When We Collide Page 5

  ~

  What the hell? I blinked, trying to orient myself to the surroundings, unable to do so before I was pummeled in the face a second time. With a pillow.

  Ugh.

  He was so gonna pay when I wasn’t so damned tired. But for now, I was desperate for some more sleep. Burying my face in the safety of my pillow, I groaned and turned my back on the would-be attacker.

  “Go away.”

  Blake just laughed, loud and without remorse, and hit me again. “Wakey wakey, little brother.”

  I rolled to my back, dragging the pillow with me to shield my face, mumbling into the dense fabric. “What time is it?”

  “Nine.”

  I groaned again. “No way, man. I need some more sleep. I didn’t get in until almost three last night.”

  Blake ripped the pillow from my grip. I was blinded by a sudden burst of sunlight I’d hoped not to be faced with for at least another couple of hours. I squinted up at my brother who stood above me with a ridiculous grin plastered on his face, then pressed my fists to my eyes.

  “Come on, Blake.” I’d beg if I had to.

  “Mom’s making breakfast. Quit being such a baby and get your ass downstairs,” Blake said as he tossed both pillows to the foot of my bed. “Everybody’s waiting for you.”

  Sounds from the kitchen directly below filtered into my room, the running of water and the clatter of dishes. The distinct smell of bacon frying jarred my senses.

  I sat up, running a hand through the tangled mess on my head. “Okay…okay, I’m up.”

  Clapping a hand on my shoulder, the grin on Blake’s face softened to a smile. “Welcome home, Will.”

  I glanced up at my older brother and smiled. “Thanks.”

  Blake just nodded once and headed out the door.

  Heaving out a weighty breath, I pushed the tiredness aside. My mom would have been up with the first hint of morning, and I knew it had probably taken every ounce of willpower she had to wait until nine before she sent Blake up to wake me.

  I pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms and a plain black tee and started downstairs. A sudden sense of belonging struck me with the voices coming from the kitchen.

  It’d been no secret I planned on moving away from Mississippi permanently once I graduated from UCLA. I’d always wanted the big city and a fast life. I was going to be the one who escaped this small town, the one with a huge house and a bank account to match. But the older I got, the more I had begun to question those intentions. I had begun to miss my life here, and each day, those goals seemed to become less and less important. Really, I couldn’t imagine not having this.

  I paused at the archway of the kitchen to take them in. At the table, my dad was buried in the pages of the morning paper while he ate breakfast, and Blake sat beside him, shoveling food in his mouth while he talked to our mother. She stood at the stove, facing away, pouring pancake batter into a hot skillet while chatting with my brother from behind.

  It was Aunt Lara who noticed me first. She was leaning with her back against the kitchen counter, sipping coffee from the giant mug I had made for her for Christmas years before, back when I was just a kid. A smile slid over her face when she saw me, lit all the way up to her eyes.

  “Well, look who’s finally up,” she said with a bit of a tease. “We thought you were going to sleep away the entire day.” Her expression was soft, her brown eyes glinting in humor, though that humor could never cover the way she adored me and Blake.

  I offered a sleepy, “Mornin’,” to the room.

  Dad and Blake looked up from their places at the table.

  Mom released an ecstatic, “Oh,” as she turned and clapped her hands over her mouth. For a couple of beats she bounced on her toes as if gaining momentum, then rushed across the room and threw her arms around my neck. “I’m so glad you’re home.”

  I hugged her close, muttering into her neck. “Missed you, Mom.”

  She squeezed me tighter. “You can’t imagine how much I’ve missed you.” She leaned back so she could see my face and then suddenly grinned and squeezed my chin. “Look at my baby boy…all grown up.”

  I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Mom, it’s only been five months since you saw me last. I doubt I’ve really changed all that much.”

  Waving me off, she laughed quietly as she stood aside so Aunt Lara could step in to take her turn. She giggled when she wrapped me up in a suffocating hug.

