“Because you gave me a flower.”
When he laughed, he sounded on the verge of being hysterical, and I was slightly worried.
“I gave you a flower and you . . .”—he buried his nose in my neck—“. . . a flower got me here.”
“More or less.”
“I have never been more thankful for my mother’s obsession with orchids than I am right now, let me tell you. Jesus Christ, Anna, I will spend . . . however long you want me to, making up for everything you’ve been through, everything I’ve put you through.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, yes, I fucking do.”
“Evan, it’s not—”
“Anna, you’re beautiful”—I snapped my mouth shut and blinked rapidly at the television in front of me—“and everyone in that entire school is a fucking idiot.”
“Not . . . not everyone is . . .”
“Majority of them,” he said with his lips pressed against my neck. “You were right, and I was wrong about everything. We had no right. We had no reason.” He trailed his lips up to my ear and pressed a gentle kiss against it. “I’m so sorry.”
“Will you do me a favor?” I asked.
“Anything.”
“Stop apologizing for stuff that’s over and done with.”
“Anna, I feel like—”
“I know how you feel. You’ve told me, and you’ve apologized, which is something that no one else has ever bothered to do before.” I placed my hands on his forearms again, sucking in a deep breath. “That means a lot to me.”
“You really don’t ask for all that much, do you?”
“Just the world.” I grinned back at him.
He laughed, swaying us from side-to-side.
I relaxed against him and closed my eyes, squeezing his arm. Despite the conversation we’d just had, I felt content. For once, I didn’t feel stressed-out or worried about every little thing that I knew was right around the corner, and it was nice to relax.
At least, until my father opened the front door.
“Oh, no.” I opened my eyes.
Dad was staring at us, completely immobile with one hand on the doorknob and the other gripping his keys. Evan immediately moved away from me, and I groaned, leaning forward so that he could presumably back as far away from me as possible. I blushed and stood, Evan doing the same.
“Evan, I think it’s about time that you went home,” my dad said, his eyes trained on me.
“Yeah, I’m uh . . . I’m going.”
I turned to Evan, and he offered me a small smile and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He gathered his books and shoved them back into his bag before slinging it over his shoulder. He looked at me, his gaze flicking to my father once, and he leaned in and kissed my cheek. My dad cleared his throat, and I glared at him before following Evan to the front door as he bolted out of the house. He waved over his shoulder before practically diving into his car. I closed the door and crossed my arms over my chest, staring at my dad’s feet and waiting for whatever it was that he had to say.
“What was that, Arianna?”
I ground my teeth together. “That was me and Evan.”
“What’s going on with you two?”
“We’re—” I suddenly realized a little too late that I had no idea what was going on. We hadn’t put a label on whatever we were, and I wasn’t going to presume that he was my boyfriend because, really, that was almost laughable. Even after the kiss and the confession, I didn’t know. And I’d never asked because at that moment, it hadn’t really mattered. “We’re hanging out.”
“You hang out with all of your friends that way?”
“What other friends?” I asked through my teeth.
“That couple you hang out with.” I slowly ran my tongue along my bottom teeth, and he waved me off. “Doesn’t matter. You are not to be alone with him.”
“Oh, so now you want to be my protector? Now you’re concerned about what I do?”
“I’m always concerned about what you do, Anna, I’m your dad! It’s what I do!”
“Yeah? Well you sure as hell don’t act like it most of the time! This is the most you’ve said to me since mom died five years ago!”
“I can’t . . . don’t you—” he stuttered, obviously flustered.
“You’ve got more interest in that damn television than you do me! You don’t ask me how my day was, you didn’t even come to check on me last week. I didn’t know you were home until Evan said that you’d let him in. I’m just a pain in your ass, and I’m tired of it!”
“You know that’s not true. You’re my daughter and I love you. I’m doing the best I can right now, Anna! It’s not easy!”
I stared at him, at a complete loss for words and wanting to be anywhere but in the same room with him.
“I have to go,” I said, turning and pulling the door open.
“Where?” he called out as I stepped onto the porch.
“I don’t know. A run, I guess.”
“It’s dark out.”
Thank you for pointing out the obvious, father. Guess I’m just too damn stupid to see for myself.
“I hadn’t noticed. Thanks for the update,” I retorted.
I pulled the door closed and took off in the opposite direction of where I usually ran. My head was everywhere, and not one single thought made any sense to me. Before I realized it, I was standing at the end of the Drake’s driveway, breathing heavily and staring up at the big white house on the hill.
Why had I come here? I wasn’t sure how I got here. I knew where he lived; everyone knew where the Drakes lived, but still. He was probably going to think I was stalking him because hell, I just had to go and tell him that I liked him that entire time, didn’t I? Just because he hadn’t seemed
