My Bad Boy

Chapter twenty five

Kayla is nerves.

I can tell by the way she bites her lip and plays with her hands as if  they can be her only redemption. She keeps running her hands through the strip of purple in her hair and she sighs every five seconds as if holding her breath is too much.

I grip the steering wheel harder as I try to navigate through the snow. When it snowed in Michigan it was enough to make you wish you never had to see the outside world again.

People all around huddle into their heavy coats and kids jump into slush puddles, laughing when snow lips at their boots and soak their jeans.

I snuggle deeper in my sweater, trying to not to comment on Kayla’s nerves as I focus on the road ahead of me.

But when she starts to run her hands over her knees back and forth, so many times I’m scared she might wear a hole in her jeans, I finally talk.

“Don’t worry Kayla. Everything is going to be ... okay.” I wanted to say fine. That everything was going to be perfectly fine, but I can’t. I remember how I broke that one promise to her about our grandpa and I wasn’t about to revisit the past.

I was about to go back on a promise I can’t keep.

The truth is I know everything is not going to be okay. Sure I can hold out hope but even that was futile to hope for.

I just knew the moment my mothers eyes landed on Kayla there was bound to be a snide comment. And with a snide comment came confirmation from both ends.

I just wished for once I could be the butt of her ridicule, but that spot was reserved for Kayla.

I reach over and squeeze her knee with reassurance. We could do this. We have lived with my mom for nineteen years. What makes this any different? But when Kayla looks up at me I can see she was thinking the same thing that kept sneaking it’s way into my mind.

Things sadly were different. Rather we wanted to acknowledge it or not.

We haven’t been home for months now and I think the time away as made her and I see a different understanding of the way the world works.

We have kind of matured in a way and even if Kayla was still the same reckless person she was when we were still in highschool, for some reason it’s just different.

I shake my head. I really needed to stop worrying about things that I just couldn’t change. Maybe I needed to take a vacation or something. Who knows? For all I know maybe our mother has changed too. Maybe time away from us has changed her for the better.

I’m looking forward, trying my hardest not to run my car into the trucks tailgate in front of me, when I hear the familiar chime of my phone. I frown and glance down at it laying on the counsel and when I go to reach for it, Kayla beats me to it.

“Give it back.” I try to reach for it again but she holds it away from me, her hands pulling up the text message on my screen. I try to focus on her and the road at the same time but it turns out harder than I realize. Sighing in annoyance, I bring my hand back to the steering wheel and give it a little squeeze.

“Who in the hell is Nick? Wait...”

She frowns, moving her eyes away from my phone and back to me. I grimace a little under her scrutinizing gaze and try to just focus on the road.

Yeah, that turned out harder than it looked.

“He’s that guy from England isn’t he? Kelsey, what the hell are you doing?” Her eyes turn into one of concern and I take the moment to snatch my phone.

She doesn’t see it coming and she jerked in surprise and the phone slips from her hand. I catch it before it can fall and my eyes scan the screen quickly.

When I see the message, my heart sinks.

I knew this was going to happen. I knew the moment I agreed to go to that stupid event Nick would think more of it than what it really was. But since I was caught up in the ‘Julio’ thing, I wasn’t really concerned with his feelings.

Now I feel like an ass. No scratch that, I was worse than an ass for using him like that. I press the brake at a red light and rest my head on the steering wheel. Oh Karma was an evil little thing sometimes.

I vowed a long time ago I would never be one of those people who used others for her own gain. My past is a major reason for that. I knew what it was like to have your feelings played with and I never wanted to be the one on the other side.

But now, look where I was.

No, I’m not saying I broke Nicks heart. Far from. But it was still wrong to do that to him. I let out a deep breath at the same time a car blows its horn behind me. I quickly pull myself out of my self-pity and put my foot back on the gas pedal.

I would deal with Nick when break was over.