Zachary

Chapter Eleven

“You’re impatient,” I mumbled.

He smiled.

“That’s it? Well babe, we both know that. But if you really must know the reason behind my madness, I just couldn’t wait to kiss you. Now come over here.” He reached over and laced his fingers through mine, tugging on them slightly. “I missed you.”

He could be so sweet sometimes. It killed me, and I couldn’t help but smile and practically crawl my way onto his lap. He smiled victoriously and placed a hand on either side of my face. He pulled my face to his quickly and kissed me hard; so hard it hurt.

Startled by his sudden roughness, I pulled back slightly.

“Bryce… be gentle.” I went in to kiss him again, and he met my lips happily.

The kiss was bittersweet. There was a certain edge to it that I had never felt before. Bryce kissed me, almost hungrily, and all tenderness was lost. Maybe it was just me and I was the one who wasn’t into it, but something just felt off. I pulled back again.

“Can we go?” I bit my lip and leaned back into my seat. An air of awkwardness filled the car. I knew he sensed that I was caught off guard by the kiss, and I was glad that he chose not to say anything. Instead, he started the car and pulled away.

We made small talk the rest of the ride to the Mission, but my mind was elsewhere.

I wondered where the hell that type of kiss had come from. It was too forceful, and I didn’t like it. I missed the old Bryce kisses; the kisses that could make my heart melt. This simple kiss, that lasted all of four seconds, had my mind in a whirl. I wonder if he had sensed that he was kissing me differently. Maybe it was just a random fluke and would never happen again?

I prayed to God that was the case.

The ride seemed shorter than it had been the day before. I kept my head down the whole time, careful not to look out the window. Not even once.

After a short while, and a few helpful directions from MapQuest, Bryce pulled up to the building and I got a terrible feeling of déjà vu. I finally lifted my head up, but didn’t look out the window. I looked at Bryce instead.

“The parking lot is over there on the side, see?” I pointed to where we had parked yesterday, and Bryce just stared back at me, confusion plastered on his face.

“Why do I need to go park?”

I looked at him, inquisitively.

“You can’t leave your care on the street…,” I trailed off, but I suddenly realized where this was going. Of course Bryce wouldn’t feel the need to park. Bryce wasn’t planning on staying.

Damn him.

I wish I could have seen my face at that moment because I probably looked freakin’ hilarious. The anger swelled up inside of me and I couldn’t find the words to form a proper sentence.

“You’re not…”

“Staying? No. You asked me to come and drive you here. So I did. I made plans with Harrison and Jared to go down to South End and skate a little.”

“You’re fucking joking me, right?” I struggled to control the volume of my voice. “You said you would come with me.”

“No. I said I would drive you. Never said anything about staying.” He paused, not one look of remorse on his face while I was on the verge of tears. He noticed this and placed a hand on my shoulder, sympathetically. “Baby, I’m sorry. I just don’t have time to do this right now. You’ll be okay. I love you.”