The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden (The Coincidence, #1)

I do owe her though, so much. Because of her, I have fewer scars. I wish I could take away whatever makes her look so sad all the time. I set my helmet on the grass and pick up her books for her as she reaches for her bag over by the bottom of the tree trunk. “What are you doing tonight?”


She stuffs her papers into her bag, crinkling the edges, and then I hand her the books. “I’m probably going to just stay in and watch a movie or something.”

“How much longer is your room preoccupied?” I ask and smile as her cheeks turn even redder.

“I don’t know.” She rises on her knees, shifts her bag onto her shoulder, and gets to her feet. “I’ll probably just go hang out with Seth until her friend is gone.”

I scoop up my helmet and follow her as she heads down the line of the fence. “Why don’t you come out with Luke and me? He wants to go check out this club down in the Town Center. It might end up being a complete shithole, but it’s better than just sitting around in your room.”

She halts, adjusting the handle of her bag on her shoulder, and bites her bottom lip so hard the skin around her mouth turns purple. “I don’t think I can.”

“Why?” I ask in a playful tone as I grin at her. “Am I that bad to be around?”

Her arms fall to her sides and her eyes fasten on mine. “No.”

I rub the sore muscles on the back of my neck. “Okay, then come with us. It’ll be fun and if it’s not, we can go do something else.”

She balls her hands into fists and then stretches her fingers back out. “Okay.”

I’m shocked. I’d been flirting with her out of simple fascination with how she gets flustered, but I didn’t think it would work on her. “Okay, meet us at Luke’s truck at like nine-ish?”

She nods and turns her back to me, walking away so quickly, it’s like she’s terrified I’ll stab her in the back. She seems afraid of everyone, except for Seth. But why?

Callie

I remember pink and white birthday balloons floating around the room, red streamers hanging from the ceiling, and gold wrapping paper balled up on the floor. The way the flames of the candles danced and the trail of smoke flowed up to the ceiling. My mom on the other side of the table, with a camera in her hand and a smile on her face as she clicked the button over and over again.

The flash hit my eyes and I kept blinking, wishing she’d stop taking pictures that would forever mark this God damn day.

“Make a wish, sweetie,” she said and the camera flashed again, lighting up the face of the people that surrounded the table.

I stared at the pink frosting, the “Happy Birthday Callie” Make a wish?

A red balloon floated over the table, slowly, up and down, up and down.

“Make a wish, Callie,” my mom repeated as the balloon moved over her shoulder.

Everyone was watching me, like they could see that I wasn’t whole anymore.

Make a wish? Make a wish?

The balloon popped.

There are no such things as wishes.

My roommate, Violet, enters the room as I finish writing the last line. She’s tall, with black curly hair streaked with red. Her nose is pierced and she has a tattoo of a star on the back of her neck. She has a pair of plaid pants on, a torn black t-shirt, and combat boots.

“Have you seen my leather jacket?” she asks as she shuts the door and tosses a bag onto her unmade bed.

I close my journal and slide the pen into the spiral. “I haven’t.”

She sighs as she collects her books from the desk in front of the window. “I think I might have lost it at the club. Fuck.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for it.” I tuck the journal underneath the pillow and get up from the bed.

She opens the drawer of the desk and glances over her shoulder at me as I slip my shoes on. “Are you heading out?”

I nod, easing my arm through the sleeve of a grey hoodie. “I am.”

I hear a bottle of pills rattle as she shuts the drawer and holds up a red scarf. “I might have someone over tonight. I’ll put this on the doorknob if I do.”

Again? What does this girl do? “Alright.” My fingers wrap around the doorknob. “I’ll make sure to check first.”

“You better,” she says, her hand hovering near the drawer. “Otherwise you’re going to see something you don’t want to.”

Sighing, I walk out the door, wishing I had my own dorm room.
***
“I think I just got myself in over my head,” I tell Seth as he lets me in his room. “Like really bad.”

Seth pauses the television screen, sits down on the bed, and pats the spot beside him. “Come sit down and spill your problem.”

I let my bag fall to the floor and sink down onto the bed. “Kayden asked me to go to a club with him and Luke tonight, and I accidentally said yes.”

“How do you accidentally say yes to something like that?”

I huff out a breath of frustration. “He kept smiling at me and getting me all flustered and I couldn’t think straight.”

Seth grins and a giggle escapes his lips. “Oh my God, you have a crush on him.”

I shake my head, getting flustered just by the thought. “No, I don’t.”

The mattress concaves beneath me as he bounces up and down like a little kid with too much sugar in their system. “Yes, you do. You have your very first crush, Callie. How exciting!”

Still shaking my head, I sit up and smooth my hair away from my forehead. “I don’t have a crush on him. Is he good looking? Of course. And he’s known that since we were in third grade.” I pause, getting agitated. “And I’ve had crushes before, just not for a very long time.”

“You so have a crush on him.” He picks up the remote and turns off the television. “This will be good, and then we can cross number five off on the list.”

“I’m not dancing,” I argue, cringing. “Dancing equals touching and getting close to people. I just can’t do it.”

“Yes, you can. You’ve done it with me like a hundred times,” he encourages. “I mean, think about when we first met. You would barely talk to me and you always looked like you were going to stab me with a pencil or something. Now look at you. You’re sitting on my bed in my room, just you and I. You’ve come so far my little Callie Girl.”

“But you’re you.” I sigh, discouraged. “I trust you.”

“Yeah, but I had to earn it.”

“I know and I’m so sorry for making you do that. I’m surprised you stuck around like you did.”

He hops off the bed and opens the top dresser drawer. “Whatever. You were so worth it.”

I swing my feet over the edge of the bed. “You seem really happy today.”

He takes out a green button down shirt with a front pocket and holds it out in front of him. “You remember that guy I was telling you about? The one in my Sociology class?”

I nod. “The one with the really soft looking hair and pretty blue eyes?”

“That’s the one.” He walks over to the mirror, fussing with his hair as he inches his face closer to the reflection. “He talked to me today and I mean really talked to me for more than five minutes.”

I scoot off the bed and pick up a marker from a cup on his nightstand. “Do you think he likes you?”

He shrugs, clamping his jaw shut to keep from smiling. “It’s hard to tell who he likes, but maybe if I talk to him more.”

I work to get the cap off with my teeth and then spit it out on the bed. “Are you going somewhere?”

He tugs the shirt over his head, wiggling his arms through the sleeves and then rearranges his hair back into place with his fingers. “Yeah, with you to a club.”

My shoulders relax as I go over to the board on the back of the door with a very long list drawn on it, with very little numbers crossed off. “Are you going to be okay? I mean, I know how you feel about football players, considering what happened to you.”

He fastens a leather watch to his wrist. “That Luke guy seems pretty nice. At least he was during our ten minute conversation when we were out smoking and I think he knows about me.”

I put the tip of the marker up to the board. “Why would you think that?”

“I just got a vibe,” he says. “It seemed like he didn’t care.”