The Year of Falling in Love

  "The first one's pretty simple." He clicks the mouse a few times, opening multiple programs. "I just need you to deliver something for me."

  "That doesn't sound too bad."

  "It doesn't sound bad, but this delivery is super fucking important. You can't mess it up at all, okay man?" he says and I nod. "It pays a hundred bucks, and gas is included."

  "Gas?" I rise to my feet as the printer turns on. "How far am I driving?"

  He wheels the chair over to the printer. "To Mapleview."

  "But that's like a two hour drive each way." I run my hand over my head as I pace the length of his basement.

  Normally, I wouldn't give a shit about taking a four-hour drive, but with everything going on with Isa, I want to be close in case she needs me. She hasn't called yet, and she promised me she'd call after she was done talking to her dad.

  "If it's too far, I can get someone else to do it." His tone implies I should keep my mouth shut and be grateful he's doing me a favor.

  "No, I'm good. I just needed to do something, but it can wait, I guess." I take my phone out of my back pocket and check my messages.

  Nothing.

  I decide to message her to see if she's okay.

  Me: Hey, just wanted to make sure everything is okay. You never called me, but maybe you're still talking to your dad. I'm actually headed out of town for the day, but I'll be back later today.

  Isa: Oh my God! Sorry I forgot to call you! All crap hit the fan when I went home and I completely forgot! I'm okay. I'm not even at the house right now. I ran out after Lynn threatened to send me to some reform school in Montana. I'm actually going to be staying with Grandma Stephy for a little bit until we can figure out what to do, but she promised me she wouldn't let them send me away.

  Anger simmers inside me. Dammit. Her parents are such assholes.

  Me: WTF??? They're trying to send you away to Montana? What the hell is wrong with them?

  Isa: Well, Lynn said it was because of my violence problem because apparently pushing her once means I have a violence problem. But honestly, I have a feeling she's been planning this for a while. She had all these papers printed out and she was all ready to ship me off tomorrow morning.

  Me: God, I hate that woman... What did your dad say?

  Isa: The usual. That he agrees with Lynn. I'm not surprised. He always agrees with Lynn when it comes to me. I'm guessing it's because he feels guilty I'm a product of an affair he had.

  Me: I don't care if he feels guilty or not. He's your dad and he needs to act like one.

  Isa: I wish he did, but I honestly don't think he ever will. I'm starting to make peace with that, though. I'm just lucky I have my Grandma Stephy. She's practically like a mom and dad to me. I don't know what I'd do without her. And Indigo too.

  Me: You know I'm here for you if you need anything.

  Isa: I know. You've really been awesome to me lately, Kai. I appreciate it. I really do.

  I want to be there for her today. After what happened with her parents, I'm betting she could use someone to talk to.

  Me: Are you with your grandma now?

  Isa: No. She's actually out of town, but she's flying in tonight.

  There's no way she should be alone right now.

  Me: Want to take a little drive to Mapleview? I could use a driving buddy.

  It takes her a minute to answer and I know the moment the message buzzes through, I'm not going to like her answer.

  Isa: I'm with Kyler right now. We're supposed to hang out until my grandma gets home. Why are you going to Mapleview? If you need me to go with you, I totally will, especially if you want to talk about whatever's going on with you and that T guy.

  I open and flex my fingers. She's with Kyler? What the hell? Did he just wait around the house so he was there to jump in when Isa needed rescuing then cleared his entire schedule? I know for a fact that he had plans later today after he took Isa to breakfast. I heard him talking about it with his friends on the phone after Isa left our house, saying something about needing to get some practice hours in.

  Me: Nah. It's okay. I think I'm just going to ask Big Doug to drive with me.

  It's a complete lie. Yeah, it hurts like a bitch thinking about her and Kyler hanging out, doing God knows what, but I don't want her to come with me just because she feels sorry for me. I've had too many girls do that--hang out with me because they felt bad for using me to get to Kyler.

  Isa: Okay... If you change your mind, let me know. I think we should definitely talk about what's going on with you. Can we hang out tomorrow?

