fantasty kiss, raj say hello [bill gates best books .TXT] 📗

“I have a lot of clients here that I care about. Clients that need me.”
I looked at her skeptically. “It’s not like you’re a therapist. You’re more like a manager for artists.”
She looked down at her ice-cream and gave a small smile. Her eyes seemed to be somewhere else. “To some, I’m more than just a manager.” She looked at me. “They talk to me. And some of them are really close to me. I’ve grown to love them all.”
“I understand that,” I said around a small bite of ice-cream and Captain Crunch. The original kind of course. “I understand that you want to be near them but I have no say in the matter. You know my father. When he makes up his mind about something, it’s very difficult to change it.”
“Yes, I know that. But your father told me you haven’t really been talking to him about it. I completely understand why, I just want you to know that I’m here if you need me.”
Really? She was being really strange and to be honest I didn’t like it one bit. I liked Rebecca better when she was being a bitch. It gave me a reason to hate her.
But I had to ask myself if we were really enemies in this situation. For whatever reason, she wanted to stay here as much as I did and that had nothing to do with my father. She was willing to get a divorce so she wouldn’t have to leave. It just sounded a bit fishy if you asked me. She had a secret and I wanted to know what it was.
“What the hell is up with you?” I kept my tone light so she wouldn’t get agitated.
She kept her smile and said, “I’m just hoping we could work together on changing your fathers mind. You’re his daughter. No one knows him like you.”
“So what are you saying? What do you want me to do?”
“Just…talk to him. I’m sure you could convince him to change his mind.”
Originally, I had hoped Rebecca could change my father mind. I hadn’t even put up much of a fight really. I just knew he would listen to her more than he would me. But maybe I was wrong. Were they really as close as I thought they were?
“Fine, I’ll talk to him. On one condition.” She raised an eyebrow. You go back to being a bitch. I can’t handle the nice ‘becca.”
She frowned. “I was never the bitch. You were just an ungrateful little slut. It’s not like I don’t know where you sneak off too after school.”
I could tell the ruse was over. The bitch was back and I liked it. Though I didn’t like where this conversation was going.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I took another bite of ice-cream, my last bite. The bowl was empty.
“You have a boyfriend and god only knows what you two have been doing.” She smiled again but this time it was a bit smug. “I was a teenage girl once. I know what goes through your mind at this age. Especially at this age. Your libido is raging, you-”
“Oh god, gross! Really Rebecca? I am not about to have this conversation with you right now.”
“Regardless of what you think, I know what you’re going through. I know why you want to stay. I feel the same way. Well, not exactly the same way of course.” She smiled and giggled a bit nervously.
I stared at her curiously then tried to right myself. “Whatever you say Rebecca. But I’m going back to sleep.”
I stood and began to leave the kitchen only to have her call me back.
“You need to eat before you go.”
“I did, we had ice-cream and it was good.”
“That doesn’t count, it’s ice-cream. It melts once it’s in your stomach.”
Now I raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s rubbish logic.”
She laughed. “You’re rubbish for saying rubbish. You’re eighteen and you speak like an elderly woman.”
I rolled my eyes but had to admit I was happy she was being herself again. “Goodbye, Rebecca.”
I left her then to go up to my room where I nestled down into my bed though it wasn’t long before I was waking up again. It was my father again which told me it was later in the day than I thought. He hadn’t wanted anything, just to make sure that I was alright and to see if Rebecca had fed me like he had told her.
Once he heard the answer he wanted, he left me to resume sleeping.
I slept for most of the weekend and had to admit it was some of the best sleep I’d gotten in a long time. Though, I only realized on Monday morning why I had only been sleeping so well. It was because there was no one calling or texting my cell throughout the night.
I began to search frantically for my phone. It wasn’t sitting on my dresser where I normally kept it, nor was it in my bag. I checked the last outfit I’d worn and still came up with nothing. Now I began to freak out. The last time I’d seen it was before my father came home.
I tried my best to keep calm and not hyperventilate. If my father had looked through my phone then he would have been freaking out all weekend. He was not acting like a man that had just found out his eighteen year old daughter was not only dating a boy from school but was sleeping with her English teacher. A man that he absolutely despised.
After showering and dressing quickly, I dashed down to the kitchen praying that my father was awake. It was with luck that he was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper and drinking a mug of coffee.
