41

Kassie

The Jaws Theme

We waited outside together for the car but there was something up with Kassie and I didn't understand it. She had her arms locked around herself and kept her eyes on the bushes, even when I tried to get her attention. Kassie looked…fragile.

I shrugged off my suit jacket and held it out. "It's cold."

"Hm?" Her eyes widened. "Oh, I'm—I'm good."

I didn't budge until she finally took the jacket. That's how it was with her though,

"I had a great time tonight," I said.

Kassie didn't say anything.

"Art girl?"

"What?"

"I had a great time tonight."

Slowly, she nodded. "Yeah. It was fun."

Valet drove up with my car but I couldn't fight that weird feeling, watching her. I opened the passenger door and hesitated, glancing back. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine." She slipped into the car and I closed the door after her.

I took the driver's seat, thinking over. "What's your preferred pharmacy?"

"I don't need anything, Ryan."

"You're definitely sick and before Cleo freaks out about it, we can pick something up. Or I can drop you off and pick something up. Yeah. I'll drop you off and—"

"Ryan. I don't need anything ."

She was just trying to put a brave face on. I could feel how unhappy she was in the car.

"You don't have anything in your cabinets." I nodded to myself. "Trust me, I know."

For a moment, Kassie rested back in the passenger seat and pressed her forehead against the window, gazing outside. I kept glancing over at her. It was hard not to. But I knew what she was doing. She didn't want me to bring my credit card into the equation.

"Can I ask you a question?" I finally said.

She made a noise at the back of her throat in acknowledgment.

"Why don't you like me paying for stuff?" I shifted in my seat, glancing over at her again. "I don't understand it."

"Ryan…"

"It'd make things a lot easier."

"I'm not trying to be difficult."

"You're my girlfriend," I stated. "I pay for things, it just makes sense, I don't understand why you fight me on it."

"Do you want to know for real?"

The sudden change in her tone made me focus more on the conversation. I did want to know. And I liked talking about these kinds of things with her.

"Yeah."

Kassie took a deep breath. "If I tell you, do you promise not to get me NyQuil?"

"Yes," I answered automatically.

Getting another piece of private piece of information from Kassie was worth having to figure out a workaround to get her medication. Maybe I'd send a gift card to Zariah. Either way, the extra work was worth it.

"My parents didn't just leave. They came back a couple of times."

What does that mean?

I nodded along like I understood and listened raptly, bringing the car to the next intersection.

"Every time they came bc, it was like Christmas. Earrings from the dollar store and those cheap art kits and keychains from places they went too…that's how they came barrelling back in, you know? And then they'd leave."

My eyebrows furrowed. It was difficult to imagine a little Kassie…less cautious. Now, I couldn't imagine her putting up with that. How many times did they wear her down until she had to adopt that mindset?

She took a deep breath. "I started working and they said we were getting an apartment together and they needed the deposit down…"

Her words hung in the air.

"They took money from you?" I asked.

"Mm."

"How old were you?"

"You don't want to know."

I hesitated. "How much money was it?"

"You don't want to know," she repeated. "But I got a nice luggage set out of it before they headed out again."

I kept still in my seat as I tried to keep a level head thinking about it. Because I didn't know what to say. If I understood her inflection more, I could've figured something out, but Kassie didn't talk about it like she was bitter. She was just letting me know what happened.

"I don't like gifts," Kassie explained. "They feel like the Jaws theme before the shark attack."

There wasn't anything I could do for her and it was a shitty fucking sensation. Everything in me wanted to offer help but there was nothing I could do. I didn't even know how to navigate around this.

It was quiet in the car for a moment and for the first time in my life, I didn't like the silence. I had another question. A dumbass question but I needed to ask.

"What happened to the money?"

Kassie glanced over at me. "What do you mean?"

"Did you call the police?"

"What?" She snorted and stopped herself before a lone laugh escaped her. "You're asking me if I called the cops on my parents? What would I have gotten out of it? Not the money. That's for damn sure."

"But you needed it," I replied.

"Yeah. And? Would you have called the cops on your parents?"

Roman Forest was coming up too soon. I started to lift my shoe from the accelerator but Kassie would've noticed. Reluctantly, I drove to the curb, thinking it over.

"No," I decided. "I wouldn't have."

Kassie slipped off the jacket and my eyes flickered to her shoulders.

"You can drop it off in the morning," I told her.

"I'm dropping it off now," she said instead and held it for a moment between her hands. "You were amazing tonight, Ryan. Really. You were engaging with everyone and you were friendly. It was a real effort, you could see it. You were…real fun."

"Nobody's called me fun in years." I chuckled. "Adam, King, and June—"

"They don't know how hard you work." She stared out the window. "It's easy for them to say that. They don't see how much is on your shoulders. And—Ryan—you are fun."

A slow smile spread across my face. "Thanks."

"You don't even need me anymore. You're doing great on your own."

My muscles stiffened and I couldn't think of what to say. What did she mean by that? It was just something she tossed out. It had to be. Because if she was serious, what was I supposed to do? Purposely fuck up at events justify her being around? I really didn't want to have to do that but if I had to, I had to.

She passed over the jacket. I moved to get up too but she shook her head, motioning for me to keep sitting. "You were very…presentable."

Presentable?

"Thanks." I paused. "You too."

"Before or after I almost bit off the donor's head?" Kassie asked, her eyebrows raised, before she shut the door without another word.

I watched her walk across the sidewalk and my fingers twitched along the steering wheel. It was hard not to stare. The fabric swayed along her body and I got the perfect view of her ass as she took to the stairs.

"Presentable," I muttered. "The second I get home, I'm jerking off to your pictures. How presentable is that?"

Kassie reached the last step and pulled open the door. She glanced back at the car. She couldn't see me but I could see her. Me, the presentable guy who could count how many pictures I had to scroll through before I found the one of her in a swimsuit on her page from how often I swiped through it, one-handed.

Presentable. Funny.

And there she went, inside.

My elbow went to the car door and I put my head in my hand, closing my eyes. I used to be presentable.

"Fuck it. Fine." I took a deep breath. "I'll fuck up at the events. I'll put together a gift I can't spend money on. I'll figure it out." I breathed out the tension with the new game plan. "Alright. Shit."

A brisk knock on the door brought me out of it.

Kassie .

I glanced up and swore under my breath.

"Sir?" That same receptionist for Kassie's dorm stared at me through the window. "Are you loitering?"

Shit.

"If a resident isn't approving you to go upstairs, you have two minutes before I call the police."

"Goddammit," I swore under my breath and nodded to him. "I'm going. I'm leaving."

"Leave a little faster."

Me, the presentable guy, debated over it for a long moment before I threw up my middle finger and drove out of the unloading zone for Roman Forest.