East Of Eden

Chapter 17

Authors Note: I can't believe how close I'm getting to the end! There is only 7 chapters left! I don't want it to end, but at the same time I want you guys to see how it ends. There is going to be a second book FYI! Love you all! Also I am going to editing a lot of the previous chapters!

April

One more month. I have one more month left until I have to leave home. It's the end of April only a few more days until the start of May. I haven't told Kaleb anything about me leaving and my trip back home at the end of May. I don't even want to go home so soon. Happiness creeps in every time I open my eyes. My reality is better than my dreams. I feel like when I leave back home I'm going to awake from a dream. Sometimes I catch myself thinking that I'm going to wake up one day and I'll be in my room back home.

Kaleb and I have been dating for a couple months now and everything is going perfect. We see each mostly everyday. The day we can't see each other we talk on the phone. He makes me feel alive and it's been a long time since I've felt this way about a guy. Nathan keeps popping in my head. Not as often as it did before I met Kaleb, but sometimes. When I'm with Kaleb I won't picture him, just when I'm alone and I think. I ask myself everyday if I miss him or if I am still in love with him, but honestly I can't come up with an answer. I know that I'm falling in love Kaleb. Every time I see him, or when I'm in arms, or I kiss him I go deeper and deeper. The day I fall completely is the day I'll ask myself if I still love Nathan and I'll go from there.

My phone rings and I pick it up as I set my empty coffee cup on the counter. "Hello?" I pour coffee to the top. The steam floats in the air. "Morning." Kaleb's raspy voice says through the line. "Morning." I giggle. "Mm I miss you so much." He tells me. "I do too." I whine and take a sip of my coffee. I walk out to the porch with a Literature textbook around my arm. I place myself at the dark brown coffee nook along with my coffee and the heavy material. "Well I'm coming back in a couple weeks and we'll go out. I'll take you to dinner and we can go back to your house." He assures me. "You've only been gone one day and it's been miserable. Now I won't see you until mid May!" I groan. "I know. I can't wait to get back and kiss you....and touch you." He says seductively. "Kaleb..." I laugh. He laughs and says, "what are you going to do today?" "I need to go to town to pick up some groceries later, but right now I'm sipping on my coffee and studying a little." I respond. For a few weeks I have been reading. I've been doing assignments online and and taking notes, even some quizzes. It feels good to do some academic work. It feels like the wheels in my brain are turning. I would have never thought that I would actually enjoy doing school work, but I miss it. And doing it in own house on my own terms makes it so much simpler and enjoyable. I debated on asking Beth Vanderwaal to help me since she was a professor at LSU, but decided against it. I don't want to get anymore involved with her until I tell Nathan and Will. Me and Kaleb hang up the phone after some conversation.

After an hour of reading, I close my book and start to get ready to head to town to get some things that kitchen needs. I pull a loose white creme tank over some shorts along with some sandals and I fling my hair up into a messy ponytail.

I brush my teeth and jump into my car and drive to town. The drive is short and before I know it I'm pulling up to the farmers market. The chatter of people talking about personal things in sounded throughout the whole place. Mrs. Manda approaches me and gives me a side hug. "Haven't been down here for a while." She tells. "I know that's why I desperately needed to come today." I joke. "Kaleb has you locked up in that house of yours." She keeps the light conversation. "Well now that's he out of town I'm free." I laugh. She laughs with me and says, "Why is he out of town?" "He's doing work. He's going to different lakes across the state and stalking them." I explain. "When's he coming back?" She asks. "In two weeks." I sternly say. "I hate it." I state. "Well he's a grown man, with a job and it's just how adult life works." She tells me. I can't help but hear the judgement in her tone. Everyone knows that me and Kaleb are dating and everyone knows that he is ten years older than me. I thought everyone wouldn't really care, but apparently some people do. "Is it wrong?" I bravely say. "What?" "That he is so much older than me." I tell her. I'm not going to be that person anymore, who just lets people say stuff and not doing anything back. "What? No honey. I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you need to understand that he's older and it's just something you have to get used to." She explains herself. I let a deep breath. "I know, sorry." I apologize. She just nods, a sympathetic nod. She gives me a last hug before she disappears into the town square. I turn around and pull a brown paper bag to start to load on groceries. Visiting the fruit stand has my bag already almost full so I patter back to truck to put it inside. As I'm walking, a very familiar voice booms through my ears and my blood runs cold and I freeze in place. "Holly?" Amy calls to me. I turn my head and Amy fucking Woods is standing there with a speechless expression. I'm chocking on my breath and I can't believe that Amy is standing in front of me. She walks closer to me. "Oh my God." She says. "Oh my God, what the hell just happened?" She continues and looks at the ground. "Hi." Is all I can think of to say. "I seriously can't believe that you're standing in front of me." She runs her forehead out of disbelief. She doesn't say anything else but pulls me into a very tight hug. He breathing is fast and she says through my hair, "I can't believe you're right here." She sobs on my shoulder. "And your hair is short and lighter." She points out. "What are you doing here?" I return the hug. Her familiar scent is welcoming and I squeeze tighter. "I'm here touring LSU with my sister!" She reveals. "Hanna is here?" I ask. "Yeah, but she is at the hotel. I came just to look around." She explains. "Is this where you have been for the part serval months?" She questions. "Yeah." I admit. "Holly... You need to come home." She demands. "I am coming home. Soon, during the summer." I don't give her specifics. "Why? Why here? Why did you leave?" She shoots a million questions at me, but I don't blame her.

"I'll tell you everything. Do you think you can come with me for a couple of hours?" I ask her. "Yeah, let me just tell my sister." She says. "No! Don't tell her anything. You can't tell anyone, anything!" I screech. "Okay...okay. I won't tell." She promises. "I'll just tell my sister that I'm going spend the afternoon at the park." She explains. "Okay." Is all I say.

After I finish buying my groceries and have loaded it in my truck me and Amy drive off back to my house to tell her everything she needs to know.