“Ok. Let’s go sit back here.” He towed me to the back and we sat in a dark booth. Our waitress came over immediately. It was a junior from my Lit class. “Hey, Callie, I’ll take a root beer. What do you want, Mags?”
“Sweet tea.”
She eyed us both with a little smile. “Congratulations on graduating, both of you. I can’t wait.”
“Thanks,” Kyle muttered and she went to fetch our drinks. “You ok?”
“Yes.”
“What’d you and your Pops fight about?” he asked as he fingered his silverware.
“He’s a jerk.”
“Aha,” he replied, like that explained everything.
“My mom left last summer right before school started. Did you know that?”
“Yeah, Chad said something about it.”
“He did?” I said with surprise.
“Yeah, he was pretty strung out there for a while after you guys broke up. Of course, I only really saw him at football practice and lunch.”
“Yeah.”
“So why did you break up with him, anyway?” he asked and I looked up to see that he was serious.
I started to tell him the truth but Callie came back with our drinks. “What’ll you guys have?”
“I’ll have the...parmesan eggplant,” he answered.
“Cheese ravioli.”
“Ok. I’ll get that right in for you. No appetizers?”
“No thanks,” I answered and as soon as she was gone I turned my glare on him. “Chad broke up with me. He didn’t want to date anyone his last year because he knew he was leaving.”
“What? Then why was he so upset about it? I just assumed it was you...I mean, that’s why I kept asking you out, because I thought you broke it off with him which meant you didn’t want to be with him anymore.”
“We had talked about it. He thought it’d be easier that way, but I didn’t want to. He did it anyway.”
“Ah, man. What an idiot. I actually felt sorry for him moping around.”
“Well, I mean, he had a point, but I guess I just thought it’d be better to spend our last year together than apart, even if it would be hard for him to go, you know?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok, enough about Chad. Where are you going to school?”
“Good old University of Tennessee.”
“So, is that where all your family goes?”
“Pretty much. We try to stay together as much as possible.”
“So, where’s, uh...” Just thinking his name made me feel shaky all over again. “Where’s Caleb from?”
“From here, well two towns over. His family lives there along with the rest of our clan. We’re the black sheep who decided to live somewhere else.”
“Why?”
“This is where my mom’s parents were from. She and my dad are the last members of our clan to be imprinted. Something is wrong and it’s stopped happening. There are a lot of single people in our clan right now.”
“So, nobody in your family has gotten married since your parents?”
“Well.” He took a long sip of his drink and leaned back. His feet touched mine under the table. I scooted them back. “My uncle got married but it was a big scandal. He wasn’t imprinted, he just married someone from a clan that he fell in love with. Big no-no.”
“Because he could imprint with someone while already being married to someone else,” I said, understanding.
“Yep. I mean, he was thirty one when he got married, no one ever imprints that late, but still. Why chance it? You can’t control it. Think about what his wife would feel if he imprinted with another woman. He wouldn’t be able to control the way he felt.”
“So you can love someone even if you aren’t imprinted with them?”
“Yeah,” he said softly and looked down quickly so I tried to act like I didn’t notice.
“So, what happens after you imprint? Caleb said something about abilities.”
“Nuhuh. That’s his territory. He has to explain it to you.”
“Another no-no?” I asked, sensing there was probably gonna be a lot of rules.“Nope, I’m just not gonna be the one to break it to you.”
“Ok, so.” A silly question popped in my head but I hoped it’d lighten the mood. “What about Werewolves? Real?”
He laughed. “No. Not even close.”
“Wizards?”
“Hardly.”
“Angels?”
“Bible.”
“Aliens?”
“Science Fiction.”
“Vampires?”
“Young adult science fiction,” he said, laughing loudly.
An older couple beside us gave us a not happy look at his outburst and we laughed harder before I started quizzing him again. “So, none of the myths are real?”
“None that you would think of. Food’s here.”
“That was fast.”
“They always are. Good ol’ Pablo.”
