Page 25 of My Song for You
The laugh bubbling inside me broke free. “Poor Kirk.”
“He eventually got over it too.”
“So you’re telling me you aren’t ready to kill your bandmates yet?”
He laughed. “Definitely not. I can always rely on those guys to watch my back, like I’d do for them. They’re like the brothers I never had….Which reminds me. My mom says hi and was wondering how your parents are doing.”
The not-yet-healed wound tore wide open, and I swallowed back the pain and the tears. I opened my mouth to answer, but the lump in my throat prevented the words from forming. “They’re dead,” I finally whispered. “They died in a car accident a few years ago.” I kept my eyes on the path ahead of me, willing my legs to keep moving.
“I’m so sorry, Callie. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I’d rather not talk about it.” The words came out rough, weary.
Jared stopped and gently grabbed my arm, forcing me to also stop. “Hey, you know I’m here for you, right? We were once friends. If you need to talk, I’m here for you.”
But that was where he was wrong. Everything had changed.
I gave him a soft smile and started walking again. “You remember when I failed my fourth-grade math test?” I asked a minute later. “I was really upset and wanted to run away and join Cirque du Soleil?”
“Are you gonna tell me that you recently did join them? Because the Callie I remember wasn’t very talented when it came to cartwheels.” He flashed me a teasing smile, and my heart lightened at how easy he was making this for me.
I shoved his arm playfully. “I wasn’tthatbad.” At his raised eyebrows, I added, “Okay, I admit I wasn’t great at them. I guess that’s why you tried to convince me that I was better off running away and joining Bon Jovi on tour. You even tried to convince me to take you with me.”
“You didn’t expect me to let you meet the band without me, did you?”
“Have you met them?”
We reached the entrance of my apartment building and I paused at the door.
“Not yet. Maybe one day. So far we haven’t been in the same place at the same time for it to happen.”
I grabbed the handle of the glass door. “Well, thanks, Jared. I guess I’ll see you around.” I didn’t really mean it. It just seemed like the right thing to say to someone, even if you were planning to never see them again. As much as I would’ve loved to see him again, I knew I couldn’t.
“Hey, don’t I get to at least say hi to Logan?”
“Why would you want to do that?” I asked, panic seeping in.
“Because he’s a cool kid. Why wouldn’t I want to say hi to him?”
“Because we’ve already had this discussion. I don’t want you to hurt him.”
“How is saying hi hurting him?”
The elderly woman from the apartment a few floors above mine walked past. Jared said hi to her and opened the door to let her in.
“Thank you,” she said, and entered the building.
Jared turned back to me and missed the woman appraise his very nice ass. She grinned at me and nodded her approval. I snickered. She did have a point.
“You see?” he said with a smirk, having no idea why I was laughing. “I said hi to her and she didn’t get hurt.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s not the same thing.”
“So explain to me why my saying hi to Logan is going to hurt him.”
That was the thing…I couldn’t.
“All right,” I said on a heavy breath. “You can come up to say hi.” I wanted to addBut then you have to leave,but I was too tired to come up with a logical reason he couldn’t stay longer than that.
