Waiting for You (5 page)

Eric was just another
piece of my planned out life. How could I love something that was forced on me?
I didn’t know him. I knew the planned version that was presented to me.

“No.” I said staring at
my phone in my hand. My vision blurred with tears, the checkered carpet of the
hotel room confused me when the green and gold colors blended. Just like the
lies I’d been told, patterns revealed themselves. “I don’t.”

The corners of Dylan’s
mouth twisted. “I caught him fucking Mercedes Grant behind the football
stadium. I smashed the windows out his car.”

I thought the feeling
that washed over me, pricking my skin would be sadness but it wasn’t. The
pricking feeling was a rush of emotions I had never felt before. Confused yes
but more so when I thought about why Dylan vandalized his car. I was no longer
concerned with Eric at all. What concerned me was why a boy that I ignored all
these years felt the need to stand up for me.

“Why?” I asked trying
not to look at the freaky carpet any longer.

When I looked at his
face his eyes said it all, he did it for me.

I didn’t know I was
crying until Dylan brushed the tears away for me. A silence had spread throughout
the room aside from the hum of the air conditioner that kicked on.

It cycled through a
round and thumped as it shut down.

When he spoke, his
voice felt forced admitting to something he didn’t want to say. “I was pissed,”
He drew a ragged breath and fixing his attention on his hands. “For eight years
I’ve waited for you to see what was in front of you. Everyone brainwashed you
into thinking Eric James was what was best for you.”

“Dylan, I—”

“Don’t,” Dylan
interrupted reaching for my phone I dropped on the floor at his feet. “Forget I
said anything. Call your parents.”

“I have one more
question.” Dylan gave me a nod to continue. The worry evident in his eyes at
what I was going to ask him. “What did you say to Eric about it?”

“Nothing, I’m sure the
baseball bat through his windshield gave it away.”

How did Eric think I
wouldn’t find out about this? It probably would have taken some time had Dylan
not slipped with the text messages but I wasn’t stupid. I’ve known for years
that my life wasn’t what it appeared to be. Did I do anything about it? No. Now
I was and that’s what I focused on.

The more I thought
about it, the more it pissed me off. In my mind, I knew this was happening
between Eric and Mercedes. The worst part was that Eric and I hadn’t had sex,
but yet he was messing around with her, or maybe she wasn’t the first. The
thought was revolting to me.

Pissed, I decided to
call Eric first and give his cheating ass a piece of my mind.

For some privacy, I
stepped onto the balcony and closed the door behind me. Dylan watched me walk
out there and then moved to the bathroom with a towel.

It only rang once
before he picked up. “Bailey where are you? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“Oh give me a break.
Don’t act so fucking innocent.” I was actually quite proud of myself. It seemed
I had all kinds of courage today. “How’s Mercedes doing?”

Any girl, and I don’t
care who you are, has a vindictive side. Being in high school, you find out
quickly that they all have them. Mine was starting to show its ugly face.

“What are you talking
about?” he honestly sounded alarmed, which just pissed me off even more.

“Don’t give me that
bullshit, Eric.” Unable to stand still, I started pacing the balcony. “I know
about you and Mercedes. Who else have you been with? Let me guess, Jessica
too?”

“He’s lying to you.”
Eric claimed stumbling over his words. “I never slept with her. He’s saying
that shit so you’ll fuck him.”

I laughed bitterly
clenching my phone tightly. It felt like I was trying to strangle my phone to
make up for not being able to strangle Eric. “You just proved my point right
there. I never said what I knew about.”

“I didn’t do anything
she didn’t ask for.” Eric’s voice was sharp as if he was pointing out the
obvious. “And why don’t you ask Dylan about Mercedes. He’s gotten to know her
pretty well too.”

“Wow, so that’s why,
because she asked you to?” I asked ignoring his comment about Dylan. “Come on
Eric, you’re smarter than that Mr. Excitement.” Over the years of playing
football his entire life, Eric had gotten the name Mr. Excitement for his
ability on the field. I had always hated the name and never used it.

