Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,114
have to wait for you to come around. I figured they’ve done enough waiting as it is.”
“And how were you so sure I’d come around?” I recognized his sureness, his easy decisive manner, and it pulled a grin out of me. “It wasn’t like I gave you any indication that you’d made an impact on me the last time we spoke.”
He tore his eyes off the road for a millisecond to raise his eyebrows at me condescendingly. “I always make an impact.”
I laughed and, instinctively, shoved him playfully. Only after I’d done it, did I begin to worry that I’d crossed a line. It had just been my natural reaction, but nothing was natural between us anymore. What if he wasn’t ready to joke with me yet? What if I was ruining it?
“Did you tell them I called you today?” I panicked and changed the subject, hoping to distract him from my faux pas.
“No. You haven’t even told me why you called yet. I figured I’d sort through all of your usual dramatics before alerting them.”
Usual dramatics? What the hell was that supposed to mean? I opened my mouth, ready to lay into him with an angry retort before snapping it closed. I really didn’t have a leg to stand on. I had to take what I could get. I had put them through enough already.
“I shouldn’t have run away,” I finally managed to say. “I was wrong to do that. You were right, you all –.”
“Wait, what was that?” He inclined his head towards me as if he couldn’t hear me. “I couldn’t have possibly heard the great and famous Adley Adair admitting that she was wrong about something, and what was the last part again? I was right!”
I punched him that time with no regret. “Be serious, Thomas!”
“Fine, fine…You know I can’t resist.” He chuckled, but I took satisfaction from the fact that he cringed, rubbing the spot I’d hit.
For some reason, the normalcy of the moment suddenly rushed upwards at me like the turning of the tide and, all at once, I was submerged in an ocean of bittersweet waves. I thought I’d have him again. I’d been so convinced that he was lost to me, squashing even the smallest streams of hope, because hope was a dangerous thing. Hope meant that you had something to lose, and I had already lost too much.
“Oh my God.” He glanced at my face and then did a double take. All of his bravado slipped away, and real concern stretched out every inch of his expression. “Are you crying?”
I could imagine it was disconcerting for him. I never cried. Even as a baby, my parents always said I was strangely melancholy. But if he thought it was weird for him, he had no idea how perplexing the sensation was for me!
“I am not!” I denied, trying to swallow down the tears.
The car began to slow down, and as he turned his blinker on towards the shoulder of the highway, I realized his intentions.
“No, don’t stop!” I shouted. “There isn’t enough time. I really need to get to that theatre, Thomas…I promise, I’m okay. It’s disgusting and so…horribly girlie I can barely stand it, but I’ve discovered that I have all these emotions. I wasn’t crying because I was sad. I was crying because I’m happy.”
“Happy?” He didn’t seem convinced, but he sped up anyways. “I’m happy too, but that doesn’t mean I’m blubbering all over myself about it. You’re as bad as Mom.”
“You’re happy too?” It was almost inconceivable. How could he be happy to be with me after all I’d put him through? He should hate me.
He weighed his words carefully before speaking, “It depends on whether you plan on staying or not, I suppose.”
“Staying?” I’d never even considered the fact that I’d be invited. “Do they even want me anymore?”
Thomas flinched like I’d cut him with my words, and I ran them back through my head trying to discover what I’d said wrong.
“I’ve read the book, you know.”
My mouth went dry, and my face got hot. I felt like I’d been lying in the dessert sun all day; exposed, dehydrated, and panicking. I didn’t even know where to start with the things I had to be embarrassed about, knowing Thomas had read The Girl in the Yellow Dress. I certainly didn’t want to hear his critique of it. Why had it never occurred to me that they would read it?