The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

her, like I’ve done with myself.
     
    “Like something that makes you happy,” she suggests. “Or something that you’re not going to regret in the morning.”
     
    “That’s you. Callie, you’re the only person that’s ever made me feel happy about anything. That night you saved me, you changed something in me—you made me want to live.” I tell her the truth, knowing that when morning comes around, it’s all going to catch up with me.
     
     
     

Chapter 17
     
     
     
    #21 Create Memories That Belong to You
     
     
     
    Callie
     
    Last night was interesting to say the least. Kayden was drunk and saying things to me he probably wouldn’t in a sober state, so I stopped it. I don’t want him telling me things just because he’s drunk. I’ve seen Seth ramble on about nonsense way too many times and he never means most of it.
     
    I end up falling asleep on the bed in the corner and when I wake up, I have an, “oh shit” moment. My phone is beeping with a thousand messages from my mom. I don’t even bother checking any of them. I spring up from the bed and hurry over to the couch where Kayden is lying on his side with his eyes shut and his arm draped over his face.
     
    I glance over my shoulder at Luke, sleeping on the floor with his head on a pillow and then crouch down in front of Kayden. “Wake up. I need a ride home.”
     
    He breathes quietly, his chest lifting and falling, so I place a hand on his cheek, running my thumb along the scar below his eye. “Kayden, please wake up. My mom is freaking out.”
     
    His eyelids lift, his pupils shriveling as the light hits them, and it looks like he wasn’t even asleep. “What time is it?”
     
    I check my cell phone screen. “Almost eleven. Were you awake the whole time?”
     
    He shrugs, sitting up and stretching his arms above his head. His shirt rides up and I try not to stare. “I’ve been awake for a while. Thinking about stuff.”
     
    “Oh.” I straighten my legs and search the room for my jacket. “Can you give me a ride? Or should I wake up Luke?”
     
    “That’d be walking into dangerous territory,” he says, getting up from the sofa. “Luke is not a morning person.”
     
    I slip my arms through the sleeves of my jacket. “I don’t even remember falling asleep. One minute, we were talking and the next, I’m waking up in the bed.”
     
    He smiles, grabbing Luke’s keys off the coffee table. “I think you did that in your sleep. You were lying by me and then you got up and wandered off over there. You looked pretty out of it.”
     
    He opens the back door and we step out into the cold afternoon air. The sky is a light blue with a haze covering spots and I can see the pool house to my left. Kayden shuts the door and we start across the grass silently. I don’t know what to say. I feel awkward carrying around his words that he doesn’t remember.
     
    He stops suddenly at the corner of the house and rakes his hands through his messy hair. “I remember it.”
     
    I peer over my shoulder at him. “Huh?”
     
    He takes a few tentative steps toward me. “I wasn’t that drunk. I remember what I said. I’ve been lying on the couch for practically half the night trying to figure out what the fuck to say to you when we were both awake.”
     
    I blow out a breath. “You don’t have to explain. I’ve been around Seth enough that I know how the day after goes. Trust me, he’s done and said so many things that he regrets.”
     
    He shakes his head, with a quizzical look on his face. “But I don’t regret it. I just… I just don’t know how to handle it.  When I said I felt things for you that I never have, I meant it and it fucking scares me, especially because there are still a lot of things you don’t know about me—bad things.”
     
    I close the gap between us. “I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that there are bad things about you. Only things that you think are bad.”
     
    Massaging the back of his neck, he looks out at the road behind me. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew what the stuff was.”
     
    “You could always tell me,” I suggest. “And let me be the judge of it.”
     
    He locks eyes with me. “You wouldn’t like me if you knew.”
     
    I summon a deep breath, ready to say something that terrifies me. “For the last six years, I’ve been afraid of almost everyone except Seth, but he and I shared this connection and I trusted him fairly quickly. It was the same