“I don’t want to be like my parents, faking it until I can’t fake it anymore. I want something real—”
“Kelsey, just because your parents are divorcing doesn’t mean you’ll never find someone who completes you. It doesn’t mean you won’t be happy with your life. Sure, you might have to fight for it a little harder than a kid who grew up seeing a happy marriage would, but that’s life, and I know you’re strong enough to do it.”
God, I kind of felt like crying.
But I wouldn’t. No more tears. I was still me.
I opened my mouth, about to say more, but car lights flashed through the curtains on the wall, and Helen glanced to me. “Your father called, asked if you were here. I told him you were, but I didn’t think it was a good idea for him or your mother to come get you.”
Must’ve been while she was in her room and changing, because I would’ve heard her on the phone if it’d been when she was in the kitchen.
“And then they mentioned a boy named Levi,” Helen went on, wrinkling her nose. “You never were one to bring a boy home. Is he the first?”
For all the comments about me being the first girl Levi’d brought home, the opposite was true, too. I never cared enough to bring anyone else home before. “Yeah,” I muttered, biting my bottom lip.
“I bet he’s the one out there, if you want to go,” Helen said, shrugging. “You don’t have to. You can stay the night if you want, but I figured there might be something he could tell you that I can’t. Somehow I don’t think this is all about your parents.”
She was right. It wasn’t.
It was about me, too. About him, about us.
I set the mug on the table near hers, leaning over to her and giving her another hug. “Thank you,” I whispered, ending the hug only to brace myself as I got up and headed to the door. I threw a look over my shoulder at her, watching as she gave me a wave.
Well, her mom was a pretty good Ash replacement.
I walked to the car, closing the door behind me as I went. My lips were zipped shut as I got in the passenger side of the Ford Escape, buckling my seatbelt. I glanced to Levi in the front seat; he stared at me, scowling. The typical Levi face when dealing with my shit.
“You want to talk about it?” Levi asked, cocking a dark brow. I could see how tense his hands were on the wheel, and I knew I’d worried him by taking off like that.
“Not yet,” I whispered. “Can we just…can we go somewhere? I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to be there.” Even if my mom was gone, how the hell was I supposed to face my dad knowing everything I knew? That he’d known mom had been stepping out on him for two years now?
I just…with everything else going on, I didn’t want to deal with it right now.
“Where?” he asked.
“Anywhere.”
Chapter Nineteen – Levi
Explaining to Kelsey’s parents why she didn’t want to come in the house as I grabbed our bags was one of the most awkward conversations I’d ever had in my life. Not something I wanted to repeat, ever.
I told them we were going back to campus early, that she was too upset to talk to either one of them. Not exactly a lie, but not the full truth, either. We weren’t going to campus, but she was upset. I wasn’t sure what her mom had told her while her dad and I were doing dishes, but it must’ve set her off.
A lot of things set Kelsey off. She was as volatile as a person could come.
I ended up getting us a hotel room right off of campus. That way we’d be able to spend the next two days together still, and we didn’t have to worry about going back. Maybe she’d unwind.
Oh, and we still had yet to log onto the camera’s app and catch up on what Dean was doing. All of the drama of these past few days kind of took center focus. It was strange how easily life kept throwing shit at you.
The room wasn’t anything special. Just a bed, really. A bed and a TV. Kelsey dropped her bag on the floor, immediately crawling onto the bed and kicking off her shoes. She wriggled out of her hoodie, dropping it on the floor, and was under the covers in the next moment, letting out a long sigh, and I knew that was my cue to follow her lead.
Once I was under the covers with her, I reached for her, pulling her in close. She buried her face in the crook of my neck, and I closed my eyes when I felt her warm breath on my skin. “Do you want to talk about it?” Why was it that when family was involved, shit always hit the fan?
“Not really, I just…” Kelsey trailed off, moving her head so it rested on the pillow beside mine. My hand fell to her waist, keeping the pressure between us. “My mom told me something, and I freaked.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That she’s living with another guy, and has been seeing him for two years.”
That was…quite the revelation to have, especially on Thanksgiving with your family. I stayed quiet, knowing there was more to this. There had to be.
“It just makes me wonder if I’m going to grow up and be like her. Get married, have a family, and then…get bored or something. I don’t want to be like her, I don’t want to always be searching for the next best thing—”
I moved the hand on her waist to her
