Rival Hearts (Rival Love #2) (16 page)

She blinks and pulls herself out of my grip. “But we can’t have what we want, Caleb. We just can’t.”

Sky starts to head for the stairs, but I latch onto her wrist, causing her to pause. “I want one thing. If I have to say goodbye, I want one thing.”

“What’s that?”

I pull her to me and press my mouth against hers. If this is the last time I ever get to kiss her I’m going to make it so good it takes over both of our thoughts—past, present, and future. At first it’s fast and hard, but I slow it down and deepen it. Her mouth opens to mine and I let my tongue brush across hers. My fingers touch her silky locks as I inhale her orange marmalade scent.

I can’t get enough, but she pulls back with a gasp. Before I can stop her again, she runs up to her room and slams the door.

***

The next morning, I head into the kitchen at the same time my Uncle Bri’s mouth lands on Erin’s. I swing myself around and head back out, but not before I hear my uncle say something about being home late because of teacher conferences. Erin mumbles that she’s heading to work.

Rushing up the stairs, I stop in front of Sky’s door and knock. I am nervous as hell because of what she might do or say about that kiss we shared last night. But I can say this: I dreamed about that kiss all night and am still thinking about it.

Her door slowly opens and Sky yawns. “What do you need?”

So many ways to answer that question, but I’ll stick with the response she won’t slap me for. “Need a ride to school, don’t you?”

Her eyes expand. “Crap! Yeah. I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

“Okay.”

***

I’m sitting in the parking lot, feeling like a stalker waiting for Sky to get out of practice. My clock reads six fifteen and practice ends at six, at least that’s what Sky told me earlier. People have been pouring out the doors since five forty.

When she finally emerges with Kayla I smile and get out of my car. Sky approaches at a pace that’s too damn slow for me. “Can we give Kayla a ride?”

I nod. Both of them get in and I speed my way to Kayla’s house. Not because I don’t like her, but I want my alone time with Skylar. I have no idea how long that will be because Erin’s probably at the house now. And when we’re at the house Sky has a tendency to lock herself in her room.

Once I drop Kayla off, I drive like a grandpa, probably worse because I’m pretty sure a grandpa passed me and gave me the finger. Skylar seems to notice, too. “Caleb … what are you doing?”

“Nothing.” I take the road to my dead parents’ house and pull off to the side. “I have to do something.”

“
O
-kay. You aren’t going to tell me you won’t take me home unless I agree to marry you or something, are you? Because I’m not in the mood to beat you up right now.”

I laugh. “Nope. Not that. I was thinking about what you said last night. And I—”

She presses her fingers against my mouth, causing me to still. “Caleb … stop. Please. You’re hurting me.” She rubs her chest with her fist and breathes, “No, you’re killing me. This mess. This thing we’re in has not only warped my mind, it’s stabbing the life out of me. I’m trying so hard not to break every time I see you, but this … this is too much.”

I take her hand into mine and squeeze. “I know. Damn it, I know. I hate knowing I’m hurting you. I hate looking into your beautiful, wild-colored eyes and seeing nothing but tears. Skylar, never in my craziest dreams have I ever thought I could love someone so much. But I do. It’s you. I’ll do everything and anything to show you that.”

“Stop it!” she yells. “Just stop it! What we had is over. There will never be a me and you ever again.”

No. No, she can’t say that and mean it. But her eyes are warning me. There’s not one hint of sorrow in them. Suddenly I know I will never have another chance with her.

Chapter 28

Skylar

When he drops me off, I hurry to my room and bawl my eyes out. I somehow manage to pull myself together for dinner, where my mom asks where my car is, so I lie and say I thought my brakes were going bad and it needed an oil change. Okay, I do need an oil change, but that’s not the point. My lie saved me from one part of our agreement, but she eyes me like a hawk.

Then there’s Caleb, who makes a point to not look at me the entire dinner. Can I blame him? No. It hurt so much to say those things I said to him. But I had to. He wouldn’t stop. I needed him to stop. I love him. This pain in my chest is so unbearable and if he just continues to be all sweet and noble, I’ll never move on. I have to move on. Danielle has those gloating looks like she beat me or something, and I can’t stand it!

