Accidentally Saved

Chapter Twenty One

Grace’s POV

I stepped into the kitchen and pulled out my phone, dialing my mom’s number.

“This is Helen,” she answered on the third ring.

“Hey, Mom, it’s Grace. Sorry I haven’t been home, I’ve been at Kate’s working on homework,” I bit my lip out of nervous habit. I hated lying to my parents, but there was no way they would let me stay over at Ian’s.

“Oh, hi honey. Just let us know next time, okay?” She told me through the phone, her voice steady. I began nodding, not wanting to test my shaky voice, but I realized soon after the other line had been silent for a while that she couldn’t see me.

“Yeah, I will but do you mind if I stay over at Kate’s for a while? She’s going through kind of a hard time and needs someone right now,” I said, praying in the back of my mind that she would believe this lie.

“Of course. Just be back by curfew,” Mom said.

“Uh, okay. Thanks Mom, bye, love you,” I rambled out before hanging up the phone and running my hand through my hair, not wanting to talk to my mom anymore.

“Hey, you alright?” Ian asked me from the doorway.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” I laughed nervously. I hate lying. Ian raised an eyebrow at me as if to say he didn’t believe me, but he let it go.

“If you say so,” he shrugged. “Do you want to get started now, or, I could go order a pizza or something…” he trailed off. I breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t push me about explaining my phone call.

“Yeah, that sounds great,” I smiled. “I’ll go grab some garbage bags and windex and we can start.” He held out a hand, stopping me, and grabbing the supplies himself.

“TAAA DAAA!” he yells and pulls out a large bucket of supplies, sending me into fits of giggles while I sift through the bin. I shrug as Ian tells me something about the gloves I handed him fitting for clowns, but my mind is sent back to a memory of John and I blowing up the gloves into balloons, laughing. I notice a grin growing on his face as I laugh at the memory and feel butterflies erupt in my stomach under his smile.

I love it when he smiled like that.

--

"So since our last try at this didn't work, do you want to play twenty questions again?” I offered while picking up a Corona bottle from the stained carpet, setting it into the garbage bag I had in my hand. He nods as I grab a Jack Daniels bottle and shoot it into the garbage can across the room, landing it perfectly.

“THREE POINTS!” I yell and throw my hands in the air in victory. I blush when I see Ian laughing at me.

“First question,” he begins, and I laugh with him. “Favorite sport?” he asks, even though it’s pretty obvious seeing what just happened.

“I used to play all the time, and I loved being the only girl on my team because I could boss the other boys around. But when I got older and school became harder, I dropped it. My parents always said academics must come before anything else and so I decided it would be easier to focus only on school, instead of fun..." I looked down at my feet. Basketball was one of my favorite things to do, but, like I told Ian, my parents said I needed to focus more on school work, so I did, and I had regretted the decision ever since.

We continued to ask each other cliche questions until I thought of the perfect time to ask the question I had been wondering for a while.

“When’s your birthday? And how old will you be?” I ask.