When I’m finished, I take my plate to the kitchen and start washing it off. Kaiden nudges me out of the way and drops his plate in the sink before grabbing the sponge from me and taking over. I gape as I watch him scrub down and rinse off our stuff, before placing them strategically in the plastic drainer.
“You act like you’ve never seen a guy do dishes before,” he grumbles, turning the water off and drying his hands with the dish towel.
Dad would sometimes do dishes when we were little, but mostly it was up to Mama or Logan and I. Especially when Mama would give us treats or coins for helping.
“I just didn’t expect you to do them,” I murmur, shrugging.
He doesn’t respond right away. Then he turns to me, resting his hip against the counter. “I prefer keeping out of people’s business if I don’t think I belong in it.”
I snort unattractively. “Really? If memory serves, you think it’s necessary to rule the school like you’re the king. Kings are in everybody’s business. I can’t even eat a salad in peace without you making a scene.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
His tongue clicks. “High school is a nasty place, especially Exeter. There was a guy that graduated about a year ago who held my position. Everybody knew him, respected him, and listened to what he wanted. You know what that was? For everyone to get along.”
I roll my eyes. “Not everybody is going to get along all the time. So what? High school is just four years—a blimp in the grand scheme of things. You’re wasting time trying to get everyone on the same page.”
He looks away.
I contemplate telling him my own experiences from the only other school I’ve known. “Logan and I have always been opposites. Everyone loved her because she was outgoing and fearless. I was picked on because I hated interacting with people. I’ve always preferred being buried in a book where nobody can bother me. But even on the days when people teased me and gave me crap, I got through it.”
He still doesn’t look at me.
“There are worse things in life than being picked on. It’s draining to try fitting in. Lo and I were different, but I loved us because we were who we were. People may not have understood that, but only our opinion mattered.”
“So what?” he finally asks, crossing his arms on his chest. “Would you like me to let them talk shit about you? Do you want guys to hit on you, catcall you in the halls, or worse?”
Worse? “What…？”
“You don’t want to know.”
My eyes widen.
“Exeter High is a hunting ground,” he says quietly, stepping closer. His tone drops. “I’ve seen bad things happen to people like you all the time. I do what I can to keep the predators away, but they’re around and they love fresh meat.”
I swallow.
He flicks a strand of my hair. “You’re not wrong though,” he adds, shrugging. “It’s tiring to give a shit about what people do and think. It’s necessary though.”
One of my brows arches. “And what would people like me be?”
He smirks. “The mice. The quiet ones who don’t bother anyone. That’s who they go after, you know.”
I blink and whisper, “I can take care of myself, Kaiden.”
He glances around the room, lips pressing together, and then nods. “Yeah, Mouse. I can see that now.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kaiden Monroe loves frozen yogurt. Like smiling, it seems odd for someone as intense as him. He’s content as he spoons some of the cake batter froyo from the bowl, picking through the gummies he added to the top. Gummy bears!
The girl working the register keeps looking over at our table. Kaiden is oblivious, but I roll my eyes. I vaguely remember seeing her in a study hall held by one of my old math teachers a few years ago. She graduated, I do know that much.
Kaiden notices my barely touched dessert and points toward it with the neon pink spoon. Considering the other option was purple, it makes me giggle. “You going to eat or what?”
I’m not sure why he cares. I insisted on paying, so it isn’t like he’s out any money if I decide to throw it away.
His eyes narrow. “What’s your deal?”
I shake my head, raising the spoon of chocolate fudge flavored yogurt to my lips to appease him. He grins and starts eating again, having over half his gone before I even eat a third of mine. It hasn’t even been three hours since we ate breakfast, so I’m not hungry.
Grandma insisted we take her car and ride around, so I showed him the old bookstore and we walked around the small strip mall. There are only a few stores and a tiny theater but considering the stores in town barely stay in business long, it gets a lot of people. Otherwise, everyone would need to travel two hours to go shopping.
We spent most of the morning in silence. Sometimes he’d make a comment, or criticism in his case, over something we saw in passing. More times than not, he just matches my pace and walks beside me without a word to say.
Yet, it’s…peaceful.
The cashier looks our way again.
Kaiden chuckles. “Friend of yours?”
He’s known the whole time? “No.”
He gives her a quick once over, in which she blushes and wiggles her fingers, before looking back at me with no interest in his features. “It’s a small area. You probably know everyone.”
I eat more of my yogurt. “Is that your way of asking for an introduction? Sadly, I don’t know her name.”
That’s not true. It’s Marigold. I remember now because her hair is the color of one, and her sisters are all named after flowers. Rose, Lily, and Marigold. Mama said her parents are hippies or something.
He chuckles and pushes his empty bowl away from him. “No need to be jealous, Mouse. I’m all yours.”
“What if I don’t want you?”
He shrugs.
That’s it.
Ignoring him, I eat about half my dessert before I’m full. Blotting my lips with a napkin, I ball it up and throw it into what’s left of my dish.
“You’re seriously not eating it all?”
“I’m full.”
“You barely eat.”
“You barely shut up,” I counter.
His head tips back in a loud laugh that makes his chest shake.
Marigold glares at me.
I hold her gaze.
She goes in the back.
Brushing hair behind my ear, I wet my bottom lip and study the little crumbs on the tabletop. “I thought I’d like being home. I even thought maybe Mama…” I swallow my words and toy with the spoon in my dish.
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes. “I thought Mama was okay. Or better. Something. I don’t think she’ll ever be okay, Kaiden.”
“She seems a bit off,” he agrees quietly.
I lift my gaze. “You met her?”
He leans back in his seat. “After you fell asleep, she came in to check on you. She wouldn’t walk in the room. I told her I’d leave you two alone, but…”
“But what?”
He doesn’t say.
“But. What?” I enunciate my words clearly, an almost-growl.
“She said she couldn’t be what you needed right now,” he answers dryly. “Not sure what the hell that means, but she wouldn’t even fucking look at you when she said it. She kept looking at the other bed.”