Toxic Bad Boy(18)
“Thanks. I like your hair, too.” She reached out to stroke the fuzz on my head. Her touch was as nice as I’d imagined earlier. “And you look bigger,” she remarked, scanning my chest and arms.
“Working out helps kill time.”
“I have a session with the crew this afternoon.”
Shifting in my seat, I thought of Jared lying in wait. “Any big plans tonight?”
She shrugged, picking a chocolate out of the box. “Gage wants to see a movie. I’ll probably ask Cece if her and Dante want to come.”
“Like a double date?” I asked in disbelief.
“No,” she drawled irritably. “Not like a date, like friends hanging out.”
“Say you love me again,” I commanded.
She huffed, faking annoyance. “I love you, sometimes.”
“Brat,” I teased. “My brat.”
“Ten minutes!” a guard announced to the room.
“Shit!” I hissed, my chest weighted at the prospect of being separated from her again.
“I’m sorry,” Gianna whispered. “It’s my fault you’re in here.”
“It’s not your fault.” I played with her fingers, wanting to hold onto her and never let go. “Just promise you’ll come back soon.”
“I promise, Caleb.”
“This sucks.” Memorizing her face, I realized six more months would feel like a lifetime in purgatory. “I want lots of pictures.”
“I’ll send them,” she assured me with a squeeze of my hand.
“I’m gonna miss the fuck out of you until you come again.”
“Soon, I promise.”
“Stand up so I can kiss you again.”
My pretty girl complied and I held on to her until a guard ordered me to back off.
Us inmates filed out first. I took a last look back at her. I expected her to be doing the same, but her head was in her hands.
The gesture alarmed me and I was jittery for the next couple hours. At the first opportunity, I requested phone time. Pulling a piece of paper from my pocket, I dialed the number Ian had written on it for me.
He answered on the fourth ring. “Hello.”
“Gage?”
“Who’s this?”
“Gianna’s boyfriend, Caleb.”
“Oh,” he said slowly as recognition hit. “Why are you calling me?”
“So, you’re Kara’s brother?”
“Yeah. So you’re the one who’s paying me?”
“No, Ian’s the one with the fat wallet. I’m just the boyfriend who got a hold of Kara so she could help find someone to enroll at Gianna’s new school.”
“What that Josh guy did to her messed with her head.”
Dr. Adler often urged me to get past my anger. She asked the impossible. “Yeah, well next time I put that fucker in the hospital, I’ll make sure it’s the basement morgue.”
Gage grunted, whether in censure or agreement I wasn’t sure.
In a rough voice, I warned him, “Listen, I only need you to watch out for her until I get out of here in August. Under no circumstances let her find out Ian and I hired you. If that happens, she’ll pull away from the friendship. From what Dante has said, she isn’t opening up to Cece, so your other job is to get her to open up to you.”
“Hey, it’s no hardship, man. I hated Broomfield anyways and it was time for a change of scenery. Living with my grandma is better than living with my parents. Besides, Gianna is a cool girl and I like hanging out with her.”
It killed me that he got to spend that time with her. “Just remember, you’re getting paid to look out for her, so don’t be stupid enough to fall for her. She’s my girlfriend and she’ll still belong to me when I get the fuck out of here.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.
-James Dean
MAY
seven months down, three to go....
CALEB
Gianna would be going to prom with someone else. I hung up the phone, leaning back in my chair as I exhaled deeply. It had taken all my control to hold back my displeasure when Gianna told me over the phone she’d be attending prom with Gage.
Instead of raging or whining, asking her not to go to prom at all since it wouldn’t be with me, I’d encouraged her to go. Miraculously, I hadn’t choked on the words. Assuring her I wanted her to go next weekend and have fun had been difficult.
The judge should let me out of here early for my self-sacrifice and I should be nominated for sainthood. Surely some priest would be awed by the miracle which just occurred. I must be a god damn saint to have encouraged my girlfriend to go to prom with another guy.
The thought of his hands around her waist, the front of their bodies touching as they danced or him taking her out to a nice restaurant beforehand, had me wanting to punch a wall.