Billion Reasons Why

Chapter 19

I shook my head at him. Once we made it to my room, Blaine made sure to leave the door wide open.

“You don’t want my mom to feel like that, but you don’t think she’ll assume other stuff every time I sleep over at your apartment?”

“It’s different,” Blaine said. It wasn’t, but he didn’t see it that way.

I offered him a chair, but Blaine shook his head. “You could at least sit down.”

“Why was Vitaly here?” He kept his voice quiet. My guess was that he wanted to know, but he didn’t want my mom to hear us arguing.

“He wanted to make sure I was okay. Vitaly thought you might take it out on me,” I replied.

“He thought I was going to hurt you?” Blaine asked, looking both shocked and upset. “For fucks sake, Madeline!”

He raised his voice, my mom heard him, and she came to check up on us. All she found was Blaine standing by the door—door wide open, very parent approved—and me sitting in front of my computer, facing him.

“Sorry about that. I think I surprised Blaine,” I told my mom, waving her off.

My mom looked between Blaine and me, cocking an eyebrow. I felt like we were both teenagers in high school, and my mom was being the worried parent, making sure we weren’t doing anything bad.

My mom had hardly ever babysat me. Her long hours at work had forced me to handle myself a lot younger than other people around me. That and how nerdy I was all throughout middle school and high school. She trusted me, mainly because I had never given her any reason not to.

“I apologize. Madeline is…” Blaine said.

My mom waited for him to continue. When I laughed, she just rolled her eyes at me and finally walked away.

“She just wants to know that we’re good. You don’t have to get all serious,” I told Blaine.

“We should go to my apartment,” he said.

“I already told you that-”

“Not that one. I meant the one down the hall,” Blaine interrupted.

“We’ll start arguing as soon as we’re alone.”

“I deserve an explanation,” Blaine stated.

I sighed, and looked down at my lap. Maybe he did. I tried to put myself in his shoes. I would have questions if he was hanging out with someone I didn’t like. But I didn’t want to start fighting with him.

“My mom is going to expect us to come back to eat,” I told him.

“That’s fine,” he said.

I wasn’t ready to tell my mom that Blaine had gotten an apartment down the hall from us. I wasn’t sure how she was going to take it.

I ended up telling her that Blaine and I were going to the store—to call when the food was ready. Lying was so not the way to go. She ended up giving me a list of things that we needed at our place.

As soon as we stepped out into the hall, Trevor was waiting for us. “Bring it to my apartment,” Blaine told him, handing over the list my mom had given me.

“I feel bad for him,” I said, looking at Trevor walk away.

“Why? It’s his job,” Blaine said, looking at me like I was weird for even thinking about it.

“You’re so… you,” I told him, shaking my head.

Even angry Blaine wasn’t angry enough to want to be away from me. I definitely liked that. The walk to his apartment was short, but he still took my hand in his and led the way.