Chapter Sixty-Four
"What are you doing?" I asked, laughing as I came home from school and encountered Mark Delaurier mowing the front lawn.
"Mowing. What's it look like?" he said, turning it off.
"Why?"
"Being a good neighbour," he said, shrugging.
"You so don't live anywhere near us. So, I'd invite you in for a glass of lemonade, but…" I said awkwardly.
"But caveman's coming home soon?" he said. I frowned.
"Hey…"
"Just kidding, no problem. I'll see you tomorrow," he said, jogging to his car. I nodded, remembering our plan to work on Saturday.
I walked into the house and began to neaten things up, waiting for Sawyer to get home. I hadn't talked to him since the day before, when I'd gone to my parent's house and poured out my heart.
He drove up with his parent's and Tess in Nathan's SUV and jumped out.
"Sawyer," I called. I ran to greet him in the main hall. He looked at me awkwardly. Since the accident, since I'd begun blaming him, we'd barely touched. I awkwardly went to him and put my arms around him.
"I'm sorry. It's my fault, too," I said. He held me close.
"Come with me," he said.
"I can't, I have so much work to do. I'm sorry. Come in," I said. We walked into the kitchen.
"I have to hurry, I only have five minutes. Oh," he said, as his wallet dropped out of his pocket. I leaned down to pick it up, and it flipped open as I did. My eyes immediately went to a picture of me in my wedding dress. He looked at it to, over my shoulder.
"You looked so beautiful. Oh, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while. Right before you started down the aisle you looked at me, and then you looked like you were thinking about a memory and you just let your hair down. Why did you do that?" he asked curiously. I opened my mouth dryly, closing it again. In the distance, Nathan honked the horn and Sawyer jumped slightly.
"Hold that thought. I'll call you from the road. Bye, my Squirt," he said, kissing me lightly before departing at a run.
I looked after him as he left, suddenly sad again. I'd lied to him. I'd tricked him into leaving for Taylor's without me so I'd be free to stay behind and work on my science project. Something that was so innocent yet so complicated. Something I could never make him understand.
I automatically reached for the phone when it rang, but was surprised to hear Sawyer's voice:
"Cal, I told Hutchings he could borrow my trig notes, but I completely forgot about it. Do you mind taking them over there tomorrow?" he asked.
"Um, I'm busy all day. Maybe we could get him to come here and pick them up?" I suggested, thinking quickly.
"Do you mind calling and asking him? What's up?" he asked.
"Oh, tomorrow? I'm just studying with some friends. Yeah, I'll call. Have a good time, love you," I said.
"Love you. Bye," he said, hanging up.
Another lie to add to the list…
After we finished talking, I glanced around an empty house and to the desolate beach outside. It was hard to get used to the thought of being completely alone after rarely having experienced it in our time of being married. But tomorrow Mark could visit and protect me from the monsters under the bed.
Still unnerved, I picked up the portable phone from the island in the kitchen and stared at it. Numbers prepared to flow from my fingertips-of my school friends, Tess', my parent's house.
"Lauren?" I said anxiously when she picked up.
"Hi. What's up?" asked my sister, instantly recognizing my voice.
"Do you want to come over?" I asked. She giggled.
"Wow, you can't last one night alone? Poor baby, I'm coming," she said. The phones clicked off.
I waved to Mom as Lauren leapt out of her car and she drove off.
Lauren bounded into the house, curls bouncing.
"God, I can't believe you live here. It's bigger than all the houses on our street," she said appreciatively.
"Yep, bigger than all the ones along the beach, too. It's going to be a pretty harsh reality check when we finally have to start providing for ourselves," I said, giggling as the two of us made our way inside.
"So why didn't you go to see Taylor?" she asked.
"Can you keep a secret?" I asked, looking away.
"What did you do?" she asked suspiciously.
"Nothing! It's just that I have a science lab due on Tuesday and my lab partner and I have to work on it on the weekend so I couldn't go," I said innocently.
"Liar. Who's your lab partner?"
"Uh, Mark Delaurier," I mumbled.
"The new guy? The swimmer? Dude, he's hot! No wonder you can't tell Sawyer! Does he like you?" she asked eagerly.
"Yeah. He tried to kiss me," I admitted.
"As in wasn't successful? Quite unlike John," she said.
"How did you know about that?" I asked.
"Shouldn't advertise so loudly. I know you still don't live at home, but I do, and I hear all. Why?" she asked.
"John didn't kiss me, I kissed him. And I was just showing him that we never would have worked out. It was a mistake," I admitted.
"Yeah. Mark and John are hot, but Sawyer's a lot hotter," she said.
"Down, girl," I said, laughing.
Author's note: You know what's crazy? Lucas is the supposed star of One Tree Hill, and I'm always mean to him. He's basically always been my bad guy. So next story, I'm going to give it some real Leyton or Brucas, because I'm starting to feel bad for him. Oh, and someone made a really good review lately-an insight on Callie's character, about how she kissed guys she didn't care about, and not that which she did. Great review. Made me feel like I'm really getting through to you.
