I Won't Give Up (15 page)

The rest of the night the conversation flowed easily and Garrett was very polite and attentive.
He told me about his parents, he was an only child but though
t of Eli like a brother
“even though he’s an ass”. He liked comedy movies and rap, which was going to be a tough one for me since I hated, I mean absolutely loathed, rap music but I guess I could deal with it maybe I could convert him. His favorite kind of food was French mine was either Southern or Italian but I guess I could live with that too. They say opposites attract right…
I felt like I was able to be the old me just for a little while,
it felt nice, it was the first time
since my night with Cooper
that I felt
anything close to
this
.
The rest of my life was spent merely existing.
When dinner was over I didn’t want the night to end
just yet
.
“I don’t know if you want to get back to your friends or not but we could go back to my house and build a fire in the backyard if you want.”
I was a little anxious and kind of regretted it as soon as I said it but it was too late to take it back.
“I’d like that. I’ll follow you?”
I was thankful he brought it up because I didn’t want to take one car and have him conveniently “stuck” there.

“Sounds like a plan.” He opened my car door for me and I backed out waiting for him to pull up behind me
, we
started the drive back to the lake house. Once
back to the house
I
ran
inside and turned all the lights on
,
leaving the front door open.

“This place is awesome.” Garrett said
looking around
.

“Thanks.
I’m pretty fond of it. It belonged to my grandparents
;
my brother and I used
to spend most of our summers here
when we
growing up. I just want to change quick, make yourself comfortable.” I walked upstairs and threw on a pair of yoga pants and a light hoodie
before hurrying
back downstairs.

“Wow you could make a paper bag look good.” He said making me blush.

“Thanks. This way to the backyard.”
I said walking to the slider off the kitchen.
We walked to the fire pit and I started grabbing some brush and twigs to get the fire started.

“Let me do that. Go sit.” I sat and watched him get all the makings of our fire. Once
he was satisfied
we had enough
he lit a match and the fire roared
to life. “Do you have a blanket or something, we can lay back and watch the stars.”

“Sure. I’ll go grab one.” I walked inside and grabbed a spare quilt from the linen closet and handed it to him. He set it on the ground and sat down patting next to him for me to sit.

“I al
ways loved looking at the stars
.”
He said.
I felt him move closer. I turned
my head
to look at him a
nd he lowered his face slightly. Did I want this? He was
hesitating so I raised mine the rest of the way and kissed him. His tongue grazed my lower lip and I parted my mouth slightly allowing the kiss to go deeper. He pulled me onto his lap so I was straddling his waist. I was running my hands through his hair
and my mind automatically shifted to Cooper and how when we kissed I literally saw starts behind my eyelids, I felt a little guilty.
I snapped out of it,
the whole point of me being here was to move on like he had. Garrett
was rubbing his hands up and down my back. He pulled back slightly.

“Thank you. That was amazing.”
He said.
I could feel his excitement down below but decided not to embarrass him by mentioning it.
No way I was going there with anyone any time soon.

“It was a
good kiss huh.” I joked
. We sat like that for a little while longer talking and watching the fire and the stars
. O
nce the fire was out it started to feel cold so we headed inside.

“I guess
you
’d better get going
.” I said.

“I guess.
I
t’
s almost two in the morning.
I’d
love to take you out tomorrow, l
unch maybe?”
He seemed to be hesitating in the doorway.

“I’d like that.”
I said
,
relieved
that he was going
.
Then I felt guilty again, he didn’t do anything wrong and here I was picking him apart and comparing everything he did to Cooper.

“I’ll pick you up say eleven thirty?”

“
Sounds great.” He leaned in a kissed me lightly before heading towards the door shutting it behind him.
I locked the door before heading ups
tairs. I climbed into bed
and chastised myself for a while.
I thought about Cooper and how he probably went on a date with Riley earlier.
I put a movie on and
fell into a deep
sleep.

When I woke up the next morning the sun was shining and the sky was a brilliant blue. I climbed out of bed and headed to the shower. I dressed in a teal blue wrap dress and threw on a pair of jeweled
flats
before heading downstairs
. I
t was already ten-thirty so I only had an hour before Garrett would be back
.
I was surprised to find I was actually looking forward to it
, a welcome distraction
. I cleaned up the kitchen and was folding up the blanket from last night putting it back in the linen closet when the doorbell rang.
I ran and opened the door.

“Garrett you’re early.”
I said surprised.

Except it wasn’t Garrett, i
t was my dad and
her
.
I felt all the emotions I was trying to suppress surface.

“Fiona
we saw your car in the driveway
. We weren’t expecting to find anyone here.” He looked surprised
,
Gigi just looked annoyed. I guess I ruined their plans of a romantic weekend getaway.

“Well I decided a weekend away would be good for me.” I spat.

