Love Me, Love Me Not Read online

  “I need to meet your parents at ten in the lobby.”

  His hands roam under his way-too-big shirt I’m wearing, lifting it up over my butt and making my skin prickle with goose bumps. “Do you need to get ready?” he asks, his lips moving closer and closer to my own.

  “Yes,” I reply, draping my leg over his hip. He hooks his fingers in the crook of my knee and draws me even closer.

  “But I can probably wait a few minutes,” I say. Tilting my head, I take in his face. His beautiful face with mussed-up hair, stubble on his chin, and those vibrant blue eyes. “You’re really hot,” I note, running a finger along his jaw.

  “I—”

  A knock at the door interrupts us.

  “It’s probably one of the guys. Let me get rid of him,” Brad says, unwinding himself from me and standing.

  As he goes to the door, I lift the blanket over my head.

  I hear the lock click and then the creak of a hinge as Brad must open the door.

  “Dad,” he says in a high voice that’s not his. My body immediately stiffens, and I hike the blanket even higher. What is he doing here?

  “Hey, Brad. I went out and collected all the local papers this morning. Thought you might like a hard copy of the articles on the game.”

  “Oh, thanks. That’s really nice.”

  “You coming down to breakfast?”

  “I’m not hungry. I think I’ll relax here until the bus leaves.”

  “You’re not hungry? Are you sick?”

  “No,” Brad says with a laugh. “Still tired, I guess.”

  “Sorry. Did I wake you and Carlos? I ran into Michelle downstairs, and she said you were up.”

  “What?” Brad asks. “I haven’t seen Michelle since last night.”

  “She was leaving as I was coming in. She said you were up and would love to have the papers.”

  I can’t see Brad, but I imagine him rolling his eyes. “Thanks,” he says, and I hear some rustling, “but I was asleep.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Gil says, “I’ll get out of your w—whose shoes are those?”

  Oh my God. I left my pink sneakers by the bathroom door. No, no, no. I’m such an idiot!

  “Daaad,” Brad says, drawing out the word. “I really would like to be alone.”

  “Oh,” Gil says. After a pause, he adds, “Right, right. Sure. Okay.” There’s another pause and then he says, “Yes, okay. I’ll be going. Just … just remember what we’ve talked about. Do you need…”

  “Dad,” Brad says again. “I’m good. I’ll see you at home.”

  Finally, the door slams shut.

  “Oh my God!” I yell, throwing the blanket from me and bolting up in bed. “He knows!”

  Brad shakes his head. “He knows there’s a girl here, but he doesn’t know it’s you.”

  “Yes, he does. Oh my God.” I cover my face with my hands. “It’s over. This is all over. This is as bad as it gets. And it’s all Michelle’s fault. She must’ve figured it out!”

  “I can think of many ways it could’ve been worse.”

  I shake my head and jump off the bed, collecting my clothes from last night and making a beeline for the bathroom. While I’m yanking on my jeans, Brad eyes me from the doorway, his arms gripping the top of the doorframe. I’m freaking out inside, and he’s as relaxed as he was five minutes ago.

  I turn around and put on my bra under his shirt. “He has to know those are my shoes.”

  “He’s not very observant. Now if it were Mom, that’d be a different story.”

  “They’re bright pink! He has to know.”

  “You give him too much credit.”

  I whip his shirt over my head and throw on my sweatshirt from yesterday. When I turn around, he’s still standing there, smiling.

  “What are you smiling about?”

  “How you’re being so modest today.”

  “What?” I squeeze past him, pick up my shoes, and then sit on the bed to lace them up.

  “You realize that last night, I saw everything you just turned around to hide, right?”

  I shoot him an annoyed look.

  “What? It’s cute,” he says, strolling over to me and kissing the top of my head. “Don’t freak out. We’re fine.”

  I blow out a long breath. “I hope so. I need to get back to my room.”

