Parchment & Pearls

16. Kids Certainly Don't Contain Filters

Chapter 16

Kids Certainly Don’t Contain Filters

 

 

I thought, after months of not talking, seeing Drake wouldn’t affect me. 

But it did. 

The moment he walked into the manor, I knew he was there.  I didn’t even have to see him with my own eyes to know that. 

He hadn’t said a word to me the entire time he’d been here, barely even looked at me.  Everything he was doing was a lie, though.  His smile and laughter were a sham, because I could see what was really wrong whenever I looked into his eyes.  They were darker, as if he’d learned something that he didn’t like. 

And now…now, I was watching him through my window on the second floor.  He sat on the stone patio out back, knees up with his arms resting on them.  He hadn’t moved in the hour he’d been there since Emmy’s family had left.  Neither had I.  But when he did, I stepped back from my window as his head turned up in my direction.

It was only a few minutes later that I heard a light knock on my door.  I’d made no move to go to it, clutching a pillow to my chest as I sat on my bed, so I called for the person to come in.

And I really wished I hadn’t.

When the door opened, Drake appeared, his face stoic instead of the fake grin he’d had on the whole day. 

A lump formed in my throat and I had a hard time swallowing it back down as he turned away from me, closing the door.  He stood there for a moment, his head down with his hand still on the door knob.  Even when he turned back around, he kept his head down and didn’t move. 

I sat there on my bed, staring and not really knowing what to say. 

“I thought you’d be gone by now,” I said quietly, finally finding my voice.  “What’s next?  Emmy said India.”

Those blue eyes lifted to mine.  “My car should be here in a little while.  And yeah, that’s where I’m going.”

“I’m having a hard time believing that, actually,” I shrugged.  “But then again, I haven’t believed anything you’ve said or done since you got here.”

“Hattie…I came here to talk to you.  To say goodbye.”

“Really?  To say goodbye?  Where was that the last time I talked to you six months ago?  Back then, you didn’t say goodbye.  You said you’d talk to me later.  But did I get a call?  No.”

Drake’s hands tightened into fists at his side.  “I thought about a few things, found out some stuff, and I didn’t feel the need to tell them to you.  I still don’t.”

“And what do you think happened to me when you completely cut me off?  You think I would just forget about you?  Get along fine without you?  No.  You can’t imagine how much that hurt me, Drake.  How much it still hurts me.  And now you’re too much of a coward to tell me what really happened.”

“I didn’t come here to fight…”

I growled in frustration, throwing the pillow I’d been clutching at his head as I jumped up.  “You’re such an ass, Drake Garner!”

And, apparently, a pillow to the face was his breaking point.  His blue eyes flashed, but there was still something in them that I wanted to figure out.  He didn’t give me the time to before he was stalking toward me, stopping right in front of me.  I looked up as he towered over me.