Some Kind of Normal

“Remember what I said on Saturday?” Her voice was so soft and low, I had to bend close so that I could hear her. “About the hiding?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“There’s stuff going on…stuff that I know…stuff that I think my mom kind of knows but isn’t really sure about, you know? And I don’t know what to do. About the knowing part. If that makes sense.”

Okay. That was both vague and telling at the same time. She turned toward me and looked so incredibly sad that I couldn’t help myself. I reached for her, because I wanted to and because this girl who normally had it together looked more lost and afraid than anyone I knew.

My arms went around her shoulder, and she half collapsed,

half crawled onto my lap, her face buried in my neck.

She was warm and soft and hurting. And suddenly I wanted to be the guy she confided in. The guy she turned to. It was hard to explain, but there was this rush of something that settled in my chest. It was tight and emotional and real. I knew it was real because it kind of hurt.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked carefully.

She shook her head and settled in some more, the entire weight of her body sunk into mine. It was a weird time to think it, but the thought crossed my mind that we sort of fit together perfectly.

“No,” she replied. “Can we just stay here for a while?”

Stay here for a while? Everything about this felt good, and I’d stay the whole damn night just to be her guy, the one she needed.

“Whatever you need.”

“You must think I’m the most pathetic girl on the planet.” She moved and glanced up at me.

I reached for a single, solitary tear that had slid from her eye and lay against her cheek. Carefully I wiped it away and shook my head.

“Nope, that’s not even close. I think that like you said, you’ve got some stuff going on. Stuff that you’re having a hard time dealing with, and I get that. I’ve been there. I guess we all get there sometime. It’s just some of us get there first and some of us stay there a long time. You need someone right now.”

Her bottom lip trembled and her eyes slid away. I grabbed her chin so that she could see me. Really see me.

“And I’m glad it’s me.”

For a few moments neither one of us said anything else, and then she kind of shuddered and melted against me.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

I’m not sure how long we sat there, but it was long enough for me to realize that I wanted to know this girl in a way I’d never felt before. This wasn’t about partying and hooking up. It wasn’t about sex either (though I’m not going to lie, I’d be all over that if she was willing).

It was about meeting someone who kind of knocked you on your ass. A girl who wasn’t anything like I imagined. A girl who was hiding stuff, and just like me, she was hoping no one would notice.

So maybe we could hide together, or maybe we could fix each other. Personally I was pretty damn sure that my situation wasn’t fixable. In fact, with a seizure, it had gotten worse. But maybe Everly’s situation was different, and as I held her and listened to her crying quietly in my arms, I thought that maybe I was the guy. You know, the one who could fix her.

Or at the very least, I thought that maybe I was the guy she’d let try.

Chapter Ten

Everly

We didn’t study Tuesday because Trevor had an appointment with a specialist at the hospital. He didn’t elaborate on what the specialist needed to see him about, and since it was none of my business, I didn’t ask. Besides, I was mortified every time I thought of how my mother had acted at dinner.

She’d been drunk. My mom, Terry Jenkins, who only drank the occasional glass of wine, had gotten drunk and acted weird in front of Trevor. And if that hadn’t been bad enough, I’d fallen into his arms like an emotionally unstable crazy person who’d cried her eyes out and then hiccupped most of the way to his house.

But it had felt good. Not the embarrassed part or emotionally unstable part or crying part either. The holding part had felt amazing. His arms around me had felt better than good, and I’d spent a lot of time thinking about it. Comparing him to my ex-boyfriend, Jason. So much so that when I met Hailey down at the pool, she’d known something was up pretty much right away.

I waited for her shift to end, and then we walked over to buy some ice cream. As I pondered my choices, she turned to me, eyebrows askew.

“Why are you so distracted?”