WANTED (The Runaways Series Book #2)

Chapter 5

Hailey

I cried for three hours straight. Three hours of trying and failing to convince myself that I'd be okay, until a quiet knock, knock, knocking pulled me out of my pillows and drew my attention to the door.

Caleb stood propped up against the frame with his newly bandaged hand flopped lazily over his head and the other shoved deep in his pocket. He stared right at me, through me, like he could see how little willpower I had left to say what I needed to.

I should’ve told him to leave, I should’ve opened my mouth and made him go before I asked him to stay. But my lips locked tight and I held his gaze while the pretender in me fell apart a puzzle piece at a time.

I smoothed out the kinks in my dress and sat up, hoping to look as poised as possible in front of a boy who made being poised impossible every time he looked my direction.

"Too guilty to sleep?" He asked.

"Where were you, Caleb? It's nearly two o'clock in the morning."

"I'll tell you where I wasn't—with Sawyer. Well, not for long anyway. He ran off before I could finish things."

Caleb slid away from the doorway and dragged his feet across the room, scraping the soles of his shoes against the carpet and shrinking the space between us.

He held his eyes steady on mine as he walked, and the closer he got the clearer the bright red in the whites of his eyes shined in the low light. Caleb smelled the way Jack did on the night he trapped me in his house—like whiskey and trouble.

            “How much did you drink?”

            “Enough to miss you a little bit. I shouldn’t though.”

He stumbled into the sofa and laughed to himself like some part of the night we’d had was funny. Only alcohol turns disasters into jokes and jokes into disasters.

            “You know what, Hailey? My buddy Hal says I should fight for you.  You think I should?”

He tried to steady his balance but ended up two steps from nearly crashing into our night table. I stood up to try to stop him from breaking anymore of himself than he already had.

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Caleb, but you need to lie down.”

            “You see that’s why I liked you, Hailey. You’re smart. Too smart for me, I guess.”

My hands found their way around his waist and I guided him over to our bed. I’d helped my dad through so many nights like this, nights where he’d hardly be able to walk, or talk, or do anything but wallow in the bottom of a bourbon bottle.

I thought Caleb would be the same, a man sized ragdoll who’d sink into the sheets the second he had a mattress to fall into. But he stiffened up the second we reached the bed and snaked his arms around me so tight I couldn’t move.

            “Can I tell you something?” He whispered.

He leaned over and rested his head against my shoulder and I let him. I probably shouldn’t have.

             “Tell me,” I said.

          “I wanna kiss you so bad right now, Hailey. God, you don’t even know. But I don’t think I’m supposed to want to anymore, it’s kinda confusing.”

My lips tugged up at the corners, threatening to curl into the kind of smile I'd given him everyday he came home from work.

            “Can I tell you something?” I asked.