The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

“Really?”
     
    I feel stupid as I shrug my shoulders. “No, nothing this hard anyway.”
     
    “Then why did you do it tonight?” he asks, looking guilty. “Did we pressure you too much?”
     
    “No, I wanted to try it.” I wipe my lips with the back of my hand.
     
    His eyebrows furrow and a hint of a smile curves at his lips. “Was it on your list?”
     
    “What?” Seth exclaims over the loud music, slamming his hand on the table. “You told him about the list?”
     
    “I told him of the list,” I explain, stirring the straw around in my drink, watching the lemon go around and around. When I peek up through my hair, Kayden is observing me curiously.
     
    “What list?” Luke wraps his lips around the straw and sips at his drink.
     
    Seth and I trade a glance and then he shoos me with his hands to move off the seat. “How about you and I go dance?”
     
    “Alright, I’m in. Just don’t do any of those weird moves again. Last time I fell on my butt.” I adjust my shirt over my stomach as I get to my feet.
     
    Laying a hand on the small of my back, Seth steers us toward the dance floor. He’s done this a couple of times with me, so he understands what he’s in store for; lots of panicking and a whole lot of clinginess.
     
    He selects a section at the side of the dance floor where there are less people and the atmosphere is mellower. A slow song plays from the speakers and the lights stop flickering and settle to a pale glow. Seth looks ghostly white underneath them and his honey brown eyes look black as he puts his hands on my hips.
     
    “I’m sorry if I pushed you too hard, baby girl,” he whispers. “I feel bad.”
     
    I reach for his shoulders and step closer to him so the tips of our shoes are touching. “You didn’t pressure me, although, you could have warned me that it was going to burn that bad. Then I would have tried harder not to choke and not look like a complete moron.”
     
    “Trust me, neither of them think you’re a moron.” He laughs, like he knows a secret. “I don’t want to lose all that trust I’ve earned with you.”
     
    “You didn’t lose anything.” I squeeze his shoulders with my fingertips, inching in as a guy in a fedora rams into my back. “The day you told me all your secrets was the day I knew we’d be friends forever. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known.”
     
    He smiles brightly and draws me closer. “Are you feeling okay?”
     
    “I feel fine,” I tell him and rest my cheek against his. “Although, I'm a little iffy on going up to the cliff with them.”
     
    “People go up there all the time. We won’t be the only ones there. You need to stop thinking of every guy as being like him , otherwise, he’ll always own you.”
     
    I blow out a breath. He’s right. I need to let go of my fears and rid my brain of the guy who instilled them, but how can I let go of the one person who holds such a huge part of me?
     
     
     
     
     
    Kayden
     
    I can’t take my eyes off the dance floor. Even when my phone vibrates from inside my pocket, I slip my hand into it and press the off button on the side.
     
    “Don’t do it.” Luke plucks a piece of ice out of his drink and pops it in his mouth.
     
    “Do what?” I ask, distracted as my heart thumps when Callie throws back her head and laughs.
     
    A hand knocks against the side of my head and my hand shoots up. “Okay, what the fuck was that for?”
     
    “That’s payback for when you hit me back on the curb,” he says and his eyes roam to a girl with long red hair strutting by our table in a short black dress. “And it was also to distract you from doing something really stupid.”
     
    “It’s not what you think,” I say. “I was just watching people dance.”
     
    He rolls his eyes. “Do everyone a favor and send Daisy a text to break up with her. Then you can do whatever you want.”
     
    “You want me to break up with her in a text?”
     
    “Like you care. You don’t care about her even though you tell her you love her.”
     
    “What is your problem with her, besides the fact that she annoys the shit out of you?”
     
    He tosses his straw onto the table, grabs the cup, and pours the rest of the Long Island Iced Tea down his throat. “I’m going to go buy another round.”
     
    I let him out, and then start to lower myself back into the booth, but my eyes find Callie again. She’s smiling as she talks to Seth. I’ve never been that happy before