“Gigi go wait in the car.” My dad said. She reluctantly walked
, rather stomped,
back to my dad’s Escalade
to pout
.
My dad walked past me into the house that once belonged to his parents and went to sit on the wing chair closest to the door. He looked exhausted.
“Fiona,
Please talk to me.” He pleaded.

“I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“
I’m sorry. I’m sorry for hurting you. I’m sorry for hurting mom and Luke too but she makes me happy
.
I know you don’t understand it now but I hope one day you might.”
He looked regrettable.

“I thought we made you happy. I thought we had the perfect family.
” I took a cleansing breath.
“You know what
, I’m over it. I hope you’re happy, I really do but I don’t want anything to do with either of you
right now
. I
’d appreciate if you’d leave
.”

“You’ll always be my little girl Fiona
. I love you.”
He kissed me on the cheek and
walked away. I felt like I had been sucker punched
,
I needed to sit down.
I started to feel panicked and what scared me even more that all I wanted to do was call Cooper to come and save me. The thought of needing someone scared the hell out of me.
I walked over to the papasan chair that was my favorite when I was
little;
I curled up like a ball and broke into a fit of sobs. I felt a hand on my leg and
screamed bloody murder. When I
looked
it was
Garrett kneeling down in front of the chair.

“
Shh, t
he door was wide open and I heard crying I thought something happened to you.” He lifted me up only to sit down and pull me into his lap gently stoking my hair while I cried.

“Fiona are you okay? Did someone hurt you?”
Someone, more like everyone…

“I’m fine.” I lied.

“No you’re not
, please be
honest
.”
“My dad just stopped by unannounced with his new girlfriend
.” I saw his expression change
when he realized what I had just said
. I hadn’t gone into too much detail last night but he got the overall idea
.

“I’m sorry
, that’s got to be a tough thing to see
.”

“It’s just really raw still. He left at the beginning of the summer. No note, nothing. Just packed his clothes up and moved out. She’s a total bitch. It’s just been a lot to comprehend.”

“I’ll bet. You don’t have to go through it alone anymore. I’ll help you. I want to help you, to be with you. I sat up most of the night thinking last night, about you mostly and I wish this weekend never had to end; but I was thinking maybe we could still see each other on weekends, I can come to you, maybe you can come to me sometimes we can meet halfway but I really want to see you again after this. Please just think about it.”
I started to panic but h
e was so earnest I felt my anxiety
slowly
evaporate
,
plus it would be nice to have an escape from reality.

“I’d like to keep seeing you too.” Maybe Garrett was exactly what I needed. I leaned up and
kissed him pouring all my hurt and
pain into it
. I hoped I was making the right decision.

“Thank you.
” He
moved me to the side so he could stand up
.
“
I packed us a picnic. Well
actually
I bought us a picnic; sandwiches, fruit, chips, bubbly the whole nine. I spared no expense.” He laughed making me laugh.
Maybe this would be easier than I thought.
 
   

“Well we wouldn’t want t
hat to go to waste would we.” He pulled me to my feet
keeping his hand in mine as we
walked to the backyard and
went on our picnic.

             
On Monday I saw Cooper standing alone by his bike I smiled and gave him a half wave before walking into school. I headed to my locker to get my books for the day.
There was a note in my locker.

Why can’t you just leave him alone and let him be happy! He chose me get over yourself. Fiona you’re not that great!

I could only assume it was from Riley. I crumbled it up and tossed it in the trash. I turned my phone on during lunch to find that Garrett had texted me.

Thinking of you. Hope you have a good day. What do you want to do this weekend?

I didn’t want to go to Delaney since I didn’t feel comfortable going to his house without really knowing his family or anything and I didn’t want him coming here incase we ran into Cooper so I figured the best thing to do would be to go back to the lake house though I was apprehensive about him staying in the same place.

Lake house? You can stay in the guestroom :P

I was serious about the guest room.

Can’t wait! Miss you already.

We texted and had the occasional phone call throughout the week. I threw myself into my schoolwork trying to bring my GPA back up. Every time Riley saw me in the hallway she would give me a nasty look
when Cooper wasn’t looking,
I would return
tenfold
. She didn’t deserve Cooper but I’m sure she was playing all her cards.
On Friday I packed my Michael Kors weekender bag so I could leave straight after school. The day passed quickly and I made great time making it to the lake house. Garrett arrived an hour later with his duffle in tow. We ordered Chinese food and watched some classic Adam Sandler movies. When it was time for bed I started to get nervous because he was lingering by my door I was worried that he was going to try and push to sleep in my room.

“See you in the morning.” I said kissing him quickly on the lips careful not linger.

“Night. Sweet dreams.” I closed the bedroom door once he was in the guestroom. I locked it feeling a little silly.

When I woke up the next morning I made us French toast and we hung out on the locks. We went on the water skies and had dinner at Bubba’s he was a perfect gentleman all day. We laughed and had an overall great time. We turned in to our rooms planning on going to the shops down by the pier tomorrow. Exhausted I fell into a deep sleep.