The Redemption of Callie & Kayden

cigarette butts.
    He slants in and brushes his lips across my forehead, before he announces, “So, we have to head back today.”
    Luke starts digging around in the fridge and then he moves back with a gallon of milk in his hand, kicking the door shut with his barefoot. “Are you fucking kidding me? We just got here yesterday morning.”
    “I know,” Kayden says, glancing at me with a hint of fear in his eyes. “But… but there are a few things that Callie and I have to take care of back at home.”
    Seth puts a cigarette in his mouth, cups his hand around the end, and flicks the lighter. “Like what?” He drops the lighter onto the table and leans back, taking a long drag and then letting a thin trail of smoke escape his mouth.
    “Like
really
important stuff,” I say with pressing eyes, hoping he’ll catch on.
    And just like the good friend that he is, he catches on. “
Oh
, okay.”
    Luke shoots him a harsh look as he twists off the lid on the milk. “No way. I’m driver. Therefore I get final say.”
    Kayden exhales loudly and then moves his arm away from my shoulder. He walks up to Luke and places his hand on the counter, standing right in front of Luke. “Look, I know why you don’t want to go back—and I really don’t want to make you—but there’s something I’ve been running away from that I need to return to.”
    I don’t know if Luke understands Kayden’s full meaning, but I think he might. He nods his head with a grunt, even though he looks annoyed. “Alright, if it’s important, then it’s important.”
    “Thanks.” Kayden returns to my side. “You want to go pack your stuff?”
    I nod and then motion at Seth to come with me. He puts his cigarette out in a leaf-shaped ashtray that’s in the center of the table and then pushes the chair back. He gets to his feet, glancing at Kayden as he walks by, and then he links arms with me. We walk side by side back to the room. As soon as the door shuts, he turns around and puts his hands on his hips.
    “All right, let’s have it,” he demands. “What’s going on?”
    I shake my head and bend down to pick up a pair of shorts and one of my shirts off the floor. “I can’t tell you.”
    He gapes at me with his hands out to the side. “Why?”
    “Because I can’t yet.” I ball up the clothes and stuff them into my bag, which is near the foot of the bed on the floor. “Part of it’s that I’m not ready to and part of it’s because it’s not my thing to tell—it’s Kayden’s.”
    He doesn’t press anymore. He starts packing his stuff as I gather up my clothes. I clean up a little, stalling, knowing that as soon as we walk out of the house, Kayden and I’ll be stepping back into reality and all I can hope is that it’ll be nice to us.

Chapter 16
    #15 Stop torturing yourself
Callie
    I’m afraid to go home and face my mother, even with Kayden at my side. Halfway there I turn on my phone to find that I have thirty-seven new voicemails and fifty-eight text messages. All are from her and it’s unbelievable and yet believable at the same time. She’s never been good at handling things that don’t fit into her world. And rebel-runaway Callie fits about as well as lone-Goth Callie did.
    “We could get a hotel room,” Seth suggests as we pull into town. “And keep the vacation going.”
    “Or at least avoid going home,” Luke mutters, grumpily.
    It’s late, the trees in the park are flashing with lively red twinkly lights, and there’s a huge inflatable Santa at the entrance welcoming us to town. Kayden has been really quiet the entire drive, staring out the window, lost in his thoughts and it makes me sad. Luke has been silent too, chain smoking the entire drive and Seth has been equally as bad.
    I glance at Kayden, wondering what he thinks of the hotel idea, but all he does is stare out the window. “I feel like if I go to hotel then I’m running away from my problems,” I say. “I should probably go home and face the wrath of my mom.”
    “Why?” Seth asks, surprising me. I gape at him as smoke snakes from his lips and he takes out the cigarette and sticks his hand out the window, scattering ash into the street as he grazes his thumb across the end. “Callie, I hate to say this”—his brown eyes flick to Luke, then to Kayden, before he leans in and whispers—“but until you can tell your mom, and you-know-who will officially no longer be showing up at your house, it might be good for you to stay away from