Best Kept Lies (Best Kept #3)

Chapter 50: I've Given Up On You

            Max jumps on the bed and instantly curls against my side while I read. Harper likes the edge of the bed, but sometimes she curls up with Max.

            I'm a nineteen-year-old boy that's turning into a cat lady.

            I laugh at the idea.

            Once I read one chapter, I close the book and settle back on the bedside table. I turn the light out and shift slightly, causing Max to meow loudly at me.

            It takes longer to fall asleep than usual.

            But it happens eventually.

★

"I'm not wearing orange."

            Jarod chuckles. "What's wrong with orange?"

            "It's ugly," I retort. "I'd rather stick with simple colors. Not colors that scream when I walk by people."

            He laughs again and picks up a shirt a soft shade of blue. "Here. It brings out the color of your Cunningham eyes."

            I roll my eyes. "Don't shit on the Cunningham eye color. You have the same one."

            Jarod dragged me out of the apartment this morning for internship shopping. It doesn't start until June, but he's one of those people that gets everything done three or four months before it happens. Sometimes I wish I could do that instead of waiting last minute.

            "Now we need to get you pants without holes in them," he says, dragging me over to the pants. "No ripped knees in slacks."

            I stare at him dully.

            Then he points to my jeans, which have ripped knees, but they're my favorite pair.

            Jarod starts piling my arms full of clothes and ushers me towards the dressing rooms. "We're not leaving this store until you have five pairs of pants and seven shirts, so you better hope you like those or we'll be here forever."

            I try everything on as quickly as possible. The pants are fine, but only keep three out of the six shirts he handed me. We go through another round before I make it out of the store with the amount Jarod said.

            When we get back to the apartment, I take my time to hang everything up. It's not like I don't have all the time in the world now until the internship starts. When I was dating Ella, I'd happily give her all the time in the world and I still would. I don't even know what I did before Ella. And now that I'm in Georgia, I don't work on computers and I'm not working at Jenny's.

            Most of my time here is either staring at my phone or contemplating life. Either one is as boring as the next.

            "Have you talked to Mom and Dad today?" Jarod asks when I stroll into the living room.

            "Not since yesterday," I answer and plop down on the couch. "Mom freaks out every time I've called. She thinks I'm coming home."

            Jarod sits on the other side of the couch and stretches out his legs. "And Ella?"

            "She's the last person I want to talk about," I mutter.

            "Why? Maybe you need to talk about it. How long has it been?"

            "Almost a month. I've already talked to Jaylen."

            Jarod snorts. "I love Jay, but he's a terrible listener."