“I’ll go to my room.” Storm tipped his head back to hold his father’s gaze. “But only to pack my things. I was planning to move out next week, but I might as well do it right now.”
“You put him up to this?” Graham swung his furious narrowed gaze on me.
“No, sir.” Wide-eyed and trembling, I shook my head.
“You pregnant?” he asked.
“What? No.” My cheeks flaming, I dropped my gaze to my feet.
“Thank God for that,” Graham said. “But I don’t want you coming around anymore. It’s not right, a fifteen-year-old boy being friends with a thirteen-year-old girl.”
“Graham, no,” his mother said. “They’re just friends. There’s nothing inappropriate going on. Let’s calm down and go inside. We can sit down and talk this through.”
“No, Ivy. This is my house,” Graham said evenly. “I make the decisions. Storm knows that. You should know that too.”
“We all know how it is, old man.” Storm’s eyes flared. “You tell us often enough.”
“Then you know you’re going back to school.” Graham clenched his teeth. “If you don’t agree, you can turn back around and walk out the gate you just came through.”
Saber and Shield had appeared. Silent and unmoving, Storm’s brothers stood side by side, just inside the open sliding glass door. Though Graham had named his sons after active military operations, Storm’s brothers were merely passive bystanders.
“Then I guess I’m leaving.” Storm took my arm. His grip wasn’t as gentle as usual, but I didn’t let on. I knew he didn’t mean to hurt or scare me.
“Storm.” Ivy stepped closer, her eyes wide as she dropped the towel to reach for her son. “Don’t go. Not like this. Please.”
“Gone, Mom.” Storm stepped back out of his mother’s hold. “I’m gone. I can’t stay here with him any longer.” He jerked his chin toward his father as he told her, “I’ll call you when I’m settled.”
“Ivy, I forbid you to talk to him again,” Graham said to her, then turned to Storm. “If you walk away right now, you don’t exist. You’re dead to me, dead to everyone in this family. Do you understand me?”
“I hear you,” Storm said, his voice deep. “I’ve always heard you. I’m leaving. I know that’s what you’ve always wanted.”
His fingers digging into my skin, Storm grabbed my board and escorted me from the backyard. Once the gate closed behind us, he released me and let out a shaky exhale.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I turned to him.
Needing to remove the empty space between us, wishing I could remove the damage his father had done, I placed my hand on his chest. With the top half of his wet suit turned down at the waist, his chest was bare. His skin was smooth and hot beneath my palm where his heart thumped wildly.
“No, I’m not okay.”
Although Storm’s brown eyes were bright, his sun-bronzed skin was ashen except for flags of red color high on his cheeks. Covering my hand with his, he removed it from his chest and squeezed it once before letting it go.
“And I’m probably not going to be okay for a while.” He exhaled again, longer this time. “But first things first. I need to get you safely home.”
He pointed with his chin and lifted my board, walking in the direction of my apartment. I moved along with him. What else could I do?
“Your dad will change his mind when he’s not so angry anymore,” I said, giving him a furtive glance and noting his steely jaw. “And I’m sure my dad will let you stay with us until everything gets sorted out.”
“Mine won’t change his mind.” His eyes as turbulent as his name, Storm shook his head. “This confrontation was a long time coming. I’m just sad that you had to see it. It’s humiliating, what he said to you. I’m sorry he’s so awful.”
“It’s not your fault what he does.” My stomach rolled, unsettled by the effect his father had on him. “But what if—”
“No more what-if scenarios with me and my old man. It’s over. It’s finally over. It’s a fucking relief, really.” His brows drew together, and his gaze turned unfocused. “My mom will be okay. Saber will take care of her and Shield. And I can take care of myself.”
Storm was right about his older brother. Saber might be passive where Storm was concerned, but he was fiercely protective of Shield. Still, Saber followed his father’s directives, and as a result was the favored son.
“Where will you stay tonight?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’ll just crash at a friend’s house.”
A friend who was a girl, I was sure. Storm had plenty of those, which was one of the reasons why I suspected his dad had jumped to the wrong conclusion about me. My dad had hinted at a similar worry until I’d set him straight.
We retraced our steps from earlier, but instead of continuing to our favorite surfing spot at the cliffs, we turned right on my street and stopped in front of my apartment complex. Upstairs on the second floor was the one-bedroom apartment I shared with my dad and my little brother.
“Storm,” I said, just as the sun slipped over the horizon. I was frightened for him more than I was sad for me. “Don’t be stubborn. You’re only wearing a wet suit, and you’re barefoot. You should go back to your house so you can at least try to get your things. Try to—”
“No,” he snapped.
I flinched, but it wasn’t the harshness in his tone that gutted me. It was the bleakness in his eyes.
“We’re done being friends, Lilly . . . Lotus. This right now has to be the end of our friendship.”
“No.” Tears pricking my eyes, I whispered determinedly, “I’ll always be your friend.”
“I’m not good for you. I have a temper like him, and I’ve known for a while that people are saying shit like he did. Only I was too selfish to let you go. I needed you and your friendship too much, you see.”
“I need you too.” I tried to reach for Storm, but he stepped back just out of reach, and my heart lurched as my hand fell to my side.
“We need to say good-bye now.” His expression turned as blank and unyielding as a wall. “We have to. I insist.”
“We don’t have to do anything.” Stubbornly, I shook my head. I would scale that wall if I had to. I would say or do anything I needed to keep him close. “You can’t leave like his. I don’t care what people say.”
“You don’t care now. But when you get older, you will, and you should.” Storm scrubbed a hand over his face. “You have your whole life ahead of you. A good one. Boyfriends on the horizon. Girlfriends too, that will make better friends for you than me. Parties to go to. College someday. You have a dad who supports you, and a little brother who adores you. One day, you’ll have a great family of your own. I don’t fit into any of that. But I promise you that I’ll never forget you.”
His eyes glistened. “You’ve been a great friend, the best one I’ve ever had. I hope you won’t forget me.”
“Never.” Fear tightened my throat, but I wrenched the words free. “I’ll never forget you.” A tear slid down my cheek, trailing the only warmth I could feel. The rest of me was as cold as the ocean on a stormy day.