Page 23 of All of My Life

Like he hadn’t just made a spectacle of both of us, he started in on his food. “You said that you weren’t going to college, right?” Then he pointed to my food. “Eat.”

Unwrapping my chicken salad, I answered, “Yeah, so?”

“Then you can come with me to California,” he stated as casually as if we were discussing the weather.

He was going to California.

It took me a second, but I finally found my voice. “I’m…I’m not following you to California.”

His blue eyes hardened. “Why not?”

“Because I’m not insane,” I replied, my lunch forgotten.

Even though getting that far away from my father sounded like a dream, I had barely enough money to get past the next town. Since I didn’t get an allowance, I had pinched pennies over the years to allow me some bit of money. Instead of buying new school supplies, I’d gotten used ones. Instead of buying new school uniforms, I had purchased used ones. Instead of keeping my birthday and Christmas gifts, I had sold the ones that wouldn’t have been missed. Luckily for me, a lot of my gifts had been of the monetary kind, so that had helped.

“Either present me with a college acceptance letter, or else you’re going to California with me,” he said like we didn’t live in America where women had rights.

“I am not going to California with you,” I insisted, wondering just how deep his madness ran.

“Eat your fucking lunch, Jett,” he ordered.

I stared down at my chicken salad, wondering how things had gotten so out of control with the lunatic sitting across from me. How could I have missed the signs? I had spent my entire life believing that Chasin Carver had hated me, but this wasn’t hate.

Or maybe it was.

Maybe his plans for revenge lasted longer than three months, and his demand to follow him to California was so that he could break me, then leave me stranded on the side of the road as the aria of this jacked-up opera. Admitting to being obsessed with me wasn’t the same as admitting that he loved me, so it was quite possible that this was still just a game to him.

Knowing that I wasn’t going to figure it out in the span of our lunchtime, I went back to unwrapping my chicken salad, and then Chasin and I sat in silence as we ate our lunches. With my back to everyone, I wasn’t sure if they were still staring at us or not, but I knew that I’d better get used to it. I also needed to rein it in if I didn’t want my father finding out about us.

If only Chasin Carver didn’t make me so goddamn angry.

Chapter 15

Chasin~

The rest of the day had gone relatively peaceful, considering that I felt like I was one fool away from serving twenty-five to life. People needed to quit playing with me, and that included Jett. I needed to find out why she was so against a relationship with me, and to find that out, we needed to have a serious conversation, something that we seemed incapable of being able to have. Our tempers were going to make for one hell of a marriage, but I was hoping that maturity would help with that as we grew older.

After driving her to the library and living that hell for another three hours, we were back at Cookie’s, and the same waitress from yesterday approached our table. Though she looked surprised to see me again, she held it together better than she’d had yesterday.

“Hello,” she greeted with a smile on her face. I just nodded as she turned towards Jett. “So, our popular item was the house soup at lunch today. I’m not exactly sure why, but…” She shrugged.

“Thank you, Michelle,” Jett replied graciously, but the way she said it had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.

Looking up at Michelle, I said, “I’ll also have the soup.”

Her face blanched as she nervously looked back at Jett. When my eyes also looked over at the pain in my fucking ass, she was biting her bottom lip, and I felt a rage that I’d never thought possible. I wasn’t sure what was going on or why, but I wasn’t stupid. When Jett wasn’t taking up all the space in my head, I was a pretty smart guy, and I had enough sense to figure shit out for myself.

“Michelle?”

“Uhm…uh, yes?” she stammered, the steel in my voice hitting them both.

“Get Jett whatever the dinner special is and a sweet tea,” I said, ordering for the infuriating girl sitting across from me.

“Chasin-”

“One fucking word out of you, and I will take a match to this place,” I snapped, forcing Jett to wisely keep her mouth shut.

“Uhm…” Michelle cleared her throat. “Uh…and…what would you like?”

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