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

“Shouldn’t someone say something like meaningful or something?” Seth asks. “That’s what toasts are for.”


Luke cocks his head to the side, tapping his fingers on the table. “To getting away.”

Seth grins at me. “To acceptance.”

Kayden bites at his bottom lip with his eyelids lowered. “To feeling alive.”

The three of them fasten their eyes on me and I glance to Seth for help.

“This is your thing, Callie,” he tells me. “Whatever you want to say, just say it.”

I suck in a breath and release it out gradually. “To being able to breathe.”

There’s a moment that passes between Kayden and me as our expressions match. Then the four of us clink glasses.

“Fuck.” Seth spills some of his on his hand and he licks it off. Tipping his head back, he pours the shot into his mouth. Then he slams the glass down and points at it. “I’m already ready for round two.”

Kayden watches me as he moves the glass to his lips, arches his neck back, and gulps it down. I observe his neck muscles as they move to force the alcohol down. He lifts his head back up and licks his lips with his gaze attached to mine.

Inhaling deeply, I position the rim to my mouth, and the stench burns my nose as I let my head fall back and suck out the drink. The hot liquid spills down my throat and the heat is almost unbearable. As I bring the glass away from my mouth, my gag reflex kicks in and I choke on the burn, but keep my lips sealed, forcing the alcohol down. My shoulders heave as a strangled sound bursts from my lips.

“Are you gonna make it?” Luke wonders, setting his glass down on the table.

Seth gives me a gentle pat on the back. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I choke, with my palm pressed to my chest.

“Callie is a newbie,” Seth explains as he takes a swallow of the Long Island Iced Tea.

“You’ve never drank before?” Kayden gapes at me. “Really?”

I feel stupid as I shrug my shoulders. “No, nothing this hard anyway.”

“Then why did you do it tonight?” he asks, looking guilty. “Did we pressure you too much?”

“No, I wanted to try it.” I wipe my lips with the back of my hand.

His eyebrows furrow and a hint of a smile curves at his lips. “Was it on your list?”

“What?” Seth exclaims over the loud music, slamming his hand on the table. “You told him about the list?”

“I told him of the list,” I explain, stirring the straw around in my drink, watching the lemon go around and around. When I peek up through my hair, Kayden is observing me curiously.

“What list?” Luke wraps his lips around the straw and sips at his drink.

Seth and I trade a glance and then he shoos me with his hands to move off the seat. “How about you and I go dance?”

“Alright, I’m in. Just don’t do any of those weird moves again. Last time I fell on my butt.” I adjust my shirt over my stomach as I get to my feet.

Laying a hand on the small of my back, Seth steers us toward the dance floor. He’s done this a couple of times with me, so he understands what he’s in store for; lots of panicking and a whole lot of clinginess.

He selects a section at the side of the dance floor where there are less people and the atmosphere is mellower. A slow song plays from the speakers and the lights stop flickering and settle to a pale glow. Seth looks ghostly white underneath them and his honey brown eyes look black as he puts his hands on my hips.

“I’m sorry if I pushed you too hard, baby girl,” he whispers. “I feel bad.”

I reach for his shoulders and step closer to him so the tips of our shoes are touching. “You didn’t pressure me, although, you could have warned me that it was going to burn that bad. Then I would have tried harder not to choke and not look like a complete moron.”

“Trust me, neither of them think you’re a moron.” He laughs, like he knows a secret. “I don’t want to lose all that trust I’ve earned with you.”

“You didn’t lose anything.” I squeeze his shoulders with my fingertips, inching in as a guy in a fedora rams into my back. “The day you told me all your secrets was the day I knew we’d be friends forever. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known.”

He smiles brightly and draws me closer. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I feel fine,” I tell him and rest my cheek against his. “Although, I'm a little iffy on going up to the cliff with them.”

“People go up there all the time. We won’t be the only ones there. You need to stop thinking of every guy as being like him, otherwise, he’ll always own you.”

I blow out a breath. He’s right. I need to let go of my fears and rid my brain of the guy who instilled them, but how can I let go of the one person who holds such a huge part of me?

Kayden

I can’t take my eyes off the dance floor. Even when my phone vibrates from inside my pocket, I slip my hand into it and press the off button on the side.

“Don’t do it.” Luke plucks a piece of ice out of his drink and pops it in his mouth.

“Do what?” I ask, distracted as my heart thumps when Callie throws back her head and laughs.

A hand knocks against the side of my head and my hand shoots up. “Okay, what the fuck was that for?”

“That’s payback for when you hit me back on the curb,” he says and his eyes roam to a girl with long red hair strutting by our table in a short black dress. “And it was also to distract you from doing something really stupid.”

“It’s not what you think,” I say. “I was just watching people dance.”

He rolls his eyes. “Do everyone a favor and send Daisy a text to break up with her. Then you can do whatever you want.”

“You want me to break up with her in a text?”

“Like you care. You don’t care about her even though you tell her you love her.”

“What is your problem with her, besides the fact that she annoys the shit out of you?”

He tosses his straw onto the table, grabs the cup, and pours the rest of the Long Island Iced Tea down his throat. “I’m going to go buy another round.”

I let him out, and then start to lower myself back into the booth, but my eyes find Callie again. She’s smiling as she talks to Seth. I’ve never been that happy before about anything. It makes no sense to me and maybe that’s why I’m drawn to her.

Even though I shouldn’t, I move across the dance floor, turning sideways to fit through the couples dancing, and getting rubbed on by a couple of girls along the way. Seth’s eyes locate me first and he whispers something into Callie’s ear.

Turning her head, she looks at me and her eyelids lift slightly. Her pupils look huge below the hazy lights, her skin pale, and her hair soft.

“Mind if I cut in?” I ask over the music.

Seth lets go of her hips. “Be my guest.” He winks at Callie and walks backwards off the dance floor, turning as he arrives at the edge, where the crowd closes in.

Callie’s gaze lingers in the spot he vanished from, her shoulders stiff and her fingers tucked into her palms.

I put my lips beside her ear. “You don’t have to dance with me, if you don’t want to.”

Her shoulders jolt upward and she rotates her tiny body to face me. Her gaze scrolls up my legs, my stomach, and it makes me kind of uncomfortable. She knows where my scars are hidden and she’s the kind of person who wonders things.

“It’s fine. We can dance.” Her nerves show through the shakiness of her voice.

I hold out my hand and she wavers before placing her palm on top of mine. Enclosing my fingers around her hand, I slowly lure her body toward mine with my eyes fixed on hers. She’s looking at me helplessly, like she’s praying I won’t hurt her. It takes me back to a time when I was younger and my father was furious with me because I’d knocked a vase off the shelf. He came at me with a belt in his hand and rage in his eyes as I dove under the table trying to hide. The cuts from the previous days beating hadn’t healed yet, and all I could do was hope he didn’t kill me.