We finally pulled up next to Danny’s car and Lucas ran round to open the door for me. I stretched up and kissed him, making him smile. Lucas and Danny slapped hands. There was some girl here with him, too, but she looked nothing like Barbie. She was pretty, taller than me – but that wasn’t hard – and had hair that I couldn’t decide if it was dark blonde or light brown.
Lucas turned around. “Annie, hey,” he hugged her and they kissed each other on the cheek. I was pissed off but only by the double standards. Lucas grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. “Tegan, this is Annie.”
“Hi,” I said.
She nodded and replied, “Hey, Tegan.”
“Alright, race time,” Danny said, bouncing up and down like a child.
He and Lucas left me with Annie and went to get Danny’s car ready. I could’ve kicked him for leaving me with someone I didn’t know. I smiled up at Annie. “You staying to watch?”
She nodded. “Yeah, let’s make our way over to the wall.” Last time I didn’t sit on one of falling down walls. Two reasons: it was full of half naked women at the time, and I could barely move through fear.
We hopped up and waited for the race. “So, how long have you known Lucas?”
“We went to school together, so a while.”
“I can’t imagine Luke at school.”
“He was the naughty kid, always getting sent out of class for doing or saying something wrong,” she said. “He turned into a bit of a ladies’ man in his teenage years. Well, until we got together.” She smiled shyly and her cheeks turned pink. She hadn’t figured me out yet and wasn’t sure if she should’ve said anything.
Most people had a past. Mine was far too colourful for me to get pissed off that Lucas had an ex! “How long were you together for?”
“On and off for about a year. I don’t think we were together for longer than about two or three months at a time, though.”
“Hey, shorty.” Lucas stood in between my legs and kissed me.
“I was just talking to Annie and about to get her to dish the dirt.”
He looked horrified and widened his eyes at her. Laughing, she winked at me. Wow, out of all the women here the only one I liked was the one that had actually slept with my boyfriend.
She jumped off the wall and said over her shoulder. “Back in a minute, just going to wish Danny luck.”
When she was out of earshot, I wrapped my arms around his neck and said, “So, you didn’t mention she’s an ex.” He groaned, looking uncomfortable. “It’s fine, Luke. You had a life before me and I’m really not that jealous or insecure.”
He nodded and kissed me. “I’ll talk to your mum for you, get her to agree to you going away. I think it’ll be good for you to have some fun with your friends.”
“I love you,” I said.
“Love you, too,” he said before kissing me properly and making my toes curl. He’s back. We’re back. Finally.
Chapter Forty-Four
Tegan
I woke up to Lucas, Mum and Ava in my room looking at me. It was creepy and starting the day with a mini heart attack sucked. Mum’s eyes snapped to my wrist and I looked away, shoving my arm under the cover. It didn’t hurt now and the redness was subsiding but it might as well be neon red and glowing. Everyone spotted it and I was feeling really self-conscious.
It’d been almost two weeks since I got home and no one had left me alone for more than five minutes. And I was counting. Showers were super quick because if I’d been in there longer than a couple minutes someone would knock on the door until I was done.
Having so many people care enough to watch over me was pretty overwhelming but so was having them standing over me all the time. It was like they were just waiting for me to fuck up again and I was working on making sure I wouldn’t.
Since getting back Mum had also put me on lockdown from school. I was ready to go back and get my life on track again but she didn’t think so. I was giving her one more week and then I was going with or without her blessing. I’d worked hard to catch up once and I already had some work to do. I didn’t want to do it again.
“Morning, honey. Do you want breakfast in bed or downstairs?” I looked at her for a minute. Was that really my mother? “Tegan?” she prompted.
“I’ll come down,” I said, shaking my head. We weren’t usually allowed to eat upstairs and it bothered me, for the first time ever, that it was an option now. For someone who claimed she wanted everything back to normal she wasn’t doing a good job of actually doing it. The only relief I got was when Kai picked me up to take me to his parents’ so I could have my twice-weekly sessions with Melanie. The second I got in his car and shut the door I felt human again rather than a pet project. I was so thankful that I had a session today.
When Mum and Ava walked out I turned to Lucas. “How long have they been in here?”
“Not long.”
Liar.