  Me: Yeah. Maybe. I'll text you later and let you know.

  I leave it at that and put my phone away, trying not to think about what her and Kyler could be doing. But it's all I think about. Fuck, I have way too vivid of an imagination. Seriously. I swear my mind's trying to torture me to death with images of Isa and Kyler and what they could be doing.

  "So, who is she?" Big Doug's question rips through my thoughts.

  "Huh?" I take a manila envelope he's holding out to me.

  "The girl who's got you all worked up," he says, swiveling the chair around. "You look like you're about to lose your shit."

  "No, I don't." Stamped across the top of the envelope in bright red letters are DO NOT OPEN along with a smiley face sticker. "What's with you and these stickers? You put them on everything."

  "They're my mark," he answers simply. "It lets people know where I've been and what work is mine. I don't want other people taking credit for my shit."

  I give the envelope a shake, noting it feels really light. "What's in this?"

  "Don't worry about that." He waves me off, then continues on with his questioning. "Is it that girl from the party? The one who needed me to find info on her mom?" When I reluctantly nod, he adds, "How'd she take the news about her mom?"

  I tuck the envelope under my arm. "I haven't told her yet."

  He blinks at me in shock. "Why the hell not?"

  "I was planning on it, but then some shit happened with her family... I'm worried she might not be able to handle it right now."

  "It doesn't matter what you think. She deserves to know and the longer you sit on this, the more pissed she's going to be when you do tell her."

  "I know." I crack my knuckles as his words sink in. He's right. Even if Isa is going through a ton of family drama right now, I need to tell her as soon as I can. "Dude, you're starting to sound like Dr. Phil."

  Big Doug tucks his arms behind his head. "I watch that show all the time."

  I give him a really look. "Are you being serious?"

  "What? I got nothing better to do between jobs. Besides, I learn a lot from it, like when to tell a girl you're obsessed with that you know something about her family. Something, I might add, that she asked for help with."

  "All right. I get it. I'll tell her. Just stop Psych 101-ing me and drop it."

  He holds up a finger. "One more thing." He opens a drawer to a filing cabinet, collects a folder with a smiley face sticker on it, and hands it to me. "I felt bad about being the bearer of such fucked up news, so I decided to do some more research on this Bella woman and found out more about her case."

  "What'd you find out?" Considering Big Doug rarely does favors for people, I'm shocked he did this.

  "Some pretty interesting stuff. I'm actually kind of surprised the woman was found guilty. Then again, some of the stuff I pulled up wasn't used in the case, and isn't accessible to the public. She filed for an appeal a couple of times, and I think her most recent one got approved, but it might take a while for anything to happen. I'm still looking into a few more things, but I thought I'd give this to you for now. It might give Isa a little bit of peace of mind until I can find out more."

  "Wait. Did you hack into the case records or something?" I peek into the folder and cringe as I skim over the top page.

  Before I can get too far into it, he slams his hand down on top of the folder, closing it. "You can look at that later. Right now,
we work."

  Then he jumps right in and gives me a list of instructions to follow when I deliver the package. After hearing the list, I realize it is a bigger job than I originally thought and I feel even more uneasy about what the hell's in the envelope.

  Under no circumstances am I to look into the envelope.

  Before I pull up to the set location, I'm to drive around the block three times.

  If I see anyone who looks even a bit suspicious, I'm supposed to drive off and head home without dropping off the envelope.

  Keep my car door locked at all times. Even when the guy comes to pick up the envelope, I'm only supposed to crack the window and slip it through.

  The guy picking it up will be wearing a hoodie and brass knuckles.

  The second I give the guy the envelope I need to leave Mapleview. But don't drive straight home. I need to cruise on the back roads for about an hour before getting on the highway.

  I can't take my cell phone with me.

  "What?" I say after he rattles off number seven. "Why the heck not?"

  "For tracking purposes." He sticks out his hand. "Hand it over man."

  I retrieve my phone from my back pocket, but don't hand it over. "Just a second." I hurriedly type a quick text to Isa, deciding it's time to tell her.