  “Don’t mind your mother, Will. Glenda is sure getting emotional in her old age.” She shot my mom a playful glare. “And she could hardly stand it that she missed your twenty-first birthday.”

  “Oh hush, Lara.” Mom laughed, pointing an accusatory finger in her sister’s direction. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t sit over here with me on his birthday crying that our little Will was all grown up.”

  Embarrassed by the spectacle they were making over me, I dropped my gaze to the ground and shook my head, chuckling under my breath. They always made a big fuss every time I came back for a visit. I used to hate it, but now, not so much.

  Still laughing, Aunt Laura shifted to my side to wrap her arm around my waist. She smiled up in my direction. She always played the tough one, but I knew she was as soft as they came.

  A gruff voice cut into their banter. “All right you two…leave the poor boy alone before you go and run him off again.”

  “Hey, Dad,” I said as I wiggled out of Aunt Lara’s hold and crossed the room. He stood as I approached.

  He extended his hand, a wry smile lifting only one side of his face. We shook hands and he patted me twice on the shoulder. “Glad you’re home, son.”

  I nodded and took the seat beside him. “Thanks...glad to be here.”

  Conversation filled the room as the five of us shared breakfast. A million questions were thrown my way about the last semester, complete with the expected good-natured badgering I’d come to expect.

  Yes, I’d passed all of my finals, and my grades were good. No, I hadn’t met anyone worth telling them about. Nope, I still had no clue what I was going to do with my Bachelors in Accounting when I graduated next year.

  Blake filled me in on everything that had happened while I was away, told me work was great, and he’d been saving to buy his own place. Said he had a new girl. When he told me who, I teased him that I’d known her my whole life, and maybe I should have had the first shot with her. Blake didn’t hesitate to smack me on the back of the head, ushering in a round of our usual jest.

  We laughed and joked, and, once again, I found myself thinking how great it was to be home.

  ~

  “Come on, man, hurry up,” Blake yelled up from the bottom of the stairs, impatience seeded in each word. “I told Grace we’d be there to pick her up five minutes ago.”

  “I’ll be down in a second,” I shouted over my shoulder in the direction of the door as I pulled a clean tee over my head. I was still dripping from my shower. Why I’d let Blake goad me into this, I had no idea. All I wanted was a couple of days to unwind from the trip, to sit and vege, but Blake was already carting me off to a party the first night I was home. Blake had guilted me into going by telling me to consider it a welcome home party because all of my old friends would be there. He’d then pushed me toward the stairs, warning me we were leaving in fifteen minutes, shower or not.

  “Don’t make me come up there and drag your ass down here.”

  I didn’t even respond. I just shoved my feet into a pair of Converse and ran a hand through my wet hair, wishing I was crawling into bed instead.

  It’d been established years ago I would do just about anything for my brother.

  At the door, we called out a goodbye, and Mom popped her head out of the kitchen archway. “You two have fun…and be safe.”

  I couldn’t remember a time I’d left the house that she hadn’t issued the same warning.

  I climbed into Blake’s truck, my feet dragging. The cab smacked with the odor of dirt and sweat and hard work. The old, beat-
up truck roared when he turned the engine over.

  Grace’s house was only about five minutes away in a neighborhood almost identical to ours. She waited on her parents’ porch with an excited smile on her face. Blake let the truck idle as he hopped out and ran up to her, swung her around and hugged her close, kissed her hard. I had to turn away from how intimate their interaction seemed and stare down at my fingers, but I couldn’t stop the smile from taking hold, glad my brother seemed so happy.

  Climbing in on Blake’s side, Grace settled in the small space between us. I moved as far away as I could and pressed myself up against the door to give her room.

  She grinned at me as she put on her seatbelt.

  “Hey, Will. It’s great to see you.” She spoke in a casual way, as if we’d been close friends all our lives, even though we hadn’t talked since graduation. I liked that about her, remembered how genuinely kind she’d always seemed.

  I smiled. “Good to see you, too. How’ve you been?”

