“What does that mean?” I asked, turning my head to meet her eyes.
She didn’t answer, just jerked her head to the driveway where Draco was getting out of his truck.
“Goddamn it,” I muttered, stopping abruptly on the porch.
“Have fun,” she sang, closing the door behind her.
I cursed under my breath as I heard the deadbolt lock.
“I have a key!” I yelled through it.
“Good luck unlocking it before he gets to the porch, ya coward!” she yelled back with a cackle.
I’d barely made it to the bottom of the steps before Draco’s angry voice reached me.
“You fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” he asked, coming to a stop a few feet away. “What the fuck, Kara?”
“I rode home with my parents,” I answered, walking toward my car.
“I see that,” he replied. “I’m not fuckin’ chasin’ you.”
“I don’t want you to chase me,” I said, turning to face him as I walked backward. “The apartments are level two again, so I’m going home.”
“You plan on tellin’ me that?”
“I asked Charlie to tell you I’d call,” I said defensively.
“Right,” he spat, shaking his head.
I threw my bag on the front seat, and turned to face him again. He hadn’t moved from his spot near the porch steps, obviously serious about the whole not chasing thing.
He was clearly angry, but something in the way he stood and the expression on his face—it was like he’d known that I was going to run. Like he’d expected it. Like it was inevitable.
It shook me.
“Follow me back?” I asked, my voice small.
God, I was all over the place. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d told me to go fuck myself.
“I need to stop by my parents’ place first,” he said gruffly.
“Okay,” I said, nodding.
“I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.” He still hadn’t moved.
“Sounds good,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.
We stared at each other.
“Not gonna keep runnin’ after you,” he said finally. “You wanna kiss goodbye, you’re gonna have to come get it.”
“Right in front of the window?” I asked stubbornly.
“It’s where you left me, baby. Take it or leave it,” he replied just as stubbornly.
I wasn’t sure I liked this new version of the boy who used to give me anything I wanted. I stomped toward him anyway.
“Whatever point you’re trying to make is stupid,” I said as I reached him.
The words were barely out of my mouth before he was pulling me against him, his hands on my ass.
“There she is,” he said against my mouth. “I wondered when she’d come back.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, leaning my head away to look at him as he lifted me off my feet.
“You’ve been running like a scared rabbit for months,” he said, leaning forward, trying to catch my lips with his. “You’re not a rabbit, baby. You’re a cat. You scratch when you’re cornered, you don’t run.”
“That’s the dumbest analogy I’ve ever heard,” I replied. “And I’ve read a lot of terrible books.”
“Just fuckin’ kiss me goodbye.”
I gave in and leaned forward but I let him control the kiss.
“Get off my lawn,” Rose yelled like an old man from inside the house.
I flipped her off as Draco put me back on my feet.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, smacking my ass lightly. “Shouldn’t take long at my parents’ place.”
We separated and I called myself every kind of stupid as I drove away. There were reasons why I hadn’t started shit up with Draco again, solid reasons, and they hadn’t gone away.
I wasn’t some overly dramatic woman who thought she was poison to anyone she loved or anything stupid like that. I had close relationships with my parents and sibling and extended family and friends—I loved them all and they loved me. But, when it came right down to it, I was poison to Draco and I’d known it since I was sixteen years old—younger, if I went back to the very beginning. I didn’t try to be—if anything, I’d gone to great lengths since then to make sure that nothing about my life touched him in any way. But getting closer to him, letting him in, was going to demolish all that I’d done to protect him.
I drove home on autopilot, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do now. Trying to find any way at all that I could have Draco and still maintain the distance that I’d cultivated over years of keeping to myself.
Damn it, I wanted to go for a run. It cleared my head in a way that nothing else had, and I’d tried nearly everything—reading, sleep, alcohol, even knitting. After Draco was gone, I’d been rudderless. I’d ached for him and school had been a nightmare, even with Charlie there. It’s why I’d started running in the first place—for some quiet. When I ran, it was just me and the sound of my footsteps hitting the ground. No one was trying to talk to me, no one was staring, no one was checking up on me every five minutes to make sure I was okay. It was peaceful.