How could I be the type of girl that a guy as perfect as Eric could ever want?
CHAPTER 16
ERIC
After an awkward first few hours of Lainey trying to reveal mine and Karly’s true feelings for each other, things settled down. Lainey and Karly chatted the entire way home from Charleston, and played some game with Lainey’s playlists where Karly had to guess the band.
She didn’t skip a beat, and I could tell that Lainey was impressed. They actually started to bond. Lainey talked about her life and problems like she’d known Karly her whole life. She didn’t usually open up to anyone like this, at least not that I’d ever witnessed.
The bonding with Hanna never really happened. I think partly due to the fact that Hanna was the guidance counselor at her school. She already knew too much. I don’t think Lainey wanted to give her a free pass to any of the Legacy High drama, I mean not many people want teachers breathing down their necks. Especially not the kids who are already the center of the rumors. Don’t get me wrong, It’s not that Lainey didn’t like Hanna, they just didn’t really hit it off immediately. I’ll be honest, though, Lainey is hard to handle. Her sarcasm and behavior is a little questionable but she’s misunderstood mostly. However, she can also act out and be a little shit. Her heart is good.
When we pull back into the driveway at my house, Lainey’s friend Madden is waiting at the curb to pick her up. She bops her way around the back of my truck and slides into his car, and I watch as they pull away. Karly is still happily seated in the front of my truck, and when I open her door to see what she’s doing she’s got a hoodie from the backseat pulled down over her head with the strings pulled tight around her face and a pair of sunglasses on.
I can’t help but laugh, “What are you doing?”
“I’m incognito,” she whispers.
Looking around, I wave my arms around to the empty neighborhood, “No one is even out here.”
“Yet,” She deadpans, “No one is out here yet.”
I roll my eyes, “I think you’re being a little too careful, but I will admit… it’s cute.”
She leans a little ways out the truck door, and pecks my lips with hers, before smiling widely and scurrying inside like Kim Kardashian hiding from the paparazzi.
My head darts to the right when I hear a car approaching and my heart sinks to my ass when I see it. It’s a white four door sedan, just like Hanna’s. I seriously consider launching myself into the bushes, but it’s too late at this point. My palms begin to sweat and my mouth goes dry but as it gets closer I realize it’s not her car.
I step out from behind the truck door that I thought was going to save me, and follow Karly inside my house. Before I even get the chance to say anything about how strange I just felt, Karly begins to speak.
“I need to respond to some emails, and talk to my publicist about a few things. Is it okay if I use your desk?”
I watch intently as she pulls her laptop from her bag, “Sure. Yeah.”
“Ok,” She smiles, tiptoeing to peck my lips before making her way down the hall to my office. “I’ll just be a sec, then we can watch Netflix or something.”
I take my shoes off, and grab myself a bottle of water from the fridge. Since last night, my throat has felt a little scratchy so I’m thinking my allergies might be acting up. Grabbing a cough drop out of the medicine cabinet, I hear Karly on the phone. It almost sounds like she’s arguing.
I step closer to the door, trying my best to eavesdrop but right about the time I do, she comes stomping out of the room on a mission, no longer talking on the phone, rather typing hard and fast into it.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
She pushes the phone toward my face, a news article filling the screen.
Karly Dahl seen getting even with Ashton Slade by slipping into mystery man’s truck in Georgia.
The photo is from the day I picked her up on her run, slipping into my passenger seat. You can barely even tell that it’s her let alone make out that I’m a man in the driver’s seat.
“You can’t even tell that it’s you.”
She drops the phone dramatically, “No, but you can tell that it’s YOUR truck.”
She starts pacing erratically back and forth, while flailing her arms around like a mad woman, “This is a disaster. What if Hanna sees this? Oh my God. Oh my God!”
“Stop,” I practically beg, as she continues to pace and rant.
“Agh!!! I didn’t even realize anyone was following me that day! How is that even legal? Not to mention—”
“Jolene,” I boom, “Why are you so freaked out? It’s fine. Even if Hanna did see it, we’re friends. It’s not unusual for me to give you a ride if I saw you out.”