  For two beats, she turned her attention to where her hand was clasped with Blake’s on her lap, then looked up at me with a shy, satisfied smile. “Really good.”

  Blake drove to the outskirts of town and down a stretch of what felt like an abandoned two-lane road lined with towering evergreens. Streaks of bright orange light fanned in rays to the heavens as the sun began its descent westward, giving way to pinks and blues. The horizon blazed for one last moment before the sun completely sank out of view. An easy silence fell over us as we traveled, Grace’s head resting on Blake’s shoulder, my mind carried away by thoughts of just how easy this was. How simple this life could be. How right being here felt.

  Blake slowed and took a sharp right onto a barely visible dirt road. The truck bounced along the path that had been carved out by the slow turn of tires, the headlights illuminating the grasses that grew tall straight down the middle and slapped against the truck’s front fender. Spindly trees grew along both sides of the road, full and green with the approaching summer. Ahead the trees broke and opened up to a field. Flames from a bonfire rose high at the center.

  We’d come here for years, no question the generations before us had too, our own secluded spot hidden away from parents and authority. It wasn’t lost on me that all of us in the truck had outgrown the need to hide, but this was what we’d always done, and I doubted any of us found the need to change that now.

  Blake pulled his truck up close to the line of trees on the left and threw it in park.

  A small group had gathered around the rising fire, sitting on old fallen tree trunks that had been dragged in from the forest bed years before.

  Tugging the door open, I jumped from the truck, surprised by the rush of anticipation I felt with seeing my old friends, with the thought of spending the night hanging out with my brother.

  I was suddenly glad Blake had talked me into this.

  I helped Blake haul the cooler of ice and beer from the back of his truck. We laughed as Blake reminisced about one of the many times we’d been here and the trouble we’d caused. We set the cooler beside one of the old oak trunks that lay decaying around the fire. Names and dates had been carved into the wood, covering almost all of its exposed body. Grabbing a beer, I leaned against the taller end of the log and traced a finger over the spot where I’d whittled my initials when I was a freshman in high school. I shook my head, chuckling at the ridiculous things we had done when we were kids.

  Tonight’s crowd was small, just a few of my old friends and some of the guys Blake hung out with now. Most of them sat with a girl resting between their knees, smiles on their faces. Laughter was in no short supply as the evening was spent telling stories of their past, as if we were spending one last night clinging to our youth.

  Grinning from across the fire, Blake held his beer up in my direction. Grace sat on his lap and he had his free arm wrapped around her shoulder and across her chest. She held onto it with both hands, as if an anchor. I smiled and tipped my can back in Blake’s direction, a silent cheer.

  I couldn’t help but think this felt good.

  Really good.

  Several cars came and the party grew just as the level of voices did. People gathered around the fire, some standing behind the logs talking, others sitting crossed-legged in front of the logs right in front of the fire, while a few had collected in small groups along the outskirts.

  I looked behind me when headlights broke apart the darkness and a loud truck rumbled into the clearing. It parked sideways at the base of the road, the small area nearly at capacity. Kurt stepped out from the behind the wheel, an old teammate of Blake’s from football. His brother Troy, who was just a year younger than Kurt, climbed out from the passenger side.

  Groaning, I turned my face to the star-filled sky and drained my beer.

  Troy was the biggest asshole I knew. He’d always been cocky, thought better of myself than he was, and treated everyone around him like shit. The guy had taken it upon himself to make my elementary school years miserable, taunting my friends and me every chance he got. Then one day it’d stopped and I’d never heard another word from him. It hadn’t occurred to me at the time, but I’d put money down now that Blake had intervened. It’d just shifted Troy’s attention, though, his mockery turned to other easy prey. He was like a classic afternoon-special—the bully kid with the belligerent, alcoholic father. Most everyone seemed to tolerate him because of it, but the guy won no soft spots with me.