  Me: Yeah, let's definitely get together tomorrow. Just let me know what time to pick you up.

  Before I receive a response, Big Doug snatches the phone from my hand.

  "Dude, give me that back," I gripe, reaching to take it back.

  He spins the chair around, shoves my phone into a desk drawer, and then locks it away. "I'll give it back to you when the job's done. And the hundred bucks."

  When I hear my phone vibrate inside the drawer, I grind my teeth. "Just let me check that."

  He shakes his head. "You have the envelope. You're officially on the clock."

  I considering telling him to fuck off, but stop myself since he's doing me a huge favor.

  "See you in five hours." He starts a timer on a computer.

  Sighing, I turn for the door, feeling unsettled about what I'm about to do. Yeah, I've done some shady things over the last year. I've broken into cars, partied, done some illegal stuff like helped hack into security systems, bought weed off T and dealt for him a couple of times. The whole drug thing was a little too intense for me, though. I was nervous and panicky making the drops, and I quickly stopped both buying and selling. When Bradon tracked me down at a party, it'd been months since I had seen T.

  "I need a favor," he said, nervously glancing around at the people drinking and smoking around us. He was so twitchy I wondered if he was on something.

  At first, I just shook my head. A favor for Bradon usually meant trouble.

  But then he begged and pleaded. "Please, Kai. My family's in some serious financial trouble, and I need the money, like really bad or we're gonna lose everything."

  He looked upset, and I started to feel sorry for him.

  "What'd you need?" I asked.

  "For you to vouch to T for me," he said quickly. "Just tell him that he can trust me."

  "Can he?" I question because Bradon was never the trustworthy type. He was either stealing from people or stealing and lying about it.

  "I won't screw you over," he promised. "I just need to do a couple of jobs for him so I can earn some cash fast. But he needs someone he knows--like you--to vouch for me."

  Every one of my instincts screamed at me not to do this, that Bradon was going to end up screwing me over, but then he gave me this whole speech about his family losing their house and car, and I caved liked a sucker.

  In the end, Bradon ended up selling the drugs for T and never giving him any of the money. At first, I didn't get too pissed off, because I thought maybe he did it in a panic move to bail his family out of their financial trouble. But a couple of days ago I found out that was all a lie.

  Bradon has gotten into some pretty hardcore drugs and needed quick cash to feed his addiction. From what I understand, his parents gave him an intervention yesterday and he took off to rehab. I feel like an idiot for believing his sob story and not seeing his drug problem had gotten that out of hand. But there's nothing I can do about it now. T warned me that, if Bradon screwed him over, his debt would fall on me.

  I just hope whatever I'm about to do isn't going to end with me being in even more trouble.

  Chapter 6

  Isabella

  I dribble the ball against the concrete as I calculate where to make my next shot. So far, Kyler and I are both tied at HORS. It's taken us over an hour just to get to that point because we both rock at the game and rarely miss a basket. It's fun spending time with him. What's really cool is that he hasn't brought up my mom and dad. While I know I'm eventually going to have to talk about it, it's nice taking a break from the emotional chaos.

  "Quit procrastinating losing," Kyler taunts as he watches me walk the length of the court.

  I stop near the half court and smile sweetly at him. "You mean, you losing?"

  He chuckles, fishing out his phone from his pocket. "In your dreams. And when I win, you owe me," he says, reading a text.

  "You're so not going to win. And you want to know why?" I raise my arms with the ball in my hands.

  He leans against the pole of the hoop, folding his arms, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Because you're so awesome?"

  "Yep." Grinning, I take the shot. From out of my peripheral vision, I swear I see a flash, like a camera and I wonder if it might be Kyler, but when I look at him again, I don't see his phone in his hand. And why would he take a photo of me?

  Shoving the weird paranoia aside, I watch the ball soar through the air, swish through the basket, and I break out in a goofy dance, throwing my hands in the air and tapping my feet.

  Kyler laughs as he chases down the ball. "Cute victory dance, but FYI, you haven't won yet." With that, he strolls up to where I'm standing and easily makes the basket.

