Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19:

The next morning, I woke up feeling extremely anxious. Of course I wanted to see Andy. But, at the same time, I was afraid of what he was going to say to me.Things had definitely been weird with us the day before. Hell, things had been weird with us for a while now. And, while I was glad that Andy still had feelings for me, I just knew that he would never choose me over Juliet. They had history. A lot of history. He and I simply had a few months and a movie. That was it.

I got dressed in some pale yellow skinny jeans, a light blue Sleeping With Sirens sweater and my usual Converse. My hair was really annoying me, so I put it in a ponytail. I still had a tad of makeup from the day before I'd forgotten to wash off, so that was fine. 

Bryson was still downstairs, but Kendra was still asleep. My father was at work already, so it was pretty much just the two of us. I didn't speak to him, though I could feel his eyes on me; he was probably glaring at my back. Blackmail wasn't my favorite thing to do, but I had to meet Andy, I didn't need to get into anymore trouble. No sense in getting kicked out before I turned eighteen; I had nowhere to go.

Eating a granola bar, I turned and saw Bryson leaning in the doorway of the kitchen. He was smirking. "I have a new deal," he said.

I cocked a brow suspiciously. "What kind of deal?" I asked him.

"I won't tell our parents you're skipping school, if you let me go with you to meet this dude."

Laughing, I said, "I already told you that if you tell, I'm telling them about us. That's it." I tried to walk past him, but he put arm out to stop me.

"Right. And who do you think they're going to believe? Me, their golden child. Or you, their new daughter who is already suspected of stealing." He smiled; he knew he had me. "That's what I thought." Bryson put his hand on my hip and pulled me to him. "So, where are we meeting?" 

We were meeting Andy at the beach, the same place we'd met the day before. He was dressed in his usual dark clothes and boots. His blue eyes were wild-looking, and he had a cigarette in one hand. 

When Bryson and I reached him, he frowned and raised one elegant brow. "Who's this?" he asked, motioning to Bryson.

"I'm Bryson," Bryson said proudly.

"Oh, the brother you slept with?" Andy asked me.

Bryson grabbed my arm. "You told him?" he seemed angry, but I had no idea why it mattered. Andy didn't know Bryson or anyone else in this town, besides me.

"Ow!" I pushed him away, as I saw Andy move toward him. Andy stopped when Bryson let go of me; Bryson hadn't noticed that Andy had been getting ready to pummel him. "Yeah, he demanded I bring him."

Andy frowned again. "Demanded?" 

"Look, man. Just get on with it," Bryson told Andy.

"Why?" I said. "It's not like you have anywhere to be."

"I need to talk to Alana alone," Andy told Bryson. 

Bryson put his hand around my waist. "Whatever you have to say to her, you can say in front of me."

"What the hell?" I turned on Bryson and pushed him away. "No, he can't. You wanted to come; I let you. Now, Andy and I need to speak alone and you're going to let us."

"I'll just tell our parents, then," Bryson threatened.

I sighed. "I don't really care. They already hate me anyway."

"You have nowhere to go," Bryson reminded me. Though that was true, I'd rather be homeless than have Bryson holding this over my head for the few weeks until my birthday.

"I don't care. Now, go away."

Cursing, Bryson turned and headed for his hummer. I watched him leave, afraid to turn and look at Andy. Now was the moment of truth. He would either hate me, or love me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. 

"Alana?" Andy said. "Are you okay?"

I opened my eyes and looked at him. He seemed concerned. "Yeah, I'm fine," I lied. I wasn't fine. I was freaking out on the inside. But I couldn't let him know that. He'd just feel guilty.

Andy sat down on the edge of the small cliff and motioned for me to join him. He took his hand in mine and said, "Juliet and I decided to break up."