Love and Fame Games (Book 1)

19

"What?" There was alarm in my dad's voice. Scowling, he stood and headed for the door. "And he has the nerve to show his face here? Wait 'til I get my hands on him."

"Dad, no! I wasn't talking about him." I sat up quickly and reached out stop him. "It's not even his fault. Some guys from Adamson ganged up on him. You know how those guys are . . . they think they can do anything they want and that they own everybody."

"So that has nothing to do with you? Nothing going on that I should know about?" My dad looked unconvinced, which was pretty perceptive of him, actually. Maybe what happened between Seth and me was in the back of my mind when I blurted out that earlier remark, but I didn't mean to throw him under the bus like that, or get my dad involved.

"Dad, come on. This is Seth we're talking about. You know Seth. You looove Seth."

Dad scoffed. Men.

Even though my dad wouldn't admit it, I knew he was fond of Seth, and Seth liked respected my dad a great deal, too, because he was different from his dad in the sense that he worked a lot but was still around. And I liked that the two guys I was closest to got along really well. I wouldn't want to mess that up just because things were weird between me and one of them at the moment.

"I love you, okay? How I feel about him is contingent on that irrefutable fact."

"Are you kidding me? He's like, on your speed dial!"

"Well, he's so good to have around--especially when there's yard work to be done."

"Oh my God! You totally can't make him do things like that anymore."

"Hah! Just watch me. . ."

"At least let him in first. Offer him a beverage or something."

"Hey, I'm not the one he's here to see." He gave an exaggerated shrug. "Join me and your mom at the table before you go running off anywhere."

I was gonna clarify whether that meant there wasn't gonna be any of the punishment he mentioned earlier but he might already forgotten about it and disn't want to remind him.

As soon as Dad was out the door I turned my attention towards the window. I was able to reach it without getting off the bed but it took a bit of stretching. Once it was open, I spotted Seth immediately. He was ambling around our lawn and looked up as soon as I stuck my head out of the open window.

"Good morning!" He said, with a tone as warm, and a smile as bright as the morning sun. It was all too much for me this early in the day and I had to back up for a moment.

Unfortunately, the sheets that were still tangled around my feet got in the way and I fell to the floor with a loud thud.

"Oof!" I got on my feet as quickly as I could and looked out the window, hoping he hadn't noticed. The little smirk on his face told me otherwise.

"Still feeling it, huh? How's your head?"

"Shut up, Seth." I glared at him, not appreciating his taunting tone. "I need to get ready for breakfast," I said, and slammed my bedroom window shut.

I headed for the bathroom, determined to take my sweet time in the shower and also to not care whether or not Seth would still be waiting outside when I was finished. After I'd brushed my teeth to get the weird taste out of my mouth, I changed into a loose t-shirt and cropped pants and went downstairs

"Adrian, do I need to set an extra place at the table?" my mom asked as soon as she saw me, letting me know Seth was still outside. She didn't sound ethrilled about it, either, probably because she hadn't had a chance to give her bad cop number and I knew she wouldn't in front of Seth, or anyone who wasn't family.