But to make matters completely worse, the following morning I find a note in the kitchen from my mom. It states that she’s at work until late and Brian’s off helping a friend install something. This means it’s just Caleb and me in the house all day. Part of me wishes he will leave too.

I make my way to the living room and Caleb is sitting on the couch with a remote in his hand. I thought the silence would be a great thing. It’s not. It’s somehow worse. I don’t like this silent treatment crap. I know. It’s crazy, since I’ve given it to him loads of times. Also, this is kind of what I wanted from him, right?

I go back into the kitchen. Maybe a snack will make me feel better. I know it’s a total lie, but what can I say? I binge on food when my mood is shot.

As popcorn pops in the microwave, the buttery kernels smell delicious. My mouth waters. As soon as I hear the ding from the microwave, Caleb enters the room. He looks at the bag and then over at me. I’m about to say something, but he just walks out of the room.

This is hell.

I grab the popcorn and dump it into a bowl. Instead of heading back to the living room, I go upstairs to my own room.

The silence in here is worse. I mean, yes, silence is expected since I’m the only one in my room. But it’s worse, because my thoughts keep going back to him. What is he thinking? Will he come check on me? Of course not, he’s pissed at me.

I toss some popcorn into my mouth, but it has lost the buttery flavor my nose inhaled. It tastes more like torn cardboard in my mouth. I spit it into my trash can and set the bowl on my desk. On days like these, I play my guitar or watch some sappy movie so crying won’t seem so silly. I’m pretty sure the usual won’t help me, though. So I look through my collection of books. Again, nothing seems to be enough to occupy my mind.

Annoyed, I go back downstairs, grab my coat, gloves, and hat. I’m picking up my purse when he calls out from the living room. “Where are you going?”

“To the bookstore.” I can walk to the bus stop. He’s clearly not going to take me, not that I want him to.

I hear Caleb get off the couch and make his way to front door. He peeks out one of the side windows in the door frame and shakes his head. “Good luck with that. There’s about two feet of snow already on the sidewalk.”

I move him aside to see for myself. Sure enough, he’s telling the truth. I curse under my breath, set down my purse, rip off my coat, gloves, and hat, then go storming back upstairs to my room.

He enters a few minutes later, eyes me up, and sighs. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I can’t tell him what’s wrong. I certainly can’t tell him what his silly silent treatment is doing to me. And I will never tell him how much I hated saying that stuff to him yesterday. Because I know we have to move on. In order to do that, I need to let go.

“Doesn’t look like nothing. You look pissed off.”

There he goes stating the obvious. “Well, I’m mad about not being able to get my book because of the snow.”

He nods. But it’s one of those “Yeah, uh-huh, whatever you say” kind of nods.

I take a seat on my window bench and sigh.

He sits on my bed. “Skylar?”

Skylar? Really? He’s not going to call me “Sky” like he usually does?

“Hmm?”

Caleb’s eyes bore into mine. “Are you really upset about a book?”

No. But again, I’m not telling him. I shrug. “A little.”

“What’s the book called?”

Oh man. Why is he asking this? I mean, why does he want to know this at all? Shouldn’t he just go back to ignoring me?

“Um … I don’t know the title. I know it when I see it.” Did that sound believable? It better ’cause that’s all I got.

He nods. “All right. Be right back.”

He leaves my room for a second and comes back in with his laptop in hand. “Um,” I start.

He places his laptop in front of me and says, “Find your book.”

“But I—”

“Stop. I need to get you something for your birthday. Just consider this one of your gifts. Okay?”

I want to argue. I do. But the look on his face tells me not to.

***

My birthday is finally here! Hello, January thirty-first. But as excited as I am to be eighteen, I’m pretty sure it’s going to bite the big one as far as birthdays go. Mainly because there is a buttload of snow covering the entire town, making it difficult to travel anywhere. And since we’ve been in the negative temps, we haven’t had school for the past four days. I’ve had a horrible case of cabin fever going on. For two days, Caleb and I were stuck in the house all by ourselves because all the roads were closed. But Mom and Brian were able to come back Tuesday. And yesterday, I was able to pick up my car, so that’s a plus.

