Read Online Awkwardly Ever After by Marni Bates - Free Book Online Page B

Even as the words left my mouth I knew that I would have a better chance trying to convince Izzie to wear three-inch stiletto heels to school than I’d have slowing him down.
    At least he didn’t pick up the pace. He kept his stride long, but he wasn’t running and as long as I could keep my feet smacking the pavement in a rhythm that rivaled a full-out sprint, I was only seconds away from drawing up to his side. There wasn’t anything glamorous about the way I was sweating.
    Dylan didn’t so much as glance my way, though.
    â€œNow isn’t really a great time, Melanie,” Dylan said calmly, as if he were running a few minutes late for a dentist’s appointment.
    I didn’t say anything—partly because I was still struggling to keep up with him and partly because what was there for me to say? Hey, buddy, sorry your dad is such a jerk. If it helps, my dad spends most of his days staring at the bottom of a beer bottle.
    Yeah, pass.
    â€œUh . . . where are we going?” I asked finally when I had regained my breath.
    He shrugged. “Does it matter?”
    â€œI guess not.” We descended into silence for another block . . . then two . . . then three.
    We passed the elementary school and the blacktop where only a few weeks ago I had been cracking up with Dylan as Mackenzie did a celebratory dance after finally making a shot in rollerblading basketball.
    I wondered if he was remembering that or something else entirely. Some distant moment from his childhood back when his dad was actually a part of his life. I tried to picture him as a toddler wobbling around the adjacent soccer field, a wide grin splitting his face, and found myself wondering how long it had been since he’d felt that carefree.
    â€œSo I take it you don’t want to talk?” I said eventually. One of us needed to break the silence at some point, and it didn’t look like it would be him.
    â€œNot particularly.”
    â€œMind if I talk anyway?”
    He shrugged, but he didn’t make eye contact. “Nothing stopping you.”
    I took a deep breath. “Okay, well, I’m pretty sure I owe you an apology.”
    â€œOh yeah?” There was a slight hitch in Dylan’s step, but he didn’t allow it to happen a second time.
    â€œWell, there are a few things, actually.”
    â€œStart wherever you’d like. Alphabetically. Numerically. Categorically. It’s all the same to me.”
    Great. He wasn’t giving an inch and now I had talked myself into one hell of a situation. I had planned to say that I was just trying to be a good friend—to help him deal with his dad and then split—but I hadn’t realized that any apology would inevitably lead to the truth: that I liked him back.
    And I still wasn’t sure what to make of my feelings.
    â€œI shouldn’t have treated you that way back at the house.”
    He considered that for a moment and then turned to look at me—really look at me—for the first time since Mackenzie had agreed to talk to their dad. “Care to be more specific?”
    I kicked at a pinecone and sent it careening forward as my guilt kicked into high gear. “You know . . . when I was making popcorn?”
    He slowed, slightly, but I had a feeling that one wrong word and I’d be left in the dust. “That was . . . what? Fifteen minutes ago? Yeah, Melanie. I remember our conversation just fine.”
    â€œIt was an intense fifteen minutes. You saw your dad again for the first time in years and—”
    â€œGet to the point,” Dylan interrupted.
    â€œI’m just sorry about some of the things I said.”
    Dylan pulled up short. It was funny that I’d been hoping I could make him stop for the past six or seven blocks, and yet now that he was truly stationary and staring me down, I would have gladly accepted any interruption. I would have welcomed a phone call—a text, heck, even a