“Papa?” I asked sliding into a seat across from him.
“Yeah bud?” He never looked up from the paper.
“Have you…seen my phone by chance?”
“Hmm,” he said flipping one of his pages. “Yeah, Thursday night actually. It was vibrating like crazy so I answered it.”
My heart nearly dropped.
“No, wait. I was going to answer it but they were just text messages so I turned it off.” Oh thank gawd! I screamed in my head. “I put it in your dresser.”
“It’s not on my dresser, I checked.”
“In, Layla, not on.”
My heart, that had been pounding in my ears a moment ago, was now settling down. I thanked whatever god there was out there that my secret was still safe.
I left him then to go upstairs and find my cell.
He hadn’t lied, it was in the first drawer of my dresser next to my bed. After turning it on and waiting for a few moments it came to life in my hands. There were numerous messages from Jack, Marina and Devin. But mostly from Devin.
I let out a groan. He was probably freaking out since I missed school Friday. They all probably were. I check the text messages as I descended the stairs. They were all worried about me but Devin’s texts were a bit more concerned. Though he had good reason to be.
In Jack’s first couple of messages he just wanted to know why I wasn’t at school. Then when school ended he wanted to know if we could meet up somewhere. Marina on the other hand was a bit more concerned with if I was alright or not. She knew it wasn’t like me to just not show up without texting her. And then to go the whole weekend without texting her? The first five were concerned text but the rest were torture treatments for making her worry so much.
I texted them all back before I made my way to school and hoped Devin wasn’t too concerned.

Chapter Twenty-Four
“Where the hell have you been?” I could tell Devin had been a nervous wreck for most of the weekend due to his tone and lack of composure. His emerald eyes were wild, the polyester stripped shirt he wore was wrinkled, and his five o’clock shadow was showing.
When I’d first entered his classroom his eyes blazed with anger only I could see. I’d only known him a few months but I knew his corks. And he was definitely pissed about something.
And he wasn’t the only one. Earlier in the day both Marina and Jack had given me a cussing for my absence and for making them worry. Though I had texted them earlier that morning they still had pent up energy that wouldn’t be released until they saw me. Jack kissed me fiercely while Marina gave me a strong punch to the arm, one that still hurt a bit.
But neither of their reactions concerned me like Devin was at the moment. His eyes bore into mine with such passion and a bit of something I had never seen before. It wasn’t worry nor was it anger. But I knew it was skirting along those borders. I was in serious trouble.
I gave my best smile to try to console him. I even tried to sit on his lap as I explained how I had sent him a text earlier saying I was fine and I would be attending class today.
“I never got that message, Layla.” His tone was firm as he stood and brushed me off his lap. “I’ve been checking my phone all weekend. I thought you were still upset with me, I thought…I thought-I thought something had happened with Miller again.”
His voice was rising even though I knew he was working hard to keep his cool. I couldn’t figure out why he was so angry with me. I sent him a text explaining things. He was acting like I had committed a crime or something. He knew I had a life outside of our relationship and accidents happened.
“But-”
“No buts Layla. I called numerous times. And texted. And…you just-you had me fucking worried out of my mind.” He ran his hands down his face then mumbled under his breath, “I can’t believe I expected so much out of a child.”
That hurt. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that but I didn’t like it.
“Why are you being so…damn mean?” He wasn’t normally like this. He was kind, sweet, loving. I wanted that man. I wanted the man who loved me. Not this one who was borderline screaming at me because I’d turned off my phone for three days.
I could understand what he was saying, three days was a long time not to talk to someone you loved. But that was no reason to suddenly turn into a complete asshole.
“Look,” I began. “I don’t know what your problem is but I don’t like this new attitude of yours.”
He smiled but it wasn’t the one I was used to. Maybe it was just the way I was feeling but this smiled seemed and appeared more evil than his others. “This is the way that I am, Layla. This is a side of me that has always been there. You were just too absorbed with me to see it.”
I felt like choking him. He was making a mountain out of a mold hill and I couldn’t understand why. “If this is your way of trying to piss me off to get rid of me it’s working, Devin.”
He sighed then came to stand in front of me. He took hold of my forearms but it wasn’t the consoling gesture I was hoping for. When he stroked my arms, I got a sick feeling in my stomach.
“Not everything is about you, Layla,” He said looking into my eyes. “You have to realize that there are things that you don’t know about me. Things