I’ve noticed being locked up in a house for days at a time does things to people. Strange things. For instance, Brian is what I like to call a TV hog. Seriously, he plops down and watches the History channel all day long. If anyone suggests we watch, I don’t know, something more entertaining than the History channel’s many alien theories and crap, yeah, he growls. Literally growls. It’s sort of amusing.

Caleb grumbles and is a bottomless pit. He’ll grab two bags of chips and head to his room, and an hour later he’s in the kitchen reloading with sandwiches and whatever else he can find. Then he’s off to his room again. I think after the fifth trip my mom had had about enough of that nonsense and cut off his food supplies.

Today, though, I thought I would wake up to my room full of streamers and balloons like I did on my sixteenth and seventeenth birthdays. But today I woke up to nothing special. A note was taped to my lamp. “Happy Birthday Honey! I had to go get groceries, be back in a bit. Love you!”

After a shower, I head to the kitchen and pour myself a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Happy eighteenth! I munch on my mouthful of cereal.

“That what you’re eating on your birthday? Your eighteenth birthday?” Caleb asks in a groggy tone as he slumps down next to me.

“Maybe.”

“It’s your day, Fletch.” He shrugs.

He eventually gets himself a bowl and we eat in silence. The phone rings and I glance down at the caller ID. It’s her. I cringe and push the phone to Caleb then head to the sink. The phone is still ringing. I look back at Caleb; he pushes it away from him and continues to eat his cereal.

“Are you not going to get that?”

“Nope.”

I shouldn’t care, but what if something is wrong? “Don’t you think you should at least see what she wants?”

He glares at me. “I don’t want to talk to her right now. All she wants is for me to go over to her house and hold her. I’m not doing that.”

I roll my eyes. “You did it before.”

He rips himself away from the island and shouts, “Damn it, Skylar, you really know how to piss me the fuck off! It’s like all you want to do is rub this bullshit in my face. Well, congratulations!”

I’m a horrible human being. Guilt sets in, and I stare at him. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I just … ”

His expression softens and he takes a step toward me. “I know, Sky. Trust me, if I could fix it, I would.”

“I know.” I let my head rest on his chest. I shouldn’t, but I do. It’s my birthday. I’ll do what I want to.

“Happy birthday, Sky.”

“Thank you.”

He kisses my forehead. “Come with me.”

“Where?”

He smiles and pulls me all the way up to his room. I shouldn’t be in here. This whole room feels tainted with her. I stand near the computer chair.

He goes over to the side of his bed and lifts up two gifts. One is a box wrapped in blue paper and a white ribbon. The other is a black gift bag with hot pink tissue paper sticking out. “Oh, you didn’t have to,” I say. I’m secretly gushing.

“I wanted to,” he tells me. He rocks back and forth on his heels as he hands me the perfectly wrapped blue and white cube. “I hope you like it.”

My hands shake a little. I’m almost scared to open it. His hands land on my shaky ones and he sighs. “Sky … please stop shaking, you’re making me nervous.”

I slip a finger between the ribbon and the wrapping paper and start to unravel the bow. Next, I shed the blue paper, only to uncover a red box. I take a deep breath and lift the top. Inside is a glass heart with a picture in the frame. It’s not of me and Caleb, which I would have put money on.

“It’s double-sided,” he says as I lift the heart from the box.

The first picture is of my whole Bobcat swim team. The other is of my Bulldog swim team. I look at him in utter confusion. “I don’t understand … ”

“It’s not one school that makes you who you are, it’s the people you surround yourself with. This is your old school, but those people have touched you in one way or another. These people have done it, too.” He flips the heart to show both sides. “That’s not the only thing in there.”

I glance in the box and sure enough there is a locket. I open it and instantly well up with tears. Inside the locket are two pictures, one of just my mom and me, the other of Lidia, my dad, and my stepmom.

“Why?”

“Because,” he tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear and whispers, “family is everything.”

I drop the gifts and run to my room. Not because I don’t love them; I do. But because I know at this very minute Caleb is the best damn thing in the world, and I’m not going to have him.