  I stop dancing, gather the ball in my hands, and inch back farther to make a shot. But I try to go too big and end up missing. Now Kyler's the one to dance around, like he's already won.

  I can't help giggling at his silly dance moves. "You still haven't won."

  "I've got this in the bag now." He appears pretty confident as he strides around behind me and presses his solid chest against my back. My breath gets caught in my throat as my heart dang near explodes out of my chest. My body shakes from the sensation and I quickly step forward before he notices.

  But his fingers fold around my arm and draw me back against him. "Nope. You need to stay put for this one." He lets go of my arm and rests his elbows on my shoulder.

  After he shoots the basket, I spin around and put my hands on my hips, giving him the death glare. "No fair."

  "Why isn't that fair?" he asks innocently.

  "Um, hello, because you're, like, five inches taller than me." Sure, I'm not short or anything, but Kyler is tall. For me to be able to even get my elbows onto his shoulders, I'd have to get a stepstool.

  "I'll tell you what." He's totally enjoying this. "I'll make it easy on you. Just make the shot from here."

  Like hell I'm taking the easy way out.

  I square my shoulders. "No way. I'm going to win this fair and square." I skip around him. Then, with a jump, I hurry and rest my elbows on his shoulders for a split second, quickly tossing the ball. It arches through the air, and at first I think it's going to make it, but at the last second, it curves left, dings the rim and falls to the ground. "Mother of all zombies."

  Kyler whirls around with a ha-ha-I-just-kicked-your-behind look on his face. "You should've taken the easy shot."

  "No way." I grimace, partly joking, but partly not because man, I hate losing! "It wouldn't have felt like a real win."

  "But now I win." His grin is as shiny as a disco ball.

  I want to sulk and be a sore loser, but he looks too adorable standing there shirtless with his hair a tousled mess and his skin lig
htly damp with sweat. "Fine. What crazy thing are we doing?"

  "Aw, don't pout." He lightly prods me with his elbow. "I promise I'll pick something fun."

  I frown for two point five more seconds, before the smile wins. "Fine. What're we doing?" I bounce on my toes, bursting with anticipation.

  He laughs, his eyes crinkling around the corners. "I think that might be the quickest I've ever seen anyone get over losing."

  I rub the light sheen of sweat from my hairline with the back of my hand. "What can I say? I'm a sucker for surprises." I clasp my hands together. "Now please, pretty please, tell me what we're doing."

  He shakes his head, scooping up the ball. "No way. It won't be a surprise if I tell you."

  I follow after him as he starts across the grass toward the car. "Oh, come on." I grasp his arm. "We never agreed it had to be a surprise, just that the winner got to pick something crazy that we'd both have to do."

  He digs his car keys from his pocket. "Yeah, but I think it's more fun this way."

  I jut out my bottom lip. "Says who?"

  "Says me." His gaze briefly falls to my fingers on his arm.

  All of my insecurities overwhelm me and I pull away from him, my cheeks warming.

  A beat or two skips by and the silence makes my cheeks heat even more with embarrassment. Trying to chill out, I focus on everything else except Kyler staring at me: the leaves gusting across the dry grass, a horn honking in the distance, the playground swings squeaking against the wind, the tree Kai and I used to hide in when we were younger and just a couple of days ago during lunch when we almost kissed, and a twenty-something-year-old guy with dark brown hair, leaning against a tree, watching us as like a creeper.

  What the hell? Maybe he was the one who took a photo of me when I made the shot? But why? That doesn't make any sense.

  Stop worrying so much, Isa. No one wants a photo of you.

  When the guy notices me observing him, he waves sheepishly before jogging toward the parking lot and across the street, disappearing into a nearby neighborhood.

  I'm not sure what to make of it or if I should make anything of it.

  Just chill, dude. You seriously watch too many horror movies.

  "I think you're adorable." Kyler tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear, drawing my attention back to him. "You get so excited over the simplest things. It's such a nice break from what I'm used to."