“Here you go,” Callie said and she set our food down. “Ravioli and eggplant. You need anything else?”
“Nope. I think we’re good. Thanks, Callie.”
“Ok.” She lingered and looked a little uncomfortable, twirling her pen in her fingers before turning to me. “So, um, you and Chad broke up, right?”
“Yeah,” I answered and hoped this wasn’t going where I thought it was.
“Would you mind if I called him? I mean, we’re both going to Florida. I’ll be there next year. I just figured, since you dumped him you wouldn’t mind if I asked him out.”
“Jeez, Callie, blunt much?” Kyle said and looked at her like she had two heads.
“What? She’s the one who dumped him. He’s moped around all year waiting for her. He needs to have some fun for a change.”
“She didn’t dump-” he started to defend me, but I stopped him.
“No, Kyle. It’s ok. Yes, Callie, call him to your little heart’s desire.”
“Are you funning me?” Her hand went to her hip. “Cause I don’t always catch the sarcasm.”
I wanted to sigh, and I had to mentally push out the blonde joke rattling around in my head. “Look. Call him. If he wants to go out with you, fine. Thanks for the ravioli. We don’t need anything else right now.”
“Ok,” she said warily. “I’ll check on you in a bit.”
She walked away and Kyle looked at me sympathetically. “She’s such a ditz. Some people have no couth.”
“No, really it’s fine.” I had an epiphany; a revelation that made my cheeks spread in a smile. “I don’t care. For the first time in a year...I don’t care about Chad.”
“It’s the bond.” He shook his head. “You won’t care about anyone but Caleb now,” he said almost grudgingly.
“So, there’s no way to break it or stop feeling it...or whatever?”
“No. Why, do you want to?”
“No,” I answered too quickly and he grimaced.
“Yeah, didn’t think so.”
“So,” I sang, sensing a need to change the subject. “What are you gonna do at Tennessee?”
“Architecture.”
I remembered Caleb telling me that’s what he was doing. “Is that a family business?”
“Mmhmm,” he mumbled around a bite.
I pursed my lips and waited, but he didn’t say anything further. So we ate. He asked me about school, why I’d dropped out of everything. Why I hardly came to school anymore and stopped eating lunch with them. This whole time, he thought it had been because of my dumping Chad.
I told him everything. I don’t know why, I just did. I told him things I didn’t even tell Rebecca and she was the closest thing to a best friend I ever had but I even felt withdrawn from her lately. I told him how my mom left, taking everything of value with her: all our plates and dishes, the money, our savings, my college fund, my parent’s bed. My dad had slept on the couch in the den for ten months. I told him how she used to call me and try to explain how much she had hated her life and everything in it. I told him how my dad was bitter now and spiteful, his life just spiraling down and he was slowly taking me with him. I told him how I had to get a job to help out because my dad lost his.
He listened quietly as he ate. He waited to see if I was done, watching me closely.
“I’m sorry, Mags. Everyone just assumed you’d ditched Chad and just didn’t want to hang out with us anymore. No one knew- I mean, we knew your mom left but the rest...you should have said something.”
“I didn’t know what to say. How do you tell someone that your boyfriend dumped you three days after their mom left and their dad sits in his room and doesn’t even speak to you? No one wanted me around anymore,” I said softly and stared at the ravioli I no longer wanted.
“I wanted you,” he admitted just as softly. I looked up and caught his hazel brown gaze. “I’ve always wanted you. But it was always you and Chad. And now, it’ll be you and Caleb. And not only that, but I’ll have to see you together, every day, because you’ll be family.”
“Kyle.” I pushed my plate away and began to toy with my hoop earring. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”
“No.” He sighed roughly and grunted. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I still want to be your friend, Mags. Now I get to be your cousin, too.” He forced a grin. “The Jacobsons are a weird bunch, I’m warning you now, but they are fiercely protective. You don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Your mom and dad are idiots for leaving you, but you have a new family now.”