  He nods, gives me a better kiss on the lips, and then I open the door a crack, make sure the coast is clear, and run for the stairwell. I don’t run. Ever. So the fifty-foot sprint leaves me breathless. Once on the steps, I slow down and catch my breath. I can’t believe what just happened and how Brad is being so nonchalant about the whole thing. So much for this being the perfect opportunity for us to be together.

  When I get to the fourth floor, I open the door and turn right to reach my room. Unfortunately, Gil and Gigi are standing at the door not even five rooms from where I am. I spin around without thinking and crash my shoulder into the wall.

  Stifling the scream that wants to come out, I try to sneak back to the stairwell.

  “Hailey?” It’s Gigi’s voice.

  I turn back around and wave. “Oh, hey. Good morning.”

  “What are you doing?”

  Brittany sticks her head into the hallway. “Hey, how was the fitness room?” she asks.

  “Oh,” I mumble, looking at my feet and shuffling in their direction. I’m glad she’s covering for me, but I seem physically unable to flat-out lie to their faces. “I didn’t make it there. I don’t know where it is.”

  “Do you want to grab breakfast with us?” Gigi asks.

  I bite my lip. Which answer is less suspicious?

  “Sure,” I reply.

  “Great,” Gigi says, turning around and heading in the direction of the elevator.

  “How was the party last night?” Gil asks.

  “It was fun.”

  We continue chatting all the way down to the restaurant, Gil and Gigi as friendly as always, while I try to hide my inner freak-out.

  When we’re seated, I unfold my napkin and try to lay it on my lap with shaky fingers, but it falls to the floor instead.

  Gil, who was in the process of sitting down, says, “I’ll get that for you.” He leans over. Rather than grabbing my napkin and standing up, he pauses, his eyes focused on the napkin partially draped over my foot.

  My foot with the stupid pink shoe.

  I curl my legs and try to hide them under the chair.

  He sits down without my napkin and looks at me, his eyebrows drawn and his mouth in a hard line.

  “Were you really looking for the fitness room this morning?” he asks.

  I gulp and search for water. My mouth feels like a desert. There are three glasses of orange juice at the end of the table, so I stretch and grab the closest one. I take a long gulp and then a deep breath.

  “Well?” he asks.

  Gigi says, “What are you doing, Gil? You’re scaring the poor girl.”

  He raises his hand. “This is important.”

  “Hailey?”

  I shake my head.

  “Where were you?”

  I take another gulp of juice. Then another. I keep doing it until the glass is empty, then I reach for another one, but Gil stops my hand with his own. “Please answer me, Hailey.”

  “Gil—” Gigi tries again, but he raises his hand once more.

  “I—I was in … in … Can I please have more juice?” I squeak.

  He hands me a glass. I down it in three gulps and then stare at the tabletop as I whisper, “Brad’s room.”

  Gil leans back in his chair.

  “What happened? Did you have a fight with the girls this morning?” Gigi asks me.

  Oh my God. She’s giving me an easy out. I say yes and all this is brushed behind us.

  I start to nod, but I can’t do it. My head won’t listen to me and it shakes instead.

  “Did you need to get something from him this morning?” Gigi asks.

  The shaking continues.
/>   “Did you have a question for him?” she asks, genuine concern making the faint wrinkles around her eyes more noticeable.

  The shaking continues.

  “Did you stay with him the entire night?” Gil asks.

  At least my head stops shaking.

  “Why would you sleep in Brad’s room?” Gigi asks, but immediately realizes the answer to her own question. “Oh,” she says, her mouth holding the round shape way longer than needed.

  “Come on,” Gil says with a sigh as he pushes back his chair. “Let’s see what Brad has to say.”

  A couple minutes later, we’re back in his room. He’s showered and changed when he answers the door.

  “What’s … up?” he asks after opening the door. His pause makes it clear he realizes something big went down.

  “What’s going on with you and Hailey?” Gil asks, pushing the door wider and leading us all inside. Gigi and Gil sit on Carlos’s still-made bed, while Brad and I stand in the middle of the room.

  “What do you mean?” Brad asks, glancing between them and me, probably trying to figure out how much they know.

  I whisper, “I told them I stayed the night.”

