She rolls her eyes. ‘Jesus what is wrong with the female population. Treat them like shit and they want you even more.’
‘Not all of them.’ I trace the path of her jawline, loving the way her eyelids flutter from my touch. As far as I know, she’s the only woman who’s ever reacted to my touch that way and that’s because she’s the only woman I’ve paid enough attention to, to notice her in reactions in that much detail. ‘That’s one of the first things that attracted me to you – because my shit didn’t work on you.’ I give her a half-smile. ‘I was drawn to the fact that I seemed to annoy the shit out of you whenever I opened my mouth. Well, that and the fact that you were so fucking sexy and I couldn’t stop thinking about fucking the shit out of you.’ I give her a full smile now as she rolls her eyes. ‘See those are my lines. Not too impressive, right?’
She shakes her head, but then wraps her arms around me and presses her lips to mine, giving me a quick, but deep kiss. I nip on her lip as she pulls away.
‘We better get going.’ She looks at the clock on the nightstand. ‘Or we’ll be late picking up your dad and Trevor.’
‘Yeah, you’re right.’ I collect my wallet from the nightstand then start toward the door, but she grabs my hand and draws me back to her.
‘Are you going to be okay with this?’ she asks. ‘With them being here. I mean, I know we spent that time at their house, but this feels a little different.’
No, not at all. ‘Yeah, I’m good.’
She’s right. This is different. When Violet and I went to their house, it was to hideout. Yeah, my dad and I talked and everything, but most of my time was spent on taking care of Violet. This is just a plain and simple visit, to hangout, chat, have dinner, spend time together. It’s strange and unnatural and something I’m completely not used to. But all I can do is cross my fingers that it’ll be okay.
That everything will be okay.
We’re about fifteen minutes late picking them up, but my dad seems happy with me just showing up, like he expected me not to. When I pull up to the curb, park and get out, he comes up and gives me this awkward hug while Violet helps Trevor put the suitcases in the trunk. After they’re finished, my dad pulls away, giving me this strange, almost choked up look and I can’t help but think: fuck, is he going to cry? Thankfully, he doesn’t and steps back to give me a good look.
‘I swear you’ve grown taller,’ he says to me with a smile. My dad is about four or five inches shorter than me, medium build, with thinning brown hair. He likes to wear a lot of jeans and t-shirts, nothing business-like, something I learned when we were in San Diego.
‘I’m twenty years old,’ I tell him. ‘I stopped growing like five years ago.’
His smile falters, but he quickly recovers and steps back to let Trevor give me a handshake. ‘It’s good to see you again, Luke,’ he says. Trevor is closer to my height with blond hair and he likes to wear a lot of button down shirts, so pretty much the opposite of my father.
‘You too.’ I really don’t know what to say. Trevor and I don’t know each other very well at all. We’ve only met the one time and he was working a lot, so we maybe had like ten conversations tops.
Trevor releases my hand and steps back, opening his mouth to say something when my father walks up to Violet and pulls her in for a hug. I can tell it startles the shit out of her by the way she goes tense as a board. She manages to pull herself together enough, though, to give him a one-handed hug.
‘It’s so good to see you,’ my dad says as he frees Violet from the hug. ‘Both of you.’
Violet shuffles back from him toward the curb and starts fidgeting with her cast, scratching her fingernails up and down on it, staring off at the doors of the airport. There’s not much to look at, though, hardly any people coming in and out since it’s a small airport and it’s in the middle of the afternoon. I’m guessing there’s some sort of emotion building in her and she’s trying to keep it together.
‘Yeah, good to see you too.’ I give Violet’s hand a squeeze. She doesn’t look at me, but she does inch closer. ‘Should we hit the road?’ I ask.
My father nods then opens the back door of Seth’s Camry. While they’re climbing in, I open the passenger side door for Violet and when she starts to duck in to climb inside, I place my hand on the small of her back, stopping her. Putting my lips beside her ear, I whisper, ‘Everything okay?’
She nods then lowers herself into the seat. ‘Yeah, everything’s fine.’
I don’t believe her, but now’s not the time to press. I round the car, get in and drive down the road toward the center of town where Trevor and my father are staying for the next three nights. The keep making comments about how small and quaint the town is, but Laramie is anything but quaint. Yes it’s low in population, but it doesn’t have that old-fashion, homey look to it. And the wind blows like a motherfucker; the winter’s cold enough to freeze your balls off if you stayed outdoors for too long.
Violet barely says anything the entire drive, staring out the window like the sights are fascinating, like she hasn’t seen them a thousand times. Once we drop my father and Trevor off, I head back to the apartment until we head out for dinner in a few hours.
Finally, her silence gets to be too much and I turn down the volume of the stereo. ‘What are you thinking about?’
‘The many complications and complexities that make up my life,’ she responds without so much as a glance in my direction.
‘Was it the hug?’ I ask. ‘Did it get to you?’
She breathes heavy enough that it fogs the window in front of her face. ‘I don’t want to have a pity party.’ She turns her head toward me. ‘Or feel sorry for myself.’
‘You have every right to feel bad over stuff,’ I tell her, slowing the car down to a stop at a red light.
She shakes her head. ‘No, I need to get over it. I want to, you know.’
‘Want to what?’
‘Get over getting worked up over everything.’ She slumps back in the seat and props her boots up on the dashboard, looking straight ahead. ‘Stop getting worked up over simple things like getting a flipping hug … it’s just that it’s been a while, you know …’ Her head slants to the side as she dazes off, her hair curtain around her face. ‘Since someone’s hugged me. I mean, I know you do, but …’ she shrugs. ‘I honestly have no idea what my point is. I guess I’m just rambling.’ She waves it off, wanting to dismiss the conversation. ‘Ignore me.’