my pocket and got back in my car.
Katie
I sat on the porch after Stryker left me, wondering what to do. Half of me wanted to get in my car and go after him and beg him to come back, and the other half wanted to find him and beat him senseless.
As the two different instincts wrestled, I called his phone. It went straight to voicemail.
“Look, I’m super pissed at you right now, and that was a dick move leaving like that so would you please come back so I can yell at you and then we can be friends again?” I paused, unsure of what to say that would make him reconsider. “It would suck if we weren’t friends anymore. It’s not just about the sex. I’d miss you.”
I hung up before I said anything else. I also texted him a few times for good measure. I was freezing my ass off, but I didn’t want to go inside because I knew they were all talking about me and Stryker. The front door opened and I turned my head to make sure it wasn’t Mom. I couldn’t talk to her right now without saying something I would regret later.
“Hey, Katiebug,” Kayla said, throwing a blanket over my shoulders. “You wanna talk?”
“Nope,” I said popping my lips on the ‘p.’
“I figured. I know everyone’s been giving you advice and I know how much that pisses you off, so I’m not going to give you advice.”
“Good.”
She sat down next to me and I held out the blanket so we could share it.
“You know, the first time I met Adam, I was trying to hook up with his friend?”
“Really?”
She laughed and shook her head. “Yeah. It was the night before we were leaving on our plane and we all decided to go out. I was totally crushing on his friend Robbie, but he didn’t seem to be into me. Then I just started talking to Adam because he was standing right next to him. He seemed so cocky that I was totally turned off at first, but then a few hours later I couldn’t get him into bed fast enough.”
I really didn’t need that part of the story. “Ugh, too much information.”
She continued. “So anyway, I thought I didn’t like him. I kept telling myself that I didn’t like him, that I just liked how I felt when we hooked up. It took me an entire week to realize that the feeling I had when we hooked up was no different than the feeling I had when he made me laugh, or said my name, or even when he was in the same room. It was love. Yes, it started out as lust, but that changed pretty fast.”
“You said you weren’t going to give me any advice,” I said, moving closer to her. My fingers were numb and any moment, my teeth were going to start chattering.
Her eyes went wide an innocent. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was just telling you about the first time I met Adam.”
I rolled my eyes and wrapped the blanket tighter.
“We should go inside. My ass is officially frozen,” Kayla said, getting up. “Come on. You can hide downstairs with me and Adam. We could play Hot Lava.”
Mom’s furniture obsession had started before she had us, so when we were kids we assumed everyone else had a basement full of furniture they couldn’t use. We often spent rainy afternoons hopping from chairs to dressers to get from one side of the room to the other, pretending the floor was lava.
“I think we’re both a little too big for that. I’m not sure Mom’s new table, oh excuse me, sideboard, could take us standing on it.”
“I think she has a problem,” Kayla said as we walked slowly back into the house. The blast of warm air was so shocking compared to the air outside that it almost hurt. I flexed my red fingers to try to get some feeling back into them.
The living room was quiet except for Adam humming to himself while reading a book that I knew didn’t come from my house.
“Where’s Mom and Dad?” Kayla said, rubbing her arms.
“They went to their room. A little chilly out there?” He closed the book and took Kayla into his arms.
“I’m going to my room,” I said. I wanted to try Stryker again, but I didn’t want an audience.
“I’ll bring you some tea or something,” Kayla said.
“Thanks.”
I heard Mom and Dad talking softly in their