Echo, you're over-reacting, that boy has a name, and I’d appreciate it if you used it.
Well, excuse the hell out of me! I guess you like Danny treating you like a second-rate citizen.
Her mistake made me stop and think before correcting her. His name is Drew, Echo, not Danny. Did Danny make you feel like this when you were alive? Is that why you are so livid over what Drew said? Your emotions haven’t been able to influence my emotions on this level in years. This was a serious problem with you and Danny, wasn’t it?
There was silence, Echo didn’t say a word as the anger that had been ravaging my emotional balance faded and then fizzled out. It was then that I knew for sure, all the negativity, the hate, the anger, and irrational rage; none of that had been me. It was Echo. Something in Drew’s tone or words had set off a trigger with her. For the first time since Echo told me about my father, he seemed less than the perfect picture she’d painted him to be. It was evident that at some point, he'd made her feel inferior. What kind of man who claimed he loved his woman would do that to her?
“Eden?” Drew sat on the curb outside of the coffee shop with me. “Was it something I said? Why’d you walk out in such a hurry? What did I do?”
Bewilderment was chiseled on his face like letters to a stone. He thought he'd done something wrong, but I knew that he hadn’t. It was Echo’s emotional complex over feeling inferior that had caused the emotional storm I’d just lived through, but I couldn’t exactly tell him that.
I summoned the most reassuring voice I could muster. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Drew.”
“If it wasn’t something I said or did, Eden, then what is it? Is it because you are worried your dad is going to catch us? Sitting out here on the curb, he might because there is the chance he could drive by. You were clearly upset. What’s wrong?"
The worry and confusion were still there. I could hear it in the slight pitchy-ness of his voice. I wasn’t worried about Dad driving by and seeing me because there were cars parked at an angle on either side of me. I mentally scrambled for a way to get around what was wrong without lying. The last thing I wanted to do was break my oath, and when I looked up at him and saw those beautiful green eyes staring back at me, I decided to take a chance. Instead of telling him what happened, I answered him with a question.
“Can we talk about it later; I promise you it’s not something you said or did that upset me.”
It wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t upset me; he’d upset Echo. Echo was the one who’d caused my emotions to teeter. Drew searched my face; he was looking for something, although I hadn’t the foggiest idea what he thought he would find.
He sighed and looked heavenward, “Okay, Eden, I’m here whenever you are ready to talk.”
I scooted closer to him and laid my head on his shoulder. He grabbed my hand and held it as he turned and kissed the top of my head. That had me looking up at him, and he smiled shyly. It was the cutest thing. Releasing me, he patted my thigh, stood, and offered me a hand up off the curb.
“Are you ready to go visit that parking lot and let me teach you how to drive a stick?”
I reached for the hand he offered. “Yup let’s do it!”
He drove us to our high school’s empty campus, and an equally empty parking lot. I smiled at the brassy, brown-colored statues of buffalos in the school’s lawn. I had mad Buffalo Pride. I was a Lady Buff, after all. My volleyball jersey said so. Drew got out of the car, and I climbed over the middle console and shifter to sit in the driver’s seat. Once on the passenger side, he went through all the working parts of the car. This car had three pedals instead of two, and I did my fair share of stalling and giving Drew whiplash as he tried to be a patient teacher. In my opinion, we were lucky to make it back to my house alive—three hours later. This time I gave Drew a long tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. I noticed his face was flushed when I backed through the door and closed it. Again, I watched from the lace-covered front window as he got in his car, but this time rather than close my eyes, I turned and walked toward the kitchen as I heard his car leave. Echo started whining almost immediately.
Okay, what’s your excuse THIS time for not planting one on him?
I sighed because I knew the bliss of being alone in my head, for the most part, was over. I did plant one, right on his cheek. Echo, I know this may be hard for you to understand, but when and if I kiss Drew—on the lips, it will not only be our first kiss together but MY first kiss ever. Certain elements have to be in place.
Wow, Eden, you are WAY overthinking this.
Opting to ignore her, I walked into the kitchen where Dad was eating cookies, drinking milk, and flipping through the paper. It came as a shock when it shouldn’t have, seeing how I’d seen him in town earlier. I’d almost forgotten. I strived for calm to settle my jumpy nerves. I had to reign my emotions in, or he’d see right through my little act of calm serenity. I took a deep quiet breath and gave acting normal my best shot.
“Hey, Dad—I thought you’d be at work.”
“Hey, Honey Bear! Well, normally, I would be, but I had some business to
