Echo rolled the cue ball onto the table, hitting multiple balls. “She had a major breakdown and got help. My mother was great when she stayed on her meds.”
She wrapped her arms around herself and stared down at the table. Her foot tapped against the floor. “I only know what little my dad and my friends told me. She came off her meds, went into a manic episode, I went to her apartment and she tried to kill me.”
I was terrified to move, breathe, exist in this moment. On TV, teenagers were portrayed as happy, carefree. Echo and I would never know such a life. My parents died. I got screwed by a system supposedly in place to protect me. Echo … Echo was betrayed by the person who should have laid down her life to protect her.
She raised her hand like a claw to her forehead. “Do you know what it’s like to not remember something? My mother loved me. She wouldn’t hurt me. Do you know what it’s like to have horrifying nightmares night after night? I go to bed one night, my life perfect, and then wake up in agony two days later in a hospital and my whole world is torn apart. I need to know. If I know, maybe I’ll feel whole again. Maybe …”
Echo reminded me of the statue of a saint my mother had once placed in her flower garden. Arms outstretched, seeking an answer from a God that hated us both. “Maybe I’ll find normal again.”
“Tell me about Aires.” I grasped for any straw to help.
By pure miracle, my statement snapped her out of misery. She blinked, coming back to the beeping and ringing of the video arcade. “Aires loved cars. He salvaged this 1965 Corvette and spent years working on it. That’s why I’m tutoring you. I need to make money to finish fixing it up.”
So she wasn’t some nerd looking for extra credit or service hours. She wanted to honor her brother—her family. Echo and I were more alike than I’d thought. “What’s wrong with it?”
She picked up her pool cue and placed it back on the rack. “I have no idea. For all I know, it needs twenty dollars in gas and new spark plugs. Or it could need something huge and expensive. I got a mechanic to come and look at it today, but I have a feeling he’s going to take me to the cleaners.”
“I know a guy who’s a genius with cars. He’d love to be in the same zip code as a ‘65 Vette. Would you mind letting him have a crack at it?”
Her siren smile appeared and her eyes lit up the room. “Yes. Totally. Yes.”
She’d probably lose some of that excitement once she met Isaiah. “Isaiah’s a little rough around the edges, but a good guy. I don’t want you to be shocked when someone like me shows up.”
Her laughter sounded like music. “What, you don’t hang out with missionaries in your downtime? When the rest of us go home and slip into sweatpants and T-shirts, you kick back in a polo shirt and khakis.”
No one but Isaiah and Beth teased me. People ran from me. Yet this little nymph thoroughly enjoyed this game. “Keep it up, Echo. I’m all about foreplay.”
She laughed so loudly, she slapped a hand over her mouth, yet the giggles escaped. “You are so full of yourself. You think because girls swoon over you and let you into their pants on the first try that I’ll follow suit. Think again. Besides, I have your number now. Every time you try to look all dark and dangerous, I’ll picture you wearing a pink striped polo, collar up, and a pair of pleated chinos.”
No way. I stalked over to Echo, feeling like a tiger after its prey. She backed up against the wall, but I kept up my approach. I pressed against her, feeling each sensual curve. I wanted to touch every inch of her body. Her sweet smell intoxicated me.
Her eyes kept their laughter, but her smile faded as she bit her lower lip. Damn, did she have any idea what she was doing? For a girl hell-bent on keeping me away, she sure did everything to turn me on.
“You were saying?” I lowered my head and inhaled the warm cinnamon scent at the nape of her neck, allowing my nose to skim along her inviting skin.
Her chest rose and fell at a faster pace. My hand melted on the curve of her stomach, centimeters from her hip. I reeled with the decision of moving up or down, both areas I’d dreamed of touching.
“Noah,” she breathed out, unknowingly fulfilling one of my many fantasies involving Echo. If I played my cards right, maybe she’d fulfill a couple more. I barely brushed my lips down her cheek as I moved toward her mouth. Her nails tickled my chest, driving me insane. Kissing her became my single reason for breathing.
Her hands applied pressure to my chest and her lips moved against mine. “I can’t.”
She pushed me away. “I … I … can’t.” Any traces of humor were gone, her eyes wide. “I’m on a date with Luke and this—” she motioned with her hand between us “—cannot happen. You’re Noah Hutchins and I’m not the girl that does ‘it’ with … with …”
I closed my eyes to regain some control over my body. I finished for her. “Me.”
“Yes … no … I don’t know. I want normal, Noah. Can you give me normal?” Funny, she talked about normal as she tugged at the gloves on her hands.
“When are you going to figure out that doesn’t exist for people like us?” I wasn’t sure who I wanted to hurt more, myself or her. She could pretend, but she’d never return to the girl without scars. Hell, maybe I said it to remind me that a guy like me could never have Echo.
She whipped around, the same anger spewing from her that I’d seen that first day in Mrs. Collins’s office. “What should I do, Noah? Give up like you? Get stoned, skip school? Say fuck it to everything?”
“It’s a hell of a lot better than pretending to be someone I’m not. Why’s it so important to be with some guy who’d dump you to see a damn movie?”