We all laughed, even Ollie’s dad who looked a little lighter than when he had first shown up. I questioned Ollie with a look, and he gave me a slight nod. He bent his head down. “Christian, my dad, and I are gonna head home to have a talk.”
Good. This is good. I grabbed onto Ollie’s hand and gave it a squeeze, letting him know I was here for him.
“Eric will take you home?” Ollie looked at Eric for reassurance, but I interrupted him.
“Actually…my parents are on the way. I called them as soon as Eric let us know that my brother was here.”
“Oh, good. That’s good.” He nodded as if he were pleased, and I glanced at Hayley. “Hayley, will you stay with me until they’re here?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll catch a ride with my dad and Ol. You can just drive my Charger to my house when her parents get here, yeah?” Christian asked. “I think I need to get filled in on whatever is going on with you.” He glanced at Ollie and grimaced. I gave Ollie another squeeze.
“Yeah,” Ollie answered, squeezing me back. His palm felt nice along mine, and I hated to let it go, but we both needed to get things sorted out.
His dad and Christian began walking to the parking lot as Ollie stayed back. He tugged me closer as his lips hovered over mine. Our eyes locked for half a second before he pressed his mouth against mine. Things were chaotic, to say the least. Emotions were running high, but with his lips on mine, I suddenly felt grounded. Like everything would be okay.
When he pulled away, he took my breath with him.
“Call me when you get home, okay? The very second.”
I wrapped my arms around my middle after handing him back his phone. “I will, and then you can fill me in on that?” I nudged my head to his father and Christian.
“Yeah.” He kissed my forehead and started to walk away but not before he whispered, “And when all of this drama bullshit is over…it’s you and me, okay? Just you and me.”
“Us,” I whispered back.
“Us,” he repeated, and then he was gone.
Hayley, Eric, and I all went back and sat against the brick wall, waiting for my parents.
We sat silently as I ran my fingers over my lips. The second Ollie was gone, I was back to feeling too much. There was a lot of uncertainty dealing with my parents and brother, and I wasn’t really prepared.
Eric’s voice had my hand dropping from my mouth. “I’m not gonna lie. Having you two around is a lot like walking into a fucking real-life soap opera. So much drama.”
I was the first to snicker, because it was true, and then we all busted up laughing before Hayley popped up, bringing her legs underneath her to sit cross-legged. “No one asked you to stay, you know. You can leave us and our drama fest.”
He groaned, pulling his knees up and resting his arms along them. “And miss out on all the entertainment? Yeah fucking right.”
I giggled. “Why are you still here? You can leave. My parents should be here any minute. For once, they were actually in the state instead of halfway across the world.”
He didn’t glance at Hayley or me. Instead, he kept his expression in front of him. “I’ll wait until they’re here, and then I’ll take off.”
Hayley crooned, “Aw. Eric! I knew you cared about us.”
He still kept his gaze straight, but I saw the rise of his cheeks.
I laughed quietly and leaned back onto the brick, waiting patiently for my parents to show up.
The past few days had somehow flown by with minimal fights between my parents and me, but that was only because they were basically ignoring me all together. Things moved quickly as soon as they had arrived at the police station. I sensed the rising disappointment from them when I began telling them what had happened. I started at the very beginning and barely took a breath as everything tumbled out. It was like a waterfall; I couldn’t stop the words even if I wanted to.
My father had barely blinked in my direction since that night. And my mother… Well, I’m surprised her teeth weren’t cracked with how hard she clenched her jaw anytime I walked past her in the house. They took the entire week off from work to stay home and figure things out, which was a surprise to me.
I assumed they’d rip me out of the police station whilst putting a tracking device on me and leave my brother there to fend for himself, but that was not exactly what happened.
To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what happened. I'd been shut out of all things relating to Jason. He won’t talk to me either.
The police released him early Sunday morning, and he’d been here since, but again, I had no idea why. I should have been happy that I was left in the dark, because after all, it was what I’d been wanting since the very beginning, but I wasn’t happy at all. My house was like a ticking time bomb—one wrong move and the entire thing was going up in flames.