(19) Between You and Me

Recap:

"Because, Grace!" She yelled.

"Tell me why!"

"Because I'm a foster kid!" She whisper-yelled.

Grace's eyes went wide. "Wh-what?"

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A cold chill dragged an icy finger down Makennah's spine. All of her hair stood on end on her arms. She gulped and bit her tongue to inflict pain for speaking when it shouldn't have.

Without another thought, Grace dragged Makennah out of the line and tucked her into her side. Grace led the way to a more private area under the stands.

"Makennah..." Grace held Makennah by the shoulders.

"Please just forget you heard that." She didn't want to talk about this and didn't want to explain. Plus, maybe the Sinclair's didn't want anyone to know who Makennah really was.

"Makennah, relax." A gentle smile graced her pink lips. "I'm not going to tell anyone."

"Word always gets out," she painfully whispered. In no time she would be the black sheep, left out and forgotten because she was weird and different. She didn't have a place in the world.

"Well it won't be by me. I won't breathe a word," Grace promised. "So the Sinclair's...they're your foster family?"

"Yeah." Her mouth finally refused to say much else. Before, it blabbed on its own. Now, it wouldn't explain when it probably should.

"You're not going to have to leave if people find out, are you?" A concerned look crossed Grace's face. A knot formed in Makennah's stomach at the look of uncomfortableness on her face. That was the typical look. They didn't know how to treat someone like her. An outcast.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "That's what I was trying to say. I can't do things to upset the Sinclair's. They can send me back whenever they want if they stop liking me. And....I like it here," she admitted.

Grace's confusion morphed into a baffled look. "The Sinclair's would never do that."

Makennah wanted to argue and prove Grace wrong but now wasn't the time or place. Rich people - people like Grace - couldn't understand where she came from or the pressure that was on her shoulders not to mess up so that the Sinclair's wouldn't return her. She was like a t-shirt. If the family tried her on for size and didn't like it, they could just return her to Foster Kids-R-Us.

"Makennah, I swear on our friendship that I won't tell anyone. I promise." Reminiscent of childhood days, Grace held out her pinky to Makennah.

With a small smile, Makennah linked her finger with Grace's in a pinky promise.

In the background, the band started to play the school's fight song which signaled that the football team would be entering the stands soon to start their pre-game warm up.

"You're quiet. Are you okay?" Grace asked cautiously.

She nodded. "I'm fine." Anything but fine.

"Please don't worry. I keep my word."

Makennah forced a smile and hooked her arm through Grace's. "Well now you have to." They started walking away towards their saved seats in the end zone. "You pinky swore."

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Feeling very self-conscious with the fact that Grace now knew enough about Makennah to destroy her, Makennah rode home with the Sinclair's after the game instead of going out to eat at a burger joint with her friends and classmates. Josh, Nick and Matt tried to persuade her to join them but she was dead set on going home and burying herself under the covers of her bed.

Multiple times, Will glanced in the rear view mirror at her but she ignored him. Makennah pretended that she was good at hiding her emotions. Except when she was worried. She couldn't seem to hide that no matter how hard she tried.

A knot of anxiety burrowed in her chest and rooted there for the drive home. Throughout the football game - that they won- she was too distracted to think about it. Now all of thoughts of going home or going to a new foster home swarmed her mind and drowned her in anxiousness.

Carolynn and Will engaged in small talk about the game. Will explained some calls that the refs made that Carolynn didn't understand. Dear Carolynn was barely listening as she posted about the boys' victory on Facebook which Will light heartedly razzed her about.

They parked in the driveway of the house and popped the trunk to retrieve their belongings to take into the house. Makennah hugged her jacket close to her body and started to unload everything. Will transported the first armful to the house before he returned to help with the rest.

As Makennah shut the trunk door, a dark Lexus cranked to a stop at the end of the driveway.

Makennah outwardly groaned and turned her back. Maybe she could pretend he wasn't there.

"Hey Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair! Mind if I steal Makennah?" Theo shouted through the rolled down passenger side window.

