The Year of Falling in Love

  Me: You did that without me? That sounds dangerous.

  But honestly, I'm kind of touched.

  Kyler: It was definitely interesting. Let me just say that bubble gum and chocolate ice cream is a no go.

  Me: It doesn't sound too bad to me. Your taste buds are just too picky.

  The phone suddenly rings, and Kyler's name flashes across the screen. I press talk and put the phone to my ear.

  "I thought you said your trainer would have a shit fit if you called," I say, leaning against the bathroom counter.

  "He will," he replies. "But it's worth it to hear your voice."

  "There you go with the rom-com lines."

  "Yep. I saved that one just for you."

  "Gee, thanks," I say sarcastically.

  "Anytime. But really, I just wanted to make sure you are okay. My dad and Kai got into this fight, and I guess he kicked Kai out. He looked so upset when he walked out of the house. It made me think of you and how hard this has to be for you, having to move out of your house and being on your own."

  "Well, I'm not on my own. I'm living with my grandma and cousin... You were at the house when Kai got kicked out?"

  "Yeah. I tried to talk my dad out of it, but he's a stubborn man." He pauses. "You act like you already knew about the fight."

  I fidget with a bracelet on my wrist. "I do."

  "How?"

  "Um ... Because Kai's here with me."

  "Oh." The silence that follows seems to last forever. "So he's, like, staying with you?"

  I think about lying to him, but I'm all lied out for the day. "He's just staying on my grandma's couch until he can find somewhere to live."

  "Oh." Another pause and I just start to think he's irritated when he says, "I'm glad he has somewhere to stay. I was worried he'd end up sleeping on a park bench or something."

  "He's fine," I assure him. "I won't let him leave until he has somewhere else to stay that isn't a park bench."

  "If he does try to leave without having anywhere else to go ... Will you promise to call me?"

  "Of course."

  He seems so concerned about Kai, but with how much the two of them argue, I find his response strange.

  "Hey, would it be okay if I picked you up for lunch tomorrow?" he asks. "You get, like, an hour lunch break, right? We could hit up the drive-in or something."

  "Yeah, sure. That sounds nice." But I cross my fingers I'm not crossing that line Indigo was talking about yet. I don't want to hurt anyone, and I can't ignore the voice in the back of my head telling me I just need to pick one of them.

  "Awesome..." He trails off as someone says something to him.

  It's a girl's voice and I feel myself cringing with jealousy. I hate my reaction and remind myself that we're not dating, that he can talk and hang out with girls like how I talk to Kai. He's not mine. And besides, maybe his trainer is a girl.

  Then I hear her say my name, or more like sneer it, and my jealousy turns into confusion.

  "Hey Isa, I'm sorry, but I have to go," Kyler says to me. "That was my trainer chewing out my ass. If I don't get off the phone now, I'm gonna have to run an extra mile tomorrow morning."

  "Okay."

  He says goodbye and then hangs up, leaving me even more confused.

  It makes me question why I feel this way. It's the second time I've felt confusedly jealous over Kyler and a girl and I've only hung out with him twice. Is that how stuff is going to be? Am I ever going to get over my insecurities when I'm with him... My thoughts drift to Kai and how easy things are with him...

  Shaking the thought from my head, I take the hair products with me as I return to the room.

  When I walk in, Indigo is almost finished packing. I drop the hair products into the suitcase and she zips it up.

  "Call me if you need anything," she says, hugging me goodbye. Then she whispers in my ear, "And I mean anything, especially if you get confused over guys."

  When I nod, she steps back and leaves the room, wheeling her suitcase behind her.

  I dither for a moment in the doorway, wonder if I should have Kai and I move to the living room. It's intimidating being in a room with him. I don't know why it is. I mean, we slept on the same couch together the other night. But this is a room with a bed and walls and a door, and it feels so ... intimate.

  But then I hear my Grandma Stephy talking to Harry, and I decide to quit being a chicken and lie down on the bed beside Kai.

  The corners of his lips quirk, but he doesn't look up from the computer. "For a second, I thought you were going to pussy out."

