“Baby. I like that.”
“I like you this way,” I said, imagining her lying in bed, her hair spread on her pillow, happy and beautiful and without a care in the world.
“What way?” she asked sleepily.
“Happy. Like you’re not worried about anything right now, because you usually are.”
She paused for a moment, and I thought she had fallen asleep. Then she said, “You make me happy, Caleb.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
“I wish…”
“Yeah?” I whispered, my heart in my throat.
“I wish you were here. I miss you kissing me,” she whispered.
I cleared my throat. “Me too,” I answered. “You know you won’t remember any of this tomorrow.”
“Yes, I will,” she insisted.
“No, you won’t. But I will.” I sighed. “Red?”
“Yes, Caleb?”
“Don’t break my heart.”
Chapter Eighteen
Veronica
“Who the hell put that alarm clock on speaker?”
I opened one eye at the sound of Kara’s groggy, irate voice. It took me a second to realize why I was hearing her voice in the morning.
Last night was Caleb’s basketball practice and the drive-in movie we missed. Caleb… Why did it feel like I was missing something important? I racked my brain on what else we did last night.
Drinking large amounts of alcohol, gorging on pizza, Kara vomiting her guts out on the front lawn last night…or was that Beth? Something else happened, though, and it was just at the edge of my consciousness…
“M’eyes. M’head. M’mouth,” Kara lamented. “Th’ hell were we thinking, partying on a school night?”
“Going-away party for my brother. He just accepted a job in Paris.” Beth moaned. I think I heard her over to my right. Maybe she was lying on the floor?
Ugh. My body felt like it was being weighed down by a big piano.
“Gonna skip classes today,” Kara mumbled, sounding like she’d just covered her face with a blanket.
“No!” I heard Beth get up quickly. “Shite. I’m dizzy.”
I opened one eye. “You ’kay?”
She was a blur of blue hair and…was that paint on her face? What the heck did we do last night?
“I gotta go. Theo. Theo day today. What time is it?”
“It’s time to shut the fuck up and go back to sleep,” Kara grumbled.
Hmm. Yes, Kara was so smart. Time to shut up and go back to sleep.