Broken Pieces

Chapter twenty

After an unconscious glare in Caden's direction for his unwanted presence, I turned in the direction of my room mumbling about being tired.

The anger I was feeling was making me angrier because I couldn't understand it. Caden shouldn't have the ability to affect me by his presence months after he rejected me. That's if what happened could be called a rejection.

His brothers and cousin could have forced him to come but I expected that even if they made him come he shouldn't have accepted. I scoffed at the thought though because I doubt Caden could be forced to do anything he didn't want to do.

I tried to understand my anger. It had nothing to do with the kiss, it was about…okay maybe it was about the kiss. I was just so confused that all I could do was stare at my ceiling while lying on my bed.

I had managed to not really think about him for months now. As that thought came through, I knew it was a lie because if really-not-thought about him was thoughts of him coming more than a couple dozen times while I tried my best to push them away. Then, I had no idea what really thinking about him entailed.

The Erica that I knew wouldn't be thinking of Caden normally and that made me ask myself what was so special in Caden.

I told him things that I naturally didn't talk about but that didn't really surprise me as I had noticed that I talked more to people that aren't close to me. People who I knew that I would never meet again or would never tell another soul.

I think what made me attracted to Caden was the fact that he was different. But that was in the past, I was no longer attracted to him, at least if I was I wouldn't be so angry to see him.

I knew deep down that thinking from Caden’s perspective, he probably wanted nothing to do with me and had wanted to let me down easy back at his house but I also knew there was more to it than that.

My musings were cut off by someone barging into my room. Andrea. I knew instinctively without looking up and I was trying to decide if I should pretend like I was asleep or to just ignore her.

“I know you can see me standing here.”

There was nothing she could want to say than for me to come out of my room to hang out with everyone. It wouldn't be the first time, she always did it when she brought her friends home but now that they were our friends. I would never get out of it as usual.

“I can't actually see you though.” I said while still staring at my ceiling.

“Seriously? Erica,” I rolled my eyes at her tone.

I got up with a groan, my body protesting the movement. It confirmed how tired I was. “What do you want, Andrea? I’m really tired and just want to sleep.”

“That's what I have been saying. You need to stop working so much. Even though you are now a popular designer.”

My face immediately scrunched up in irritation. Andrea laughed at the look on my face and I ended up laughing with her.

“I can't help it. I love annoying you because it is not that easy. You always get angry at little things that aren't even worth it but when something big happens you easily get over it.”

My face fell as her words made me think of certain things. Andrea noticed and shook her head. “Don't go there Erica. I was talking about this and I don't want you to give it a deeper meaning than it deserves, Char.”

I snorted at that and her brows furrowed before she laughed again. “Kevin has put the words in my mouth.”

I chortled. “Yeah, I am sure that is the only thing he put in your mouth.”