“Oh.”
“I don’t know why you’re so upset with me right now, Darby, and usually I wouldn’t care, but for some reason, I do. We’re stuck in this shit situation for a little while longer. Let’s at least…make it bearable. Come for a walk with me, and I’ll tell the sad tale of Kendrick’s life and how I became Rebel. Then, maybe you can see I’m not the antichrist and maybe we can be friends or whatever.”
Slowly, she nodded. “Okay, I’d like that.”
“First, I need a shower, so let me do that and I’ll come and get you.”
She nodded and sat back down on her bed. I backed out of the room, unsure if she was going to lash out at me again or if I was in the safe zone. When she didn’t throw anything, I ran down the hall and had the quickest hot shower of my life before her mood changed on me again.
Darby
Rebel was silent as we walked together through the woods, climbing over tree trunks with ease like he was built to do it. We walked in silence as I let the emotional hurricane raging inside me calm down. Ithad been irrational to act the way I did when I smelt the perfume on his shirt. He’d saved me from falling on my ass and I’d gone full bitch mode.
Granted, his reaction afterward had only fuelled the mega bitch to rise up, ready to rip him a new one. I couldn’t stay mad at him though, he was forced to be here with me and he obviously didn’t have much in the way of knowledge about women.
“I’m sorry,” I said suddenly. “I don’t know why I lost it at you earlier.”
“Why did you get mad in the kitchen?”
I sighed and sat down on a fallen tree that was practically a log now. He sat next to me and waited for me to speak. He was so patient, it killed me. I just wish he spoke more, and not just when I was a raging lunatic and he was defending himself.
“There’s a lot of things in my mind,” I told him. “I guess smelling the perfume on you when you caught me just reminded me that I’m stuck here without any way of entertainment, that I am virtually a prisoner because my own family wants to use and abuse me. I lucked out on the family draw, huh?”
All he did was nod, but I felt like an understanding was passing between us. I couldn’t say how I knew but I did. He had a dark past, I could see it in his eyes, maybe one even to rival my own. I felt like I needed to know everything about him. A strong emotion tobe sure, and one I wasn’t sure I was ready to admit was forming into something else.
“You did,” he replied finally. “I’m sorry your family are shit. Tell me what you need, to entertain you, and I’ll make sure we have it. I know this is a hard situation, but I don’t want you to suffer needlessly.”
“It’s okay, Rebel, really. Crap, it feels weird to call you that. Can I call you Kendrick?”
A slow smile played on his lips and boy did that just send blood rushing to the top of my thighs.
“You can, but only when it’s just you and me.”
I liked that a lot. “Deal.”
We sat there for a little while longer before he said he needed to show me something. I followed him back toward the house.
“If you don’t mind…I could really use a cocktail tomorrow night…maybe pancakes in the morning?” I asked as he keyed in the code and I headed inside.
“Uh…yeah,” he said. “I could organise something like cocktails, but I don’t know how to make them. That’s Shona’s thing.”
“They have pre-mixes now,” I giggled. “Just a couple, it’ll give me something to celebrate with.”
“Celebrate?” he asked, moving over to the counter and looking through the pantry. “What are we celebrating?”
“Well, I don’t know about you, Kendrick, but I’ll be celebrating my birthday.”
He turned back around so quickly, I was surprised he didn’t get dizzy and fall down. “Tomorrow is your birthday?”
I nodded. “Yeah, twenty years old…officially not a teenager anymore.”
The fact that I hadn’t felt like a teenager since I was fifteen just made that statement laughable.
“Fuck…and you’re stuck here…”
“It’s not so bad,” I smiled at him. “You’re growing on me…and if you make me pancakes in the morning, I’ll forever be grateful. I usually have cake for breakfast…a tradition I picked up from a very early age, but pancakes will be even better.”
“You got it,” he said, a small smirk playing on his lips. “Any particular sides you want with them?”
