Risks of Absurdity

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

I firmly believed my parents wanted to torture me. Why? I wasn’t sure but I must’ve done something to deserve this. Tonight we were crossing the lawn and having dinner with the Carter’s.

I was pouting and cursing to myself in my bedroom when Andrea came in minutes later. “This sucks.” I said.

She shrugged. “You can’t argue with them, remember? It won’t be that bad if you ignore him.”

“When have I ever been able to ignore Austin? I’ve always wanted to claw his eyes out and I still do just for different reasons now. He’s making my blood boil.” I was still angry for the way I let him console me in the park yesterday. I should’ve never let my guard down and stayed in his arms like that.

“I’m not going to say anything because you won’t like it anyway.”

I glanced up from my clenched fists over my lap and studied my younger sister. She had that look people got when they really wanted to say what was on their mind. She was waiting for me to push her into spitting it out. I sighed and went with it. “What do you mean?”

“You really want to know?”

“No, forget it. My head is spinning too much for games.” I got up because deep down I knew she was going to say something about me having feelings for the jerk next door. “We should get downstairs.” There was no option but to suck it up and get through the evening because my parents weren’t letting me stay alone in the house. More and more reasons to hate Logan.

I gave the bastard some thought. Where was Logan now? He knew the pack was searching for him and Mr. Carter didn’t believe he was out of town with his tail between his legs. The guy was out there planning another strike against Austin, that was the most obvious answer and it scared me.

I flashed my folks a forced smile when we met up at the front door. Together the four of us crossed the lawn and met with Mrs. Carter on the porch. Her smile was warm and real toward me while she asked how I was feeling.

Every bit of color left my face, she suspected I might be pregnant and I was still nervous she was going to bring my parents into the theory floating around her brain. I prayed Austin spoke to her and convinced her to keep quiet. “I’m good.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Mrs. Cater said nothing else and I was finally able to breathe.

Inside the house I noticed Jonathan crashed in front of the TV. I quickly joined him on the couch. “Save me.” I whispered in his ear.

“That bad?” Jonathan didn’t look away from the TV as he searched the guide for something to watch. “Austin’s not home if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I could breathe even easier now with the weight of seeing his annoying handsome face off my shoulders. “I thought this was a mandatory thing?” Of course I was a little ticked I was forced into this shindig and others weren’t so lucky.

“It’s not a pack thing; it’s our parents wanting to hang out or some couple thing like that.”

“Oh, fantastic.  It’s mandatory for me and I could care less if your brother was around anyway.” Yeah, that sure sounded convincing. My transparency was making me wince.

Jonathan was too smart to buy into my horrendous lying. “You know I have pretty good hearing. I know about what happened with you and Austin last week, you don’t have to tiptoe around it.”

I smacked my hands over my face and groaned. “I wasn’t trying to tiptoe; I was trying to forget it. Geez, is there anyone who doesn’t know?”