“Now, go away,” I told him. “I’m talking to her.”
“That Kassa?” Kale asked as he handed me a new beer.
I nodded, not wanting to share my time with her with my friend, either.
“Hey, pretty girl!” he called out. “You missed a hell of a show tonight.”
“She knows. I told her.” I took a quick drink of the fresh beer and shoved his shoulder. “Go find you a chick to play with for the night. I’m spending the night with Kassa.”
He rolled his eyes at me but grinned and went back to the group of girls Cash was in the middle of. A few shot me hungry looks, but the expression on my face must have told them to keep away.
“What are your plans for the night?” she asked, bringing my attention back to her.
“The guys are getting drunk and Sin has already left with some girl.” I took a swallow of my beer. “And I was thinking of spending the night talking to my favorite person on the planet.”
Her breath caught before she spoke. “You’re my favorite person too, Gray. But don’t you want to go with the others?”
“No, little caterpillar. I’m doing exactly what I want right now. You okay with that? You’re not too sleepy?”
“No,” she whispered, but I still heard her. “I’m not sleepy at all now.”
EIGHT
Kassa
If time flies when you’re having fun, it slows to the speed of a sloth when you’re missing the people you love the most.
It was agony, waking up every morning, knowing I was alone in the house. Knowing that I was going to be alone until much later that night unless, on the off chance, one of my friends would be home from whatever summer activities they were enjoying and could visit. But that wasn’t often. They were all having the best summer of their lives, while I was slowly suffocating from the quietness of my house.
I had to find things to keep myself busy. AJ’s Gym became my salvation. I was there almost every day, finding something to do so I wouldn’t have to go home. I usually did an hour on one of the treadmills. There were huge flat-screen televisions over the cardio equipment, so I would watch some mindless morning talk shows while I was on the stair climber for at least half an hour.
I didn’t lift any weights, but a few of the regular guys who knew Gray had tried to get me to start “pumping iron” with them, or so they had teased. They were nice but a lot older than I was, and the one time I had told Gray about the guys trying to make me laugh, he had gotten quiet on me and abruptly ended the call. The next day, those guys had only smiled and called a quick hello, but there had been no more chats and definitely no more offers to teach me how to get ripped.
My gut told me that Gray had called them and told them to stay away, and while I wanted to yell at him that they were only being nice to me, I kind of liked that he had put such a quick stop to the harmless teasing and flirting from his friends. Secretly, I hoped he was jealous, that he hated the thought of me actually liking any of the bodybuilders who practically lived in the gym.
But I knew deep down that he was just b
eing overprotective—and, yeah, a dick too. I didn’t call him out on it though. Instead, I started taking classes with the other women who used the gym. I went to spin classes at six every other morning and yoga at nine. Then I did a kickboxing class on Saturdays.
With all the exercise I was getting, I was able to fall into bed every night and not care that the house was just as quiet and lonely as it was when I got up the next morning. But I was also liking the new changes I was seeing to my body. My ass actually had a curve to it, I had a cute set of abs going on, and my boobs, which seemed to have grown in the months since Gray and Jace had been gone, were even perkier than they use to be.
I hadn’t been out of shape to begin with, hadn’t even been overweight in the slightest, but the changes in my body put a smile on my face, and that was rarely there these days. I didn’t tell Gray or my brother though. I wanted to surprise them both with my new appearance, and maybe—just maybe—make Gray’s jaw drop a little if he liked the new me as much as I did.
Before they had left, I had still had a girl’s body. Now, it was all woman, and I wanted him to see it and have trouble taking his eyes off me. But there were no plans to see each other until Thanksgiving, so I had to bide my time. For the moment, at least.
School began in the middle of August, and I wasn’t nearly as excited to start my senior years as I was ready for it to be over. Two of my friends had moved away, including David, whose father was still determined to fix his “gay problem,” since camping throughout the summer hadn’t done the trick. My already small group of trusted friends was even smaller, but I was just happy to be with actual people during the day.
After school, I went straight to the gym and got in a quick run on the treadmill before taking a Zumba class. By the time I was done, I was covered in sweat and so exhausted that my eyes didn’t want to stay open.
“I thought I would find you here,” AJ said with a grin as he came into the classroom when Zumba was letting out. He crossed his massive arms over his chest and gave me a mock stern glare. “Got a call about you not twenty minutes ago. Some hotheaded rocker wanting to know if I had seen his sweet little caterpillar.”
I grimaced. “Was he mad?”
I hadn’t talked to Gray all day. Or the day before. I had been so busy with working out and sorting out everything for the first day of my senior year that I had let all of his calls go to voicemail. But the sad part was that it had been a small relief not to talk to him. I missed him so damn badly, and every time I heard his voice, I missed him even more. Not speaking to him for nearly forty-eight hours had helped me, if only a little.
“More worried than anything, sweetheart.” AJ dropped an arm around my shoulders and guided me out past the other women who were still catching up.
For most of them, this was their only time away from their children and their husbands so they could unwind, and they made it last for as long as possible. A few times, I had actually tagged along when a small group of them had gone to dinner, but I had nothing in common with any of them. They were wives and mothers, the majority in their thirties. Whereas I was just a high school student with no commitments to anyone but myself. One of them had actually said that she was jealous of me, of my freedoms, and she wished she could trade places with me.