Page 86 of Landon & Shay: Part One

“I said I forbid you. I am not going to pay for an idiotic major just for you to waste your time and my money. I forbid it. You’re going into law, like we’ve already determined.”

“We didn’t determine it. You did. Dad, I—”

He wasn’t listening. He never listened. My words were pointless.

At least Mom would’ve listened. She always listened.

He glanced at his watch. “I don’t have time for this. I need to get back to Chicago and try to play catchup for today, which means I’ll probably have to go in this Saturday too. And just a heads-up, I’ll probably be busy the following weekend, too.”

“The following weekend?” I stood up, alert. “But that’s my birthday weekend. I figured you’d be home, seeing how Mom won’t.”

“Yeah, I thought the same—until you went around swinging your fists like a wild man. You say you’re serious about this theater crap, but you can’t even act mature enough to stop using your fist to solve your problems. The only kind of acting you need to do is acting your age. You’re not a kid anymore. Stop acting like one. We’ll talk about this later.”

We wouldn’t, though. It would be brushed under the rug like every argument we’d ever had. Dad would fall back into his work world, and I’d fall back into my mind, and we’d deal with our issues on our own.

I missed Mom.

He walked off, leaving me standing there like a dumbass, fully in my feelings about him not being there for me on my birthday. I needed him. I needed him more than ever that day, and he wasn’t going to be there for me.

Perfect.

I started walking toward the exit after Dad left. My mind was already too messed up about my birthday, and there was no way I was going to sit through American History and talk about dead dudes when I had my own mind haunting me on the daily.

“Where are you going?” a voice said as I pushed the door open. I turned to see Shay standing there with the same concerned look she’d had when Mr. Thymes was dragging me away.

“I don’t know. Just anywhere but here,” I pushed out. I didn’t feel like talking. I didn’t feel like being around people, especially Shay. I didn’t want her to see me at one of my lows. Lord knew she’d already seen that enough.

“Okay,” she replied, walking over and pushing the door open.

I cocked an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving with you.”

She said it so matter-of-factly, as if it was common sense. If I was leaving, of course she was going, too. Obviously.

“No, you’re not. You aren’t the type of person to ditch school.”

“Well, that’s changing today. Come on, we can go to my place. No one’s home right now, and I can help clean up your face.”

“Look, Shay, I don’t want to be dramatic—”

“Then don’t.”

“What?”

“Don’t be dramatic. Just let me do this today, Landon. I’m sure you were going to go home to your empty house and sit around on your own and be sad, and sure, you can do that later, but right now you shouldn’t be alone. So, come on.”

She began walking toward my car, and she gave me no choice.

Besides, a part of me knew that wherever she led, I wanted to follow.

We went to my car, and I even handed her the keys to drive. My mind wasn’t able to focus enough on the road, and I knew the keys would be safest in her grip.

That was until she got behind the wheel and started jerking it back and forth like a psychopath.

“Geez, Chick, I can do without the heart attack.”

“Well, you should drive an automatic car like a regular person, not a stick.”

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