”

“You already know half of them,” he said,
a small smile playing on his lips.

“Yeah, but not your parents.  Are
you sure you’re ready for that?”

He bent down and kissed my forehead
softly.  “I’m sure.”

My heart skipped in my chest as he
scooped me up in his arms and we entered his dark apartment.  He kissed me
slowly, sweetly.

“Wow, it sucks being away from you,”
Kieran said when he pulled away.  “How was your weekend?”

“Boring.”  Except for the five minutes
I spent with Alisha, I thought.  That was…interesting.

He walked us across the living room and
we collapsed on the couch together.  He pulled me closer.  “I love
your hair,” he said, burying his face in it.

 I laughed as his lips brushed
against my ear.  I pulled the elastic from his hair and it fell loose
around his shoulders.  “I love your hair,” I said as I ran my hands through
the silky dark strands.

He kissed me softly.  “I love your
lips,” he said.

“Right back at you,” I said, kissing him
back.

He pulled back and whispered, “I love
you.”

I paused, wondering if I had heard him
right.  I sat up.  “What?”

He pushed himself up to sit beside
me.  We looked at each other through the darkness and he ran a finger across
my cheek, down my jawline and neck.

“I love you, Marissa.”

I inhaled slowly and held my breath for a
few seconds before blowing it out.  “I—” I began, but Kieran held up
a hand.

“No, I know it’s too soon.  But I
feel it.”

“Kieran, I—”

“Don’t say it if you don’t.  I just
had to say it to you.”

“Kieran, shhh.”  I placed a finger
on his lips and he kissed it.  “I love you, too,” I said.

He pulled me against his chest and kissed
me with such intensity that I thought I’d melt. I wrapped one arm around his
neck as I ran the other hand through his hair again, down his neck to his
chest.  His shirt was soft and smelled clean and woodsy.  It reminded
me of the night I’d been sitting on the same couch with Kiera and he’d just
come out of the shower, his scent filling the apartment.

His phone rang and I pulled away. 
“Aren’t you going to pick it up?”

“No,” he said, pulling me back down for
another kiss.

“What if it’s your sister?” I whispered
in his ear.

He kissed my temple.  “I already
talked to her today.”

“Kieran.”

“Fine, fine.”  He pulled his phone
out of his back pocket and held it up.  “But then I’m throwing this thing
off the balcony.”  He looked at the screen.  “It’s Shannon.”

“Go ahead.”  I nodded.

He sighed and answered it. 
“Hey.  Yeah, I’m back…No, I think I’m good.  Okay, thanks, man. 
Uh-huh, bye.”  He hung up and set the phone on his coffee table.

“What did he want?” I asked.

“He wanted to know if I wanted to go out
for Mexican food with him and Alisha.”

“Did you want to?  Have you eaten?”

“No, but I’m a little busy right
now.”  He laid back down on the couch and pulled me with him. 

I laughed.  “Kieran!”

“Hm?” he asked, kissing my neck softly.

“Nothing,” I said, relaxing against him.

“Are you hungry?” he asked after a
minute.  “Did you want to go?  I can call him back.”

“No, I’m not going anywhere.”  I
snuggled up against his chest.

“Want to order in?” he asked, pushing up
on his elbows, smiling warmly at me.

“Sounds good to me.”

“Pizza?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“What kind?”

I didn’t even have to think about
it.  “Pepperoni and sausage.”