After hitting the doorbell, I waited a few moments. The person who answered the door turned out to be Michelle, who smiled up at me with an icy expression I knew could turn downright evil. “Calum,” she said. “Here to call upon my sister?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said, having no idea why she was talking like she was from one hundred years ago. I could see Bree standing behind her, trying to get past her, but Michelle refused to move.
“If you hurt my sister, know that I will hunt you down and cut your balls off—” Michelle’s threat was ended by her mom frantically shouting her name, and Bree smiling softly. She clearly did not care about apologizing, like her mom was quickly trying to tell her to do; all she did was step aside and let Bree out.
Bree stepped out, looking the opposite of at ease as she glanced back to her sister, who currently watched us both—though mostly me—with an icy blue stare that could kill. Michelle ended up glaring at me the entire time, as I brought Bree to my car. Even as I opened the passenger side door for her, Michelle sneered.
Did Bree tell her that she had a horrible time last weekend? Was that why Michelle felt so protective of her older sister? I guess I couldn’t blame her for that; I wasn’t my best, so it wasn’t too out of the blue that Michelle picked up on it.
Once Bree and I were safely in the car, I glanced at her, and then back up to Michelle, who glared from the front door. “Your sister must care a lot about you,” I remarked.
Bree shrugged. “She just doesn’t want me to get hurt.”
I looked back to Bree, noticing, for the first time, she didn’t look like she did last weekend. We’d traded places; this time I was the one all dressed up, and she looked like she did on a normal day. No makeup, no hairdo. Tonight her pink hair was messy in the natural way, her green eyes bare of all eyeshadow and eyeliner.
Some might think she looked more washed-out, being natural-faced, but I knew this was more the real Bree than the dolled-up version I’d seen last weekend. That was fine. This was the real Bree, and I was determined to show her the real me, as well. I was a good guy.
Although, I felt like most guys who called themselves good guys were actually shitty guys in hiding, like Trent, but that fact didn’t matter. I was nothing like Trent, and I would make up for the horribleness of our last date.
“Well,” I said, backing the car up out of the driveway, “your sister can rest easy. You’re in good hands tonight.”
She said nothing for a while, her green eyes simply watching me as I drove us out of town. The place we were going was a much fancier place than Sumit would allow. Needed to hop a town over to get the really fancy restaurants and bars.
Bree was apparently only twenty though, and bars were out of the picture for a date.
“You seem better tonight,” she remarked, fiddling with her hands on her lap. Was she nervous? Was she worried that I’d be a dick again? I hated that she’d gotten that impression of me, hated that she thought I could be like that. I wasn’t.
Not on purpose, anyway. I didn’t think anyone could sit down and expect their girlfriend of a year to cheat on them with their best friend, so I liked to think I had a good reason to not be myself. But, again, that was no excuse. Bree didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of my attitude, even if that attitude was something along the lines of I don’t want to be here.
That’s how it was last weekend. Tonight, I…I did want to be here, with her. I wanted to make it up to her. I wouldn’t say I was ready to get back into the game, but…it did look like it was inching closer. Focusing on another girl was a good way to get my mind off what happened.
Bree and I would have a good time tonight, that much I promised myself.
“I am,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “I really am sorry for how I acted last weekend. I wasn’t myself. You didn’t deserve it.” As I glanced over at her, she looked so tiny, sitting there