Carolynn waved and hitched her purse up higher on her shoulder. "Hi honey! Great game! Of course you can!"

Will looked at Makennah and saw her roll her eyes. "Do you want to go?" Will quietly asked Makennah. "You don't have to."

As Carolynn found her way inside the warm house, Makennah shrugged. "It's fine." It could be about Cassandra.

"Here." Will handed her two twenty dollar bills. "Be safe."

She accepted the money without an argument but she would return it all to him later.

Approaching the vehicle, Makennah leaned on the open window frame and frowned deeply to accurately convey the absolute inconvenience he was being at that moment. "What?"

"Get in." He smiled and didn't bat an eye at her clipped tone.

"I'm tried," she countered.

Theo unlocked the doors and leaned over the console to see her better. "I've got the car all nice and warmed up and cozy for you. You can relax and just drive with me."

As much as Makennah wanted to say no, she wanted to argue even less. She just didn't have the energy. Her anxiety drained her. "I came home for a reason, Theo. I want to go to bed."

Theo's smile waned when he figured out she was being dead serious. "We aren't going out. Please, Kennah, I think Cassandra is going over to his house. She's driving right now. I've been tracking her and she seems to be heading in that direction."

"She's not with Matt?" Oh how she wished that Cassandra was just with Matt.

"No," Theo shook his head. "Matt went out for dinner with his brothers. You can stay in the car the whole time. Please keep me company." He turned on that mega watt smile and cranked the charm to 1000. She hated that just his smile could break down her defenses.

Although she felt like she was falling apart at the seams, Makennah opened the passenger door and slid in. Once he rolled up the window, she was indeed cozy and warm. Despite the comfort of his Lexus, her mind still felt frazzled. First Theo got the lowdown about her ex boyfriend which she had intended to keep absolutely hidden from all of these people here. Then, Makennah spilled the beans to Grace about her family life status.

Following his GPS, Theo set the voice announcer to a lower setting and turned down the volume of the music. "So let's get straight to the point."

There was a very particular smirk on his face.

"Oh God."

From his side of the car, Theo relaxed his wrist on the steering wheel and rested his other elbow on the middle console, leaning slightly into her space while still maintaining control of the vehicle and eye contact of the road. That cocky smirk stayed on his lips, almost blooming into a smile. His long muscular legs stretched under the dash in dark fitted jeans. Glancing at him, Makennah was struck by his handsome good looks accented by a strong cut jawline and impeccable eyelashes that she was very jealous of. She realized that his hair was a little damp and he smelled very clean and fresh. Silently, she wondered if he did all of that for her...

"I heard some things today," he stated obtusely.

She stared straight ahead and didn't lead onto everything with a confused facial expression. "Yeah? What kind of things?"

"I'd be a great boyfriend."

She was silent.

"Best you could ever have."

Still silent.

"The envy of all the other girls."

Quiet as a mouse.

"Single since my break up last year and haven't shown interest in anyone but one particular person since then."

Her heart dropped into her stomach. She sealed her lips together.

"I'm apparently a flirt. But I don't lead girls on."

Makennah turned her embarrassment into anger. Who had overheard their conversation and told Theo?! She was pissed.

"I didn't say any of those things," Makennah informed him confidently. He couldn't hold anything against her because that statement was 100% true.

"Oh no," he said obviously as if he knew that. "You just called me a player and couldn't get over the fact that I'm not. Because I'm not," he added for emphasis.

Clenching her teeth tightly together, Makennah remembered that conversation she had mere hours ago with Grace in line at the concession stand before the football game. It had to be someone in line who overheard and blabbed to Theo.

When she didn't respond, he continued in a sing-song voice. "Maybe most importantly, your little friend declared that you like me and want to date me and want to go to homecoming with me and want to kiss me and want..."

"Okay enough!" She yelled, slamming her fists on her thighs. She huffed and dramatically crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

Apparently her anger was funny, because Theo burst out laughing as he turned the wheel to go right at the stop sign after checking both ways. Makennah was absolutely furious that she found him so attractive as he drove, in control but relaxed. Strong. Masculine. Exuding confidence.

