Page 97 of Elusion

I drop the boxes on the floor a few steps in. If she mentions anything about not taking them farther, I will feign ignorance. “You could spend a week with me and then a week at Graham’s.”

“I could if I didn’t need to work this summer and save money.”

I cock my head to the side. The schedule she lays out overlooks something I consider somewhat important. “What about us?”

“What do you mean?”

“When do we see each other? Weekends you aren’t at Graham’s?”

“It’s hard enough to get a summer job around here,” she says, picking up a box. “Finding one that doesn’t require working every weekend is almost impossible.”

“Then when am I going to see you?”

She shrugs, not answering me further. I step in front of her when she tries walking away. I need her to clarify because she talks like, once she leaves after finals, she won’t be back.

“Callie, when?”

“What do you want me to say, Jordan? That we won’t see each other all summer?”

And I almost hear the sound of my heart cracking open in my chest.

“I can’t go all summer without you, beautiful.”

She starts to respond, but Trey tromps down the stairs.

“Just let yourself in, Cal.” On his way past, he slaps me in the chest. “Jordan, you look like she told you she’s pregnant.” He chuckles at his own joke, not acknowledging the intense stare between Callie and me.

As he grabs the box from her and disappears back upstairs, my mind scrambles to devise a plan because the alternative is not an option. I can take the LSAT in the fall instead of June and decline the internship with Stan.

Shit. Not working for Stan means the guys would need to pay rent next semester. But they’d understand.

A summer in Sutterville sounds like hell. Albeit hell with her still wins out over everything else. I’ll need to keep my change in residency from the parental unit. Carol would full-on combust.

A sigh from Callie pulls me from my thoughts, and I refocus on her.

“Are you freaking out?” Her lips twitch, and is she fucking with me? “Pete’s grandparents offered me a job at the bar, working during the week with weekends off.” She picks up another box. “I planned on telling you last night, but for some reason, I never had the chance.”

If I didn’t love the girl so much, I would hate her. What happened to the preferred method of payback where she strips her clothes off in front of me? I miss those days.

“Screw you, Henders,” I say.

I step toward her to retaliate for the uncalled-for punishment, but a shout from upstairs interrupts me. Trey barrels down the stairs. He shoves me aside and throws the box from Callie’s hands to the ground. Clearly out of his mind, he grasps both sides of her face in his hands, his eyes full of dread.

“Fucking Christ, Cal, tell me you’re not pregnant.”

Even though she’s on the pill, I have a moment of panic before I remember her cousin’s fucking terrible joke neither of us paid any attention to.

Callie rolls her eyes and laughs. “With twins, Uncle Trey!”

The silence in the garage annoys me to no end. I nod along to the beat of my heart for the third time in the last—I don’t know how long because Gavin and Benji removed all the time-keeping devices to help me focus on my practice test for the LSAT. They also confiscated all the cords for the guitars, Johnny’s drumsticks and cymbals, everything from the fridge—except a bottle of water—and my shoestrings. The last one was entirely unnecessary, but Benji insisted after the third section of the test when he caught me playing with them.

At the end of week one, I can officially declare that summer sucks. A majority of the time, I spend studying or taking practice tests, during which I mostly space out. The rest, I prepare for dinner with my parents. A few potential plans have come together. None involve law school.

I haven’t been in Callie’s physical presence for seven days, and Jordan minus Callie times seven equals irritable plus distracted. The texts, phone calls, and video chats only get me so far. To make matters worse, instead of spending her Friday night with me as planned, she decided to attend a party at Felicia and Jess’s house.

Who throws a housewarming party for a summer rental?

Frickin’ Gibson.

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