On The Rebound (Steinbeck U #1) - L.A. Cotton Page 0,32
a dick earlier. But as I stepped into the shower, I figured we were even now.
Calli
It was Friday evening, and I was deep in course reading, when the door knocked. I’d become familiar with Josie’s knock over the last few days. If knocks had a sound, it was firm but gentle, which made me smile considering she’d explained to me how she had bad anxiety but also an over-confident personality.
“Hey,” I said as it swung open.
“You’re studying?” Her gaze landed on the pile of textbooks on my bed.
“I want to get a head start.” I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell her that I needed to keep myself busy to avoid thinking about Mom... or my dad and brother... Joel... or Zach.
Definitely not Zach.
After our run-in Thursday, I’d managed to avoid him.
I couldn’t believe him, acting like a jealous psycho-ex all because Joel and I were walking to lunch. He was infuriating. Cocky and smug and so damn full of himself.
It made me wonder what I ever saw in him.
But people changed.
Still, I didn’t understand why he was acting all Neanderthal when he obviously hated me.
Something was bugging me about the whole ordeal though. He’d brought up the party... purposefully insinuated to Joel that we’d met there.
Why?
“Josie,” I said, unable to let it go. “You know the party we went to at your brother’s house?”
“Yeah...”
“Who helped you carry me home?”
Her brows furrowed. “We already went over this. It was Brad.” The words came out smooth, and well-rehearsed, but I saw the flash of guilt in her eyes.
I narrowed my gaze. “Yeah, I know that’s what you told me... but I spoke to Zach yesterday—”
“Hold up, you spoke to Zach and didn’t tell me?”
“I needed time to process.”
She kicked off her pumps and folded her legs onto the bed. “He really gets under your skin, huh?”
“Honestly,” I let out a frustrated sigh, “I don’t think he ever left.”
“Ready to tell me what happened?”
“I...” Did I want to open the can of worms? It had taken me a long time to get over the heartache Zach had inflicted on me. I wasn’t really looking to go back to that place.
But this was college. A chance to put the past behind you.
Except my past was right here, and it felt like no matter where I turned, I couldn’t escape it.
“Zach and I met the summer before I started junior high,” I took a deep breath, readying myself for the pain that remembering brought. “He and his family were new to the area. He found me down at the beach, crying. My parents were arguing a lot. Callum was already a local protégé. He and Zach’s brother became instant friends. They bonded over their love of basketball, and me and Zach bonded over our hate of it.”
“I can’t imagine that...” She frowned.
“It’s true. When I met him, Zach had zero interest in playing. We used to hang out in the treehouse at the bottom of his yard.”
“Calli and Zach, kissing in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n—”
“Really?” Disbelief clung to the word.
“Sorry.” She ducked her head, fighting a smug smile, “continue.”
“We were inseparable. Zach struggled to make friends, and I had none, so we just gravitated to each other. We had a secret club and everything.”
“Shut up, you did not.”
I nodded. “BHS, the basketball haters society. It was totally lame, but it made me feel a part of something.” My heart ached. “I’d never had that before.”
“So, what happened?”
“At the end of eighth grade, I found out my dad had been having an affair. He announced he was moving away... and Callum announced he wanted to go too. I was devastated.
“My dad had never showed an ounce of interest in me growing up, but he was still my dad. We were still a family. I’ll never forget the look in my mom’s eyes when Callum told her. He was a junior, the star basketball player at our school, and he wanted to leave that all behind.”
To leave me behind. That had taken some getting my head around.
“He’d already been recruited by SU.”
“I can’t believe Callum just left you.”
“We were never really close. He loved basketball, and I hated it... but I was pissed he chose my dad, a liar and a cheat, over my mom.”
“Yeah, that’s rough. So Callum and your dad left and you and your mom stayed?”
I nodded again. “It was hard for her though, being a single parent, trying to balance work life and me.”