  "Why would I pussy out?" I ask, adjusting the pillows. "We're just hanging out."

  "Because we're alone in a bed. Think of all the possibilities." He winks at me.

  I shake my head, like "Oh, Kai." But deep down, I'm thinking about the possibilities, as well. And dear God, my mind can create some pretty creative ones.

  "You're cute when you blush," he says before redirecting his attention back to the computer. I try to pay attention to the movie, but my mind's elsewhere: on my mom, Lynn, my dad, Hannah, the blue car, Kai, Kyler. The list is endless and makes me wonder if I'll ever be able to relax again.

  ***

  The next thing I know I'm suddenly being woken up from a very deep sleep by a loud buzzing. I'm thrown off. I don't even remember falling asleep to begin with. I was so awake, so worried I thought I'd never be able to sleep.

  It takes me a second to process my surroundings through the darkness. I'm in a bed, moonlight is filtering through a window, and my legs are tangled with someone else's.

  My attention whips to the person lying beside me, panic setting in. Then I remember what happened right before I fell asleep.

  Kai had shut down the computer for the night and was lying down beside me to finish the movie. When I wouldn't hold still, he pressed his forehead against mine.

  "You're so restless," he said.

  "I know." I sighed. "I'm sorry. I just have too much on my mind or something."

  Amusement danced in his eyes. "I have a cure for that."

  I was a little afraid to ask. "Oh yeah? What?"

  He grinned and then started singing "Lullaby" by The Spill Canvas to me in the softest, most soothing voice ever.

  "Go to sleep, Isa," he said, adding his own words in. "Or else I'm going to kiss you."

  I giggled as my heart leapt in my chest. I wanted to say something snarky to him, banter like we normal do, but I was too flustered. I didn't think I could fall asleep with how awake and wired my mind was, but I must have passed out only a minute later, because that's the last thing I can remember.

  But how my grandma let us fall to sleep together in the bed is beyond me. My guess is that she got caught up doing ... stuff with Harry.

  Kai's sound asleep on his side with his hands tucked under his head. He looks so adorable and relaxed, his lips slightly parted as he breathes in and out, his hair sticking up in all sorts of directions. The urge to run my fingers through his hair surfaces. I want to touch him really, really badly to the point that it might make me a creeper. And watching him sleep like this makes me even stranger.

  Before I even know what I'm doing, I start to reach for him. But then my phone buzzes, nearly startling me to death, and I realize that it's the same buzzing that woke me.

  Yawning, I pick my phone up from off the nightstand and read the message, figuring it's probably from Indigo, telling me she made it home okay.

  Unknown: You're going to get what you deserve.

  Unknown: Just you wait.

  "What the crap?" I rub the tiredness from my eyes then reach over and turn the lamp on before reading the message again.

  Kai stirs beside me, his eyelids opening and blinking against the light. He takes one look at my face and goes from groggily waking up to waking-the-fuck-up.

  "What's wrong?" he asks, sitting up.

  I hand him my phone. "I just got this message."

  Kai reads the message and his jaw clenches. "T
his has to be Hannah. God, she's such an evil bitch."

  "But how did she get an unknown number?"

  "It's not that hard." He sets the phone down on the nightstand. "And they're pretty easy to trace. I'll look into it tomorrow."

  I chew on my thumbnail. "I hate to say this, but if it is Hannah, I'm kind of worried over what she has planned."

  He slips his arms around me and guides me with him as he lies back down. "I'm not going to let her do anything to you." He tucks his arm underneath my head and plays with my hair. "I stopped her from spreading rumors once; I can do it again."

  I want to believe he has that kind of power, but ... "What she's the one who stole the papers out of the car? What if she knows my mom murdered someone, and she tells everyone at school?"

  "That's not going to happen," he promises me. "I won't let it."

  I want to ask him how, but he kisses my forehead, silencing me.

  "Get some sleep," he whispers then reaches over and clicks off the lamp.

  He settles beside me, holding onto me for dear life and making me feel safe.