“It’s not like that,
Bailey.” Eric pleaded his words rushing knowing I would hang up on him at any
moment. “Just come back and we can talk about this. Don’t just throw away four
years over a guy like Dylan Wade.”

“This has absolutely
nothing to do with Dylan and you know it. There’s nothing that we need to talk
about any more.”

Eric groaned. “So what,
you’re just
gonna
run away with Wade now? This is so
childish. Bailey, you can’t―”

“Save your bullshit for
someone else.”

I pressed the end
button and surprisingly, felt better.

My dad’s greeting
wasn’t much better. “You listen here Bailey Ann Gray―you get your ass
home right now! Do you realize the situation you have put me in now? Do you
understand the heat I’m getting over not being able to control my own daughter?
Come back.”

“That will be a little
hard to do, dad. I’m in Mexico,” I lied watching an Escalade in the parking lot
below try to park in a compact spot.

“What has he talked you
into?” I could hear my mom drilling him in the background. “This is just
insane. Get back here.”

“He didn’t talk me into
anything.” I told him trying to remain adamant that I wasn’t coming back just because
daddy said so. “I asked him to go.”

“You come home right
now
!”

“No dad,
I won’t
.
I’m eighteen and I can make my own decisions.”

He paused for a moment
and said the words I never expected him to say. “Fine, have it your way,
Bailey. If you are not home by tomorrow morning, don’t bothering coming back. I
will not tolerate this type of behavior in my house.”

“You mean to tell me
the first time I get into trouble you’ll disown me?” I laughed. “That’s
awesome. I date the perfect guy in your mind because he’s what you approve of,
well you know what, that perfect guy of yours has been fucking around with my
so-called best friend. I picked the school you wanted me to go to because you
approved of it, well guess what, I don’t care anymore. I’m not going.”

“If you’re going to run
off with the town delinquent Dylan Wade, then yes, I will disown you.” He
clarified in a tone I recognized him using with members of the city council. “I
will not tolerate this type of behavior from my daughter.”

“Fine, disown me
Mayor
Gray
.” Without another response, I tossed my phone off the balcony under
that Escalade that still hadn’t got into the parking spot.

Dylan was finished with
his shower and now sitting on the bed, phone in hand, dressed in a pair of
jeans and no shirt.

My stare went to the
tattoos first on his arms and chest and then the rest of his toned appearance.
It was evident that he worked out or he had one heck of a metabolism.

“Hey,” he said, anxious
as I closed the sliding glass door behind me.

“So my dad disowned
me.” I said this nonchalantly at first like it meant nothing but to me, it
meant something. How could it not?

“Figures,” Dylan
grumbled pulling a shirt over his head.

I have no idea why but
the sound of Dylan’s voice was my breaking point. Like a dam breaking, I burst
into tears.

Classic runaway move
right there. As soon as the shit hit the fan, I broke down.

Dylan hesitated and
then moved to comfort me but he seemed uncomfortable doing so.

“I’m sorry,” was the
only thing he said to me.

I cried even harder.

All my life I had done
things for everyone else and the one time I decided to do something for myself,
my family disowned me. The life I thought I knew with Eric was a lie and he had
done the most disrespectful act of dishonesty someone could do.

My only thought seemed
to be how do I trust anyone now? And that quickly flowed into that I now had
nothing to go back to.

Dylan said nothing more
and held me until I stopped crying.

Twisting away to look
at him, his eyes still held worry scanning my face he brushed the away the hair
that stuck to my face from my sticky cheeks. “Do you want me to take you back?”
he asked, hesitantly, his eyes searching mine for any indication that I wanted
him to. “I will if that’s what you want.”

“I have nothing there I
want to go back to.” I wiped my tears off my face attempting to come out of my
crying fit. “Did you call your dad?”

He shook his head, the
sadness returned. “No.”

“Are you going to?”

He shook his head
again. “There’s no point.”

“Did he disown you
too?”

Protected by a cautious
front, he looked at the floor and said nothing. Rubbing the back of his neck,
the frustration eased. “He disowned me long before this.”

