Chapter 22

Stevie McGabe

I sat on the end of my bed, my eyes trained on the driveway our house shared with Darryl’s. He was due to be released from the treatment center today, and Jake’s car had driven off loaded with all of the Nelson family nearly three hours ago. I hadn’t moved from my spot since.

Finding Darryl unconscious like that was the single most frightening thing I’d ever experienced. I had stayed by his side until the doctors kicked me out to pump his stomach and stuff.

Darryl’s phone clamped to my ear while I phoned his parents, my parents, our grandparents—anyone I could think to call that could come and take control of the situation, because I was floundering on my own.

Jake and Abi had both invited me to go visit him at Dr. Greene’s hospital, but I didn’t know how he felt about me right now. I couldn’t think of anything worse than showing up and him cursing me out or ignoring me altogether. Even now, I just needed to see that he was okay with my own two eyes, and we could go straight back to hating each other again.

I mean, he obviously doesn’t want me after the way he reacted to kissing me. And I know he had his phone with him because I made sure to give it back to Jake when I left the hospital. I’d overheard Smit talking about the messages he’d been exchanging the last few days with Darryl.

“Sweetie?” My mom’s voice drifts up the stairs to me. “Abi just rang, they’re nearly here so we’re going over to have a barbecue.”“I’m not hungry,” I shout back.

“Stevie, it’s not about the food,” I roll my eyes as I hear her footsteps getting closer. “It’s about being there to support our friends.” She pushes open my bedroom door and raises an eyebrow at me as she crosses her arms and leans against the doorjamb.

“Darryl isn’t my friend.”

“He was once…and I think the way you acted when he was sick shows you still care about him. Plus, it’s not just Darryl we’re supporting. Jake and Abi and Vinnie need us too.”

“I think saying he was ‘sick’ is putting it mildly. He tried to kill himself, mom!” My eyes start to burn, and I suddenly can’t swallow around the huge lump in my throat.

“I can’t believe he wants to die, mom. I don’t know who he is anymore,” I whisper.

“Oh, honey,” my mom wraps her arms around me, pulling me into a tight embrace, surrounding me with her familiar scent. “Okay…I’ll get Grayson to bring you a plate of food over when it’s done.”

With a kiss to my forehead, she leaves me alone, calling out to my little brother to get his ass in gear. From my perch in the window, I feel my skin prickle in anticipation as Jake’s car pulls back onto the drive.

I watch as my mom and dad step out to meet them all. Darryl unfurls his long legs from the back seat, and I dodge back behind my curtains as he starts to look up towards my window, my heart beating wildly behind my ribs at nearly being caught snooping.

The sounds of chatter and laughter, punctuated by doors closing, soon drifts and quietens as they make their way to the Nelson’s back yard. Before long, the smells of barbecue reach me.

I stretch out on my bed, picking up my e-reader and swiping to the book I was in the middle of reading, soon losing myself to the fantastical world of werewolves and shapeshifters who were all trying to escape from prison and having lots of sexy time on the way.

A tentative knock rouses me from a particularly explicit scene, and I drop my e-reader onto my bed, feeling the blush lingering on my cheeks as I call out to Grayson to come in.

My breath catches when Darryl pushes the door open instead, balancing a loaded plate of barbecue on one hand, and a bottle of Dr. Pepper in the other. My favorite!

“Uhm…your mom asked to bring you some food over.” His green eyes dart furtively around my room as he hovers nervously in my doorway.

“Thanks,” I reply softly, my cheeks still burning. Damn sexy fictional incubus getting me all flustered!

He paces over and puts the plate down on my desk, and I watch as he walks slowly around my room, running his fingers over the Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments I had littered about. He pauses when he reaches the Sally doll he’d bought me for Christmas when we were little kids.

“I can’t believe you still have this.” He looks over at me, the ghost of a smile on his lips as he picks her up.

I shrug. “It meant a lot to me.”

“Meant?” He frowns at my word choice.

“What are you doing here, Darryl?” I sigh.

“I…uhm,” he puts Sally back where she belongs and slowly walks over to sit next to me on the bed, so close I can feel the heat from his body. “I guess I wanted to say I was sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” I turn a little so I can see his face better.

He keeps his gaze directed at his hands, picking at his cuticles, the muscle in his jaw jumping as he grinds his teeth. “Sorry for scaring you I guess…sorry for you having to save my sorry ass.”

“Why did you do it?” I whisper, reaching out and resting my hand on his forearm, feeling his strong muscle shift under his skin as he continues to pick at his fingernails.

He huffs out a deep sigh, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

“I didn’t mean to.” His low voice catches on the last word, and I tighten my grip on his arm. “Why did you leave?”

I frown. “What?”

“Why did you sneak out of my room that morning? Was it to see that guy?”

I shake my head, my brow furrowing further at his words. “I left because you made it perfectly clear the night before that you didn’t want me there. And what guy?!”

“Some steroid-taking fucker with a nice car. And who the fuck said I didn’t want you there?!” His face turns incredulous.

“You did! You took my first kiss and then smashed it into the fucking ground under the heel of your stupid army boots! You rejected me,” I swallow back the wave of emotion, trying to stymie the tears which were rapidly filling my eyes.

“And that guy is Rhea’s cousin. He picked me up on his way to her restaurant so I could hang out with someone who actually wanted to spend time with me!”

“You’d never been kissed before?!” Darryl turns towards me, his eyes flashing with something akin to shock. I shake my head, biting down on my lower lip as my skin burns with embarrassment under the evaluating glare. “Wait…when did I reject you?”

“Y-you said we shouldn’t do this when we started making out. You said you didn’t want me, remember.”

“What? No, I fucking didn’t… I said we should wait until we both remembered everything,” he takes my hands between his. “Stevie… I’d have to be fucking brain dead to reject you. I just didn’t want my first time to be some drunken fumble. Especially if my first time was going to be with you.” Wait… what?!