Theo sped up down the back road leading to the development they previously visited.

"It was reported that you didn't deny any of those things either," Theo just kept going.

"I did deny them," she clarified. "I never should have gotten in this car," she declared, annoyed beyond reason.

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did," she yelled.

"No. You didn't."

"Well I am now!" She threw up Her hands and twisted her torso away from him, turning her attention out the window instead of on him and his stupid attractive driving. "You weren't even there. You wouldn't know."

Theo chuckled again. "It was a very reliable source."

Makennah sealed her lips together with imaginary super glue. Never to open again for the rest of the night.

"Besides, the only good reason you could come up with for denying those things is Matt." His voice dipped a little lower, turning husky and deep probably from screaming at the game.

"As I tried to explain to Grace, you would never like me because I'm Matt's little sister. And he wouldn't appreciate you going after me. Not that you would anyways because there is simply a mutual friendship between you and me." So much for keeping her mouth shut.

Theo's gaze slid across the seat to her. He looked her over from head to toe with a heated lingering gaze that she felt touch her down to her bones. She stared straight ahead as if he wasn't even there.

"Hmm," he hummed. "Whatever you say."

Her head snapped to him. "What is that supposed to mean."

That devious smirk found its way onto his face again. "Alright. Hypothetically speaking...."

"Yeah," she said, curious as to where this was going.

He paused while he turned left and drove slower through the quiet streets. "If there's nothing between you and me - as you said - then I could reach across this console right now and put my hand on your thigh and it wouldn't effect you at all....right?"

She gulped. "Right," she said cheerily as if there weren't a doubt in her mind.

"Right," he said again. She could hear the laughter in his tone. He found this way too amusing. "And if there's nothing between you and me, then I could just casually kiss your neck and it would be purely platonic."

She nodded her head. Thank God it was dark outside and in the vehicle because her cheeks flushed with a burning fire. Her stomach muscles clenched in anticipation and the thought of his lips on her sensitive neck. "I don't think kissing on the neck is platonic. But no...no effect whatsoever."

"Okay." Considering her words, Theo turned the wheel expertly with one hand while he lifted his other arm to place it on the back of her head rest. That little movement alone made Makennah swallow harder. It felt like he placed his hands right on her body. "So if there's really nothing between you and me, then I could pull over this car right now and make out with you and there'd be no sparks, no attraction, no nothing?"

Her breathing hitched. She wasn't prepared for this. A few minutes ago she merely found him attractive because of his confident driving. Her blood pressure sky rocketed at the idea of him assertively parking the car, leaning into her space, framing her face with his hands, and kissing her square on the mouth softly at first and then more demanding because he seemed the type to take control. To take what he wanted. To kiss her the way he wanted. To open her mouth to him the way he wanted.

Realizing it had been a second, Makennah said quickly, "Correct. It probably wouldn't be enjoyable at all. Pretty boring."

"Bland," he added.

"Waste of energy honestly." She was trying to convince him as much as she was herself.

"Huh....you sound pretty confident about that," he stated. His tone held an edge of doubt. Theo didn't believe her at all.

So she took it a step further. "Yeah the only reason you're not doing any of those things is because you wouldn't be able to stop."

Theo laughed light heartedly and rolled to a stop at a stop sign. He glanced both ways without looking at her and turned right.

"Sweetheart, you tell me when and I'll pull this car over immediately and test every single one of those theories."

Brazenly, she looked right at him and said "when."

Raising his eyebrows, Theo pressed his foot on the break and pulled over, parking on the side of the road.

Sucking in a deep breath, Makennah clawed at the door and pushed herself away from him. "Okay I was kidding."

Again Theo laughed at her. "Relax, Kennah, we're here."

"Oh." Her grip on the door relaxed and she leaned back in her seat.

"Don't worry. We can pick this up later. Let's go."

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Xoxo

W. Carolina