  He continues studying my face, and I get the impression he’s thinking about how he can manipulate the situation.

  “Sit. Both of you,” Gil says, motioning to the bed we snuggled in only a little while ago. Brad lowers himself across from Gigi, while I take a spot a couple of feet away.

  Brad looks at me again, so I whisper, “They also know it’s not because I got in a fight with my friends or needed anything from you.”

  He nods and looks at his parents. There’s another long pause before he says, “I like her, okay. She likes me.” He shrugs. “That’s the way it is.”

  I glare at him. I realize I’m unable to lie to them, but I also wouldn’t just volunteer that information. There’s a happy middle ground he could’ve gone for. Instead, he’s admitting everything we’ve hidden for months, as though it’s no big deal. But it’s a huge deal. There was a reason we kept it hidden.

  Gigi pulls her hand to her mouth while Gil stares at Brad.

  Then Brad grabs my hand and stares back. I try to jerk it away, but he squeezes it tighter. “We like each other. We’re together.”

  “You most certainly are not,” Gil says calmly.

  “We most certainly are.”

  I try yanking my hand away again, and this time he lets it fall.

  “Bradley, that’s enough,” Gil says, gently placing his hands on his knees and glaring at his son. His voice is quiet and calm, but his glare speaks volumes. If he looked at me like that, I’d be in tears, but Brad just tenses his jaw and stares back.

  It’s as if the two of them are in some silent tug-of-war, but it’s a perfectly even match and the rope doesn’t move at all. It just sits there still as can be while the two of them flex their muscles and try to get the upper hand.

  I’ve never seen Brad act like this, and it’s making me even more nervous. I thought Gil and Gigi finding out was as bad as it could get, but Brad might single-handedly make it even worse with the way he’s acting.

  “Honey,” Gigi says as she looks at Brad, her face taut. “We didn’t raise you to treat us like this.”

  “No, you raised me to do whatever you say,” Brad says, finally breaking the stare so he can look at his mom. “It’s not just this. It’s college, too. Dad wants to control every aspect of my life. I’m tired of it.”

  Crap, crap, crap. All his built-up anger is coming out in one fell swoop, and I’m stuck in it. It’s like a tornado has blown through town and I’m caught in the middle, spinning around wildly. If Brad doesn’t shut up, we might leave insurmountable wreckage in our wake.

  “Those are two entirely different issues,” Gil says, his voice still calm. “One is based on DSS regulations and the other is what I think is best for you long term. Where do you want to go to school? EGU?”

  Gil still doesn’t know about the Duke offer. He thinks Brad’s only options are EGU and Wake Forest.

  “Maybe,” he replies.

  I know it’s a lie, and I can tell he’s just trying to start something with his dad. He’s going to do anything he can to turn this into an all-out war.

  “You can’t be serious,” Gils says.

  “Why not?”

  “Wake is ranked in the top thirty colleges in the country; EGU doesn’t even make the top two thousand.”

  “I’m sure plenty of EGU graduates have stellar careers. They even have a medical school.”

  I want to run out of the room, but I can’t stop staring at Brad. It’s like when you see a car accident. You know you should look away, but you can’t stop watching the carnage, which gets worse and worse the closer you get. In this case, it’s getting worse and worse the more Brad talks.

  But Gil doesn’t even flinch, despite the anger that I’m sure is brewing under the surface. “You might as well take it easy next semester then. No reason to be valedictorian if you’re just going to EGU. Hell, you don’t even need to be in the top ten.”

  “That’s what I was thinking. I could switch out of my AP classes to take something more fun. Art. Choir. Drama. Auto mechanics. That sounds like a full schedule for next semester.”

  “Almost,” Gil says, nodding. Then, he holds his chin between his thumb and finger as if deep in thought before adding, “You need to include underwater basket weaving to really round out your experience.”

  Brad’s clenched jaw twitches, and then the side of his mouth inches upward slightly, like he’s trying hard not to smile. “Is that a thing?”

  “It might be at EGU.”