  I wish I could hold onto the moment forever, but I know, come morning, I'll have to wake up and face reality.

  Chapter 17

  Isabella

  The next couple of days are surprisingly uneventful. With all the drama that happened over the weekend and the threatening text messages, I expected all hell to break lose. But nothing happens.

  On Monday, I borrow the car Indigo usually takes to work to drive Kai and me to school. Kyler texts me that morning, telling me he has to cancel our lunch date. While I'm not crazy bummed out, it still kind of sucks because, in a way, I feel like my dream of wanting to date him is slowly fading.

  Tuesday and Wednesday breeze by in a flash and before I know it, it's Thursday. I haven't seen any sightings of the mysterious blue car, but that still doesn't mean I've forgotten about it. I keep waiting for it to pop up somewhere and the worry has me on edge.

  On Thursday afternoon, I work on homework while Kai tries to crack into the flash drive. Indigo still isn't back from her parents and since my Grandma hangs out with her friends a lot, usually Kai and I have the apartment to ourselves. It gives him plenty of time to mess around on the computer without my grandma getting too suspicious.

  He's managed to crack a few of the codes, but more always pop up. I really start to question what could be on there. Why Big Doug would put so much security on a flash drive that supposedly only holds information about my mom's case.

  Between trying to crack codes, Kai spends time trying to track down the unknown number that messaged me.

  "I think they might have used a burner phone," he says to me, flopping back in the couch with frustration written all over his face. "I don't know what else to do."

  "Maybe we should take a break," I suggest when I notice how exhausted he looks. The bags under his eyes reveal that he clearly hasn't been sleeping well. While some of the cuts and bruises have faded, he still has a few along his hairline and beside his eye. "We could take a time out from this and do something else."

  He shakes his head, being stubborn. "No, I need to do this for you."

  I nibble on the corner of a cookie. "Kai, it's not going to be the end of the world if you don't break into the flash drive. I mean, you said that Big Doug said my mom got an appeal... " I swallow down the pain, always do when I think about her. "Eventually, the information on that will be out in the open."

  "But I don't want you to have to worry." The passionate look he gives me makes me melt back in the chair. "I want you to have some peace of mind through all of this."

  He's been giving me that look a freakin' ton over the last few of days. Which makes me believe even more that he needs a break.

  "Sorry, I'm acting so crazy," he says when I give him a please-chill-dude look. "I just wish I could figure this out. If Big Doug were here, he'd be able to figure it out like that." He snaps his finger.

  "If Big Doug was here then we wouldn't be doing this to begin with." I stuff the rest of the toast into my mouth, dust the crumbs off my hands, and pick up my phone as it buzzes.

  I hesitate before opening the message. It's something I've been doing ever since I got the threatening text.

  Lily: Hey! Just wanted to check in and see if you were still interested in that job. My manager's about to hire some idiot who I'm pretty sure came to the interview blazed out of his freaking mind.

  "Who's Lily?" Kai asks, reading the message from over my shoulder.

  "I met her when Kyler and I played flag football," I say. "She's Wes's little sister... Not sure if you know who Wes is."

  "Yeah, I know who he is. He's an asshole." Kai sweeps my hair away from my shoulder and rests his chin there. "I didn't know you were looking for a job."

  "I wasn't really looking. Lily just suggested I work there. She seems really nice... I don't think she's actually friends with Kyler."

  "I don't think so either. At least, I've never heard of a Lily." He pauses. "What's going on with you two?"

  "Who? Me and Lily?" But I know he's not referring to Lily.

  "You and my brother." He pauses again and I can feel him studying me. "You haven't mentioned him at all. As far as I know, you haven't talked to him since Saturday. And just when you said his name now... You had a tone."

  "I don't know why I did, but I swear, there's nothing going on," I say, but I feel like such a liar.

  But nothing really is going on with us. That's the problem. Talking to Kai about my reservations, though, it doesn't feel right.

  "I think I'm going to apply for that job," I abruptly announce, swiping my finger across the screen of my phone.

  Me: I'm definitely still interested.

