The Resolution of Callie & Kayden (The Coincidence #6)(12)
Author: Jessica Sorensen

‘What’s up?’ I ask Dylan as I shut the door behind me. I’m figuring it’s a call about Tyler, so when he says, ‘Dad,’ it almost doesn’t register in my brain.

‘Huh …? What …? Did you …?’ I’m struck speechless.

Dylan says, which is seeming to become his M.O., ‘Kayden, I’m so sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this.’

I make a right toward the bathrooms, maneuvering through people, practically shoving them out of my way. ‘Telling me what?’ Because I seriously didn’t hear anything but Dad.

There’s the sigh again. ‘I found Mom and Dad, Kayden … and it’s bad … well, bad depending on how you look at it.’

I make it to the bathroom and lock myself in a stall. ‘How so?’ I slump against the stall door, telling myself to breathe, but my heart is taking up all the fucking space in my chest. It’s like I’ve been kicked in the gut and slammed in the face over and over again.

I found Mom and Dad.

‘Dad’s in the hospital.’ He pauses and I can tell he’s struggling to keep his voice balanced. ‘I didn’t get too much information, considering Mom is the queen of lying about shit she doesn’t want to talk about.’ Another pause. ‘Are you okay?’

I take a deep breath. Then another. And another.

‘Yeah …’

I found Mom and Dad.

‘Kayden?’

Dad’s in the hospital.

Is this my resolution?

‘I have to go,’ I choke then hang up the phone. My pulse is pounding, my skin damp with sweat, and I can’t get air into my lungs. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this way – this bad – but I can’t help it. The thoughts going through my head … I’d wanted resolution, but not like this.

Or did I?

Am I that kind of a person?

To wish pain upon someone else?

Am I like my father?

The last thought is fucking horrifying. I feel like I’m about to fall again, tumble into the dark, pick up that blade and slice away until whatever’s inside me bleeds out. I don’t want to, but I do.

I want it.

Want it.

Want it.

I’m barely able to hang on.

Chapter 8

#122 Dance Like it’s Your Prom.

Callie

Once upon a time, there was a girl who thought she was a princess. And really, weren’t all girls supposed to be?

She grew up happy, with a loving, perhaps over doting mother, and a father who took care of her. Her older brother wasn’t too bad for the most part, as much as any older brother was. And while she didn’t grow up in a castle surrounded by knolls of grassland country blossoming with flowers and trees, her simple home felt like a palace in her small town. It made her feel protected and safe from all the bad she’d heard whispers of, yet wasn’t sure if it existed, since she’d never seen any of it for herself.

Yes, all was well in the princess’s world. But on her twelfth birthday … that all changed when the bad entered the walls of her palace. He didn’t break down the place or force his way in like in the books or movies. He simply walked through the door welcomed with open arms. And he didn’t have fangs or sharp teeth that would warn the princess that maybe he wasn’t good but a monster. No, he was dressed in normal clothes with normal teeth and he even had a normal smile. He was simply a normal guy. At least, that was what the princess thought.

But the princess was wrong and she soon, and very tragically, found out what the bad things were she’d only heard whispers about.

In a house full of balloons and presents, the guy trapped her in a place she’d once felt safe and broke the princess into a thousand pieces that would never fully be found again. And he didn’t just break them, but stole some of them as well, keeping them somewhere no one else could see them.

After it was all over, the broken princess was no more. She simply felt like a girl who was invisible. Princesses were supposed to be happy, pretty, have lots of friends, and go to parties. Not be so broken. But the girl no longer did or felt any of those things. Her palace was now a prison. And the family that had once brought her happiness, felt like nothing more than ghosts in a dark and unfamiliar world she’d been forced into.

Invisible vines grew around the home, full of thorns, making it painful to both leave and stay. Nowhere felt safe. And that was how she believed things would always be, that she would suffer from the bad all on her own for the rest of her life.

But six years later, on a warm, summer night, the girl discovered she wasn’t the only one being broken by bad, scary monsters. They were everywhere, destroying walls and people – destroying one guy in particular. He wasn’t just a guy, though, but the most beautiful and broken guy the girl had ever seen. She knew the moment she saw him she had to save him from the monster that stood before him with his fangs out …

‘Whatcha doing?’ Seth asks as he strolls into my room without knocking. He’s dressed head to toe in black with studs on his belt and an array of leather bands on his wrists. His boots are clunky, his jacket with buckles trendy.

I’m not even sure what he’s supposed to be. We just sort of wandered into this gothic store and started picking out articles of clothing that weren’t in the norm for us. ‘Because that’s what Halloween is supposed to be about, right?’ Seth had said and I’d agreed. We’d actually taken Violet, Luke’s girlfriend, to pick out her costume, although hers was a lot different from mine and honestly, the girl looked like she belonged in the store.

I glance up from my laptop. ‘Writing a nontraditional fairytale for my writing portfolio.’

He peers over my shoulder and reads a few sentences on the screen. ‘I have a feeling from the title that this happy introduction is going to go dark.’ He pauses, looking at me. ‘Are you writing a story about yourself?’

I shake my head and close the laptop, feeling self-conscious. ‘No, just writing about stuff I know.’

He raises his eyebrows in skepticism. ‘You know, you’re brave if you tell your story.’

I set the laptop on the nightstand. ‘But it’s not my story. It’s for a class assignment. Nothing more. Nothing less.’

‘Hmmm …’ He’s not buying it, but drops it anyway, which is good because his accusation is making me the slightest bit uncomfortable. ‘So you about ready for tonight?’

I nod as I cross the room and throw open the closet door. ‘Yeah, should I get dressed now, though? Or take the dress with me and change somewhere else?’ I grab the hanger with the dress on and step back into the room. ‘I’m not sure if I should wander around dressed like this.’