  Kurt and Troy shouted hellos at the crowd as the tailgate of their truck moaned and clanked as it dropped open. Troy’s voice was loud and obnoxious when he approached, exactly as I remembered it to be, as if he were begging to be seen. They appeared at the far end of the crowd, dragging a cooler toward the fire.

  I glanced toward the commotion they caused.

  It was then I saw her. I had a vague sense of familiarity, as if I should know her, though I couldn’t place where she fit into the web of this little town. She shuffled behind Troy as he pulled her along by the hand. Long waves of auburn hair hid her face, her attention on the ground as she stumbled over thick patches of grass and broken branches. She was petite, not extremely thin, but somehow appeared...delicate...as if something were just waiting to break. Or maybe she was already broken.

  I frowned at the unbidden thought and popped the cap to another can of beer, forcing myself to look away. But it was no use. In just those few seconds of contemplation, I had felt a pang of something, felt something I’d never felt before stirring deep inside of me. I couldn’t resist the urge to seek her out. My eyes followed Troy as he wove them through the groups of people and stopped to shake guys’ hands who sat around the fire. I watched the girl avert her gaze when he did.

  She appeared as if she wanted to hide, only offering shy hellos and subdued smiles when she was spoken to. At those times, I would catch glimpses of soft, round cheeks, the skin a rosy pink, lips so dark they were almost red, and once in a while, when I got really lucky, I saw the briefest flashes of warm chocolate eyes.

  Stupid, I rebuked myself. There were fifteen other girls here I could sidle up to, flirt with, maybe take for a walk into the seclusion of the dense forest capped with the shelter of night. I’d enjoy myself for the hour, just as I always did, and I’d be sure she enjoyed herself too.

  And here I was, eyeing the girl who was here with the one guy in the world I couldn’t stand.

  Attempting to force the foolish notion aside, I turned my attention to an old friend sitting beside me and tried to listen to him recount the story of a bar fight he’d seen the weekend before, but my ear was captured by the sound of a gentle voice, no more than a whisper, a soft blanket of warmth.

  I was helpless to do anything but give in, and I tipped my beer to my mouth and stole a sideways glance in her direction. She sat on the ground close to the fire. Her knees were pulled to her chest, her movements slow and rhythmic as she rocked herself and talked quietly with the girl next to her.

  Troy sat on the log behind he
r with his legs possessively stretched out on either side of her.

  I had to look away from the two of them to deflect the jab of envy that sliced into my chest. I went for my third beer, wondering what the hell had gotten into me.

  Time wore on and everyone seemed to become lulled by fire. Voices lowered, the atmosphere tempered, and spirits mellowed. The fire popped and cracked, spewed sparks into the air as the logs burned, crumbled to coal, glowed red embers.

  From across the fire, Blake and Grace were wrapped up in each other again, lingering kisses and whispered words, as if everyone there had evaporated and they were the only two who remained.

  A pang of jealousy flared.

  The shake of my head was almost imperceptible as I chugged the last of my beer, thinking maybe—maybe I was ready for it.

  With that realization, I involuntarily looked at her, drawn for the first time in my life. Of course I’d been attracted to girls before, but this was different. Stronger. Something I didn’t entirely understand.

  Like the rest, she was mesmerized, silent as she stared unseeing into the fire. Flames licked up toward the sky, casting glinting shadows against her eyes. They lit and danced—a slow dance that burned with the intensity and sadness of someone many years older than the girl I guessed she must be.

  Stupid, I thought again. But I couldn’t help but think she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.

  Her eyes flicked up from under her hair, and she caught me staring. She dropped her gaze and hugged her knees closer, although she couldn’t hide the shy smile ridging the edge of her mouth and the redness that tinted her cheeks before she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and ducked her head.

  Oh God, I hadn’t even gotten a good look at her face, and all I could think about was what it’d feel like to kiss her.

  What the hell was she doing with an asshole like Troy? The guy was a complete fake. I’d seen over the years how he’d tried chum up with my brother and his friends, acting the cool guy, but he was always the first to start a fight. He was trouble. How could she not see through his bullshit?