Rylee’s lips pull down into a frown. “He really loved her.” She observes.
“He worshipped the ground she walked on. That’s what’s so fucked up about the situation. He loved my mom so much, and for a while I thought she felt the same way. Or the innocence of my youth made me see it that way. Love can be a fickle bitch sometimes.”
It turns quiet for several beats, only the hum of the heater filling the silence.
“What about your dad?” I ask, wanting to know more about the girl invading my thoughts lately. “Did he remarry?”
Rylee lets out a dull laugh. “Oh yeah. Remarried, started a new family, and all but forgot about his old one.”
“Sounds like we’re cut from the same cloth. One parent who cares and another who doesn’t.”
“Yeah.”
Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” cuts through the cab, and I glance at Rylee with a lifted brow. Danielle likes Taylor Swift as well, so I’ve heard all of her songs what feels like hundreds of times.
With an eye roll, she slides from my lap to the middle seat and reaches for her purse on the floorboard. She blows out a breath, and instead of accepting the call, she chooses to ignore it.
“It’s my mom,” she murmurs, dropping her phone back in her purse. “I’m not ready to deal with her yet. I’m sure Principal Harris called her to give her a heads up about what happened.”
“Which also means he probably called Oliver and his dad in for questioning.”
“And that’ll just make my life even better,” she says bitterly. “Oliver’s going to love getting reamed by his dad. One guess who’ll be taking the brunt of his anger.”
“Oliver will take whatever his father dishes out like a man. I’ll be damned if he blames that shit on you. I was serious when I said he’s done tormenting you. He’ll learn to deal with his shit a different way.”
Her smile is sad. “Thanks, but I live with the guy. I’m sure he’ll find ways at home to make my life miserable.”
“The fuck he will. Oliver isn’t dumb. I’ve set down the new rules that include you being off limits. He won’t do anything stupid.”
Her eyes hold doubt, but she nods anyway. She may not believe it, but Rylee’s under my protection now. I don’t know how or when it happened, but she’s wormed her way inside me. My initial feeling of dislike has not only changed but has grown into caring. And the fucked-up thing is, I never even saw it coming.
RYLEE
“YOU SURE YOU’RE going to be okay?” Zayden asks as he pulls into the driveway and shifts his truck into park.
Today has taken one crazy turn after the other, none of which I saw coming. But not all the twists have been bad.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I blow out a breath, not sure what to do next. Do I just say goodbye and leave the truck? Do I lean over and hug him? Maybe kiss him? I feel a bit uncertain about what’s happening between us and as such, I’m not really sure how to act.
Before it was easy—I hated him, or at least I pretended I did, and he hated me. But now? Now I’m not so sure how I feel. Or how he feels for that matter. The only thing I know for certain is that Zayden made this day a hell of a lot easier to stomach. Even if I’m still convinced I’ll never be able to show my face in school again, him being there for me has meant more than I could ever say—and more than I expected it to mean.
“If you’re worried about Oliver, don’t be. He’s not going to mess with you,” he reassures, his dark gaze swinging to the front porch before coming back to me.
“At this point, I don’t think he could do anything worse than what he pulled today.” I let out a broken laugh.
“Look at me.” His fingers graze my chin before he’s turning my face toward him. “Don’t let him see what he’s done. He doesn’t deserve the satisfaction. If I know Oliver, and I do, you walking in there like nothing happened will be the last thing he wants or expects. If he’s trying to break you, don’t let him believe he has.”
“Well, considering there’s no way I’m showing my face in school for the rest of the year, I think he’s going to know he won.”
“No one at school is going to say one word to or about you, believe me on that.”
“You can’t control what people say to each other, Zayden.” I wrap my fingers around his and pull his hand away from my face. “And even if you could, it won’t stop them from thinking it.”
“So then let’s change the way they think about it.”
“And how do we do that?”
“Ride to school with me tomorrow.”