  Lily: Yay! Can you head over now?

  Me: Yep. On my way now.

  I glance down at my black jeans with zipper embellishments, my red off-the-shoulder top, and my strappy heels.

  Me: Wait. What should I wear?

  Lily: Whatever. It doesn't really matter. I mean, he was about to hire a guy as high as a mofo.

  I smile at her message, slide my phone into my back pocket, and grab the car keys from the coffee table.

  Kai rises to his feet and stretches his arms above his head. "Want some company?"

  I nod, heading for the door. "And I want you to take a break so it's a two-for-one."

  He grins at me, his arms falling to the side. "Actually, it's a three-for-one because it gives me a chance to spend time with a beautiful girl."

  I roll my eyes, but as I step out the door, a goofy smile plasters across my face.

  Kai grabs his grey knitted beanie and tugs it on before stepping outside with me. After I lock up, we head for the car. Halfway down the sidewalk, he places a hand against the small of my back, his gaze skimming the parking lot.

  "What are you looking at?" I ask, trying to track his gaze.

  His eyes land on a car parked on the corner of the street. "Blue car."

  The air gets ripped from my lungs as I spot the blue car with the Superman sticker. I squint, trying to get the plate number when suddenly Kai starts running toward it.

  "Kai, no don't!" I shout in a panic.

  What if the person in the car is dangerous? What if he gets hurt?

  Before Kai even gets close, the car speeds off, the tires spinning and leaving marks on the road. While I want to know who's following me, I'm relieved it drove away before Kai did something irrational that might have gotten him hurt.

  "Dammit," he curses, kicking a rock across the grass. "I'm going to lose my damn mind wondering who the fuck it is."

  "I know," I say as approach him. "But if we see it again, you have to promise me you won't try to do anything but get the plate number."

  He shakes his head, his gaze fierce. "No way."

  "Kai," I start, my tone carrying a warning. "I don't want you getting hurt."

  "I won't get hurt," he assures me. "They would."

  I pop my knuckles against the side
of my legs. "I don't want you getting into this mess. You're already too far into it."

  His expression softens. "Isa, trust me when I say this mess is mild compared to the trouble I'm in."

  "You mean with trying to find a house? Or finding a way your car towed back to Sunnyvale?" I question. "Or this thing with T. Because you still haven't explained to me what that's about."

  "And I'm not going to." He slings an arm around my waist and steers me toward the car.

  "That's not fair. Why do you get to help me and I don't get to help you?"

  "Because you're too pretty."

  I let my head dramatically bob back. "That's the dumbest excuse I've ever heard."

  "Well, it's true. And I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you."

  I don't know how to respond. I want to say a lot of stuff, but my heart is racing too wildly. I'm worried my voice will come out all wobbly.

  Instead, I get my phone and text my grandma about what just happened. She replies that she'll have her policeman friend look around the apartment the second he gets home.

  Grandma Stephy: And I want you to stay inside and keep the doors locked until I get home.

  Me: I'm actually headed to apply for a job.

  Grandma Stephy: I didn't know you were looking for a job.

  Me: I want to help out.

  Grandma Stephy: You don't have to do that, Isa. I'm happy I get to take care of you.

  Me: I still need to work. If for nothing else, to save up for college.

  Grandma Stephy: All right, if you want to do that then that's fine. But you keep every penny you earned... And Kai's with you, right? I don't want you driving alone.

  Me: Yeah, he's right here.

  Grandma Stephy: Good. That makes me feel a lot better. That boy would seriously take a bullet for you.

  Me: Over dramatic much. J/k ;)

  Grandma Stephy: I'm just being protective. Stay safe and get home as soon as you can.

  Protective? It feels strange to think about that someone wants to protect me. I glance at Kai, thinking about what my grandma said. Does he really care about me that much? According to Indigo, probably.

  When we get to the car, Kai opens the driver's door for me. Normally I'd tease him about trying to be a gentleman, but he hurries to the passenger side before I can.

  The car ride is quiet for the most part. It's a cloudy day and by the time we pull up to the store, it's raining.