  Brad’s mouth twitches again and then he states, “I’m going to Duke.” Any hint of a smile is now long gone.

  “What?” Gigi whispers.

  “I am. They made me an offer last night. And Hailey and I are dating, whether you like it or not.”

  I bury my face in my hands. “Actually,” I whisper, dropping my hands, ready to try to salvage anything I can, “I’m going to disagree with Brad here. Sorry,” I say, glancing at him. Looking back at Gigi, I continue, “I apologize for what I … we did, although I didn’t technically break any of your rules. I still understand it was wrong, and I’m sorry. I promise I’ll stay away from him. I can’t lose this placement. I need you. All of you.” My eyes sting, and I have to wipe at them to keep any tears from falling.

  “That is a very mature approach,” Gil says.

  “What the hell?” Brad asks, turning his anger to me briefly before focusing on Gil again. “I’m eighteen; she’s only a few months from eighteen. If we want to date, we should be able to date.”

  “DSS would disagree with you,” Gil states.

  “They don’t need to know.”

  “They need to know if one of their adolescents is having a sexual relationship with another adolescent in the same foster home.”

  My face has never been hotter, and I have to stare at the carpet, unable to meet anyone’s eyes as they talk about me like I’m not sitting right here.

  “Okay, fine,” Brad says. “But, we’re not having sex.”

  I peek up to find Gil narrowing his eyes again and Gigi rubbing her face before saying, “You expect us to believe she stayed here all night and nothing happened?”

  “Not sex. And she hasn’t broken any of your rules,” Brad points out. “We’ve never had sex—not at home, not here. She checked in with you when she got to the hotel, just like you asked. She didn’t leave the hotel last night; she just changed rooms. And she didn’t drink or use drugs.”

  “A sexual relationship is not just sex,” Gil says.

  “Then you and DSS should be more specific.”

  “Please,” I whisper, pleading with Brad. “Don’t make this worse than it already is.”

  “What exactly do you want?” Gil asks Brad, completely ignoring me. “You want us to bless a relationship between our son and his foster sister? You know this is supposed to be a
safe place for her.”

  “It is a safe place.”

  “Until you break up, making her question everything we’ve done.”

  “That won’t happen.”

  “You’re right it won’t, because you two will not have this type of relationship.”

  “Gil,” Gigi says, resting her hand on his arm. “Let’s take a moment and think about this. I talked to Sherry yesterday, and she went on and on about how well Hailey’s doing. Maybe this is … isn’t as bad as it seems.”

  “How long has this been going on?” Gil asks, alternating his gaze between me and Brad.

  “A couple of months,” Brad answers.

  “Months?” Gils asks, his eyes growing wide. “You’ve been sneaking around for months? You didn’t notice?” he asks, turning his focus to Gigi. “You notice everything.”

  She bites her lip and shrugs. “I—I, no. I thought they had developed a very close friendship.”

  “We have,” Brad says.

  Gigi gives us a strained smile and then says, “Let’s all take a little time to calm down. We can talk about this more when we get home. And we might need to add Sherry to the discussion.”

  My heart drops. I know what will happen if Sherry’s involved.

  The only option for me to try to keep what I have is to give up Brad. I can live without fooling around. I can’t live without the Campbells. They’re essential to me like air, food, and water. If I lose them, life as I know it is over.

  Gigi meets Gil’s eyes. He offers her a barely noticeable nod, but the clenched fists in his lap and his tense jaw give away how uneasy this whole conversation has made him.

  Brad blows out a breath, stares at me, and shakes his head. I see disappointment in his eyes. He knows the decision I’ve already made.

  CHAPTER 27

  The three-hour ride back to the Campbells’ house is awful. Not because Gil and Gigi yell at me or anything. I just can’t stop thinking about how Brad and I are over. And how hard it will be to go back to being simply friends.

  I chew on my thumbnail and look out the window as peach farms and then golf courses start flying by. We’re almost back.

  Brad taps my foot with his, causing me to turn and meet his eyes. He was supposed to ride on the bus with the team, but he changed his mind after everything happened.