I had a feeling there
was a deeper meaning to that statement but decided to give him his space and not
pry into something I didn’t understand and wasn’t capable of understanding at
the time. There was a side to Dylan that I might not ever get to know, the side
that kept his fears deep inside.

I reached for my wallet
inside my bag to see how much cash I had, knowing damn well my credit cards
wouldn’t work now. I counted to myself as Dylan carefully watched what I was
doing.

“I have just over nine
hundred dollars. How far do you think we can get with that?”

He laughed and shook
his head. “You’re not funding this adventure, I am.” Although laughing, his
tone was set.

“I refuse to let you
pay for this entire trip.”

His eyebrows flickered
up and I could tell then he was deciding whether to be dirty or not. Not wins
out. “There are always those sexual favors, so…”

I punched his shoulder
for his lewd suggestions and handed him the money. “I insist on paying for my
half of the trip.”

Pushing the money back
at me, he shook his head. “I have more than enough money. When I turned
eighteen my trust fund kicked in.”

“I’m not taking your
trust fund money. That’s yours for college or whatever.”

It wasn’t a secret
around town that Dylan and his brother had a hefty trust fund from when his
mother died. Yet I refused to let him use that money on this adventure.

“I’m not going to
college.” He smirked as if the possibility of him going to college was
ridiculous. “Looks like we’re back to those sexual favors.” he suggested and
leaned back on the bed and placed his hands behind his head. To make his point
more clear, he winked and gestured south lifting his hips slightly.

What a pervert.

It was then that I was
no more concerned about being murdered. Deep down he was too goofy to commit a
crime as grave as a murder. At least that’s what I was telling myself.

Lying beside him, he
looked at me and I confessed about my temper tantrum outside. “We have to use
your phone from now on.”

“Where’s yours?”

“Under
an Escalade outside.”

“Nice.” He propped
himself up on his elbows. His feet dangled off the edge of the bed. “Are you
hungry?”

“Actually yes, I’m
starving.”

Removing himself from
the bed, he pulled on a clean t-shirt from his bag on the floor and then put
his flannel back on over the top of it. I noticed all his shirts were neatly
settled in his bag where my bag looked as if hurricane Katrina had packed it.

“Get up. I’m taking you
to dinner.” He told me walking around the bed and standing near the door. “I
suggest you change out of that ridiculous gown though. I’m not going to dinner
with the valedictorian.”

“I thought I looked hot
in it.” I suggested twirling around trying to remember my ballet moves from
when I was younger.

Nice flirting.

Dylan didn’t say
anything for a moment so I looked back at him wondering if he even noticed my
moves and he smirked keeping his eyes low.

“I agree,” he mumbled
softly and turned to the door.

I didn’t wait for him
to leave the room before I stripped my gown off. Usually I wouldn’t have done
something that bold but I did it to tease him for the sexual favors comments. I
stripped down to my bra and underwear. When I snuck a glance in his direction,
I noticed he was still standing by the door putting his shoes on.

Clearly, he hadn’t
noticed yet so I stalled for a second pretending to rummage through my
hurricane mess and then pulled some jean shorts and a t-shirt out of my bag.
When I turned around before I put my shirt on, I noticed he was now looking at
me but said nothing.

I chuckled walking over
to him. “What? You can make suggestions that I perform sexual favors on you but
I can’t get undressed in front of you?” I asked, winking at him.

 “No, by all means
undress,” he said offering his own wink. “It’ll just make those sexual favors
easier.”

3.
      
Naïve
– Bailey Gray

As promised, Dylan took
me to dinner at a small Mexican restaurant that we found up the street within
walking distance. I ordered steak fajitas and he did the same.

Full of commotion, the
restaurant provided a good distraction to the world I was now facing. Each time
the waiter walked by, I wished that we were old enough to order drinks.

After everything, I
could use one. I’d never
drank
before but I really
wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

“I could really use a
drink.” I said to Dylan suppressing a sigh when I saw another tray of what
looked to be margaritas.