not in a good mood but it’s not aimed at me, nor do I suffer for it beyond feeling his mood shift to grumpy whenever he looks away from me. He’s not very good at hiding how he feels. I wish he would talk to me about it but no matter how hard I push he keeps his lips sealed.
We’re currently sat in his car outside my house because it’s raining, meaning we can’t go to our special spot on the beach, the spot where we first kissed.
He rests his head between his hands on the steering wheel, his leg bouncing up and down. I see his bottom lip disappear under his top row of teeth as he worries it.
“Hey,” I say softly and place my hand on his back. “What’s the matter?”
“My parents cut me off.”
“W…what?” What does that mean?
“They emptied my trust fund and said I can’t have it back until I graduate.”
Oh shit. “That’s not so bad.”
“Trust me,” he grimaces, turning his head so his temple is on the wheel and his eyes are on me. “It is. I don’t graduate for two years. How the fuck did they find out I wasn’t going back?”
“They’ve done this to get you to go back with them?” Oh no, he’s going to leave me.
“Yep.”
Thump. Thump…. Thump. My heart just skipped a beat and not because of something good. “That’s…”
“It’s fucking bullshit,” he shouts, startling me when he sits upright and punches the steering wheel.
“Hey,” I say softly and run my fingers through his hair. “It’ll be okay, you’ll see. You can just go back and do what you need to do.”
“No,” he blurts, his eyes on me. The desperation behind them startles me. “I can’t do that.”
“It’s just two years.”
“To some people,” I think he says, but I can’t be sure because it was as quiet as his breath. He sighs and grips his hair with both hands. “It doesn’t matter. I have about ten grand in my other account and they can’t touch that. Oxford will surely transfer the course money so I won’t have to worry about that. I’ll just get a job here. At least my deposit is down on our place, along with the first few months’ rent. That will give me enough time to get a job.”
I can’t believe my ears. My heart skips a beat for a good reason this time. “You’re still moving here?”
“Fuck yeah!” He grins and brings my hand to his lips. “It’ll be great. Who needs money?”
My lips twitch. “Everybody?”
“True that,” he remarks and leans over to kiss me. “Let’s just forget about them for now. Let’s just forget about everything. How about we go for a long drive, pull over somewhere and you let me kiss you until our lips are sore?”
“Kay,” I breathe and in seconds the car is running and we’re driving to location unknown. I hate to ask but I do anyway. “How did they find out? I haven’t told anyone but my…”
“She wouldn’t. She doesn’t even know who my parents are.” His eyes suddenly widen as realisation dawns. “That bastard. That absolute fucking bastard.”
“What?”
“My brother.” He roughly handles the gearstick. I want to ask what the gearstick ever did to him, but I don’t think that it would be appreciated right now. “Damn it! I’m going to fucking kill him!” He pauses and smirks a little. “Nope, I’m going to throw eggs at him.”
Eggs? “Eggs?”
“Yeah.”
“Why eggs?”
“My brother…” As we’re turning down a wooded lane there’s a pop followed by a hissing sound and then the car starts to wobble as we pull to a stop. “NO! NO! NO! NO!” Caleb shouts and climbs out of the now prone car. I follow and watch as he kicks the flat tyre over and over again. “This is not my fucking day. Fuck!”
“Caleb!” I rush to him and grab his arm. “Calm down; it’s just a tyre. We’ll fit the spare.”
He chews on his lower lip and looks at me apologetically.
“Bloody hell. You don’t have a spare.” This isn’t a question; the look on his face has already told me the answer. I’m just voicing his thought. “Great.” I lean against the rain splattered bonnet and watch him pace backwards and forwards in front of the car. He mumbles to himself for a while, looks at the tyre, turns back around to continue cursing and mumbling, before finally coming over to me, grabbing me by the back of my neck and slamming his lips down on mine.