Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover Page B

house instead. The good news is, we can’t stay at your house now so I booked us two nights in a hotel in Detroit.”
     
    “That’s not bad news. Don’t scare me like that,” she says.
     
    "I just thought you would be a little apprehensive about seeing my grandmother. I know how you feel about her.”
     
    She looks at me and frowns. “Don’t, Will. You know good and well it’s not how I feel about her. She hates me!”
     
    “She doesn’t hate you,” I say. “She’s just protective of me.” I wrap my arms around her tighter and try to push the thought out of her mind by kissing her ear.
     
    “Well, it’s your fault she hates me anyway.”
     
    I pull back and look at her. “My fault? How is it my fault?”
     
    She rolls her eyes. “Your graduation? You don’t remember what you said the first night I met her?”
     
    I don’t remember. I don’t know what she’s talking about. I try to remember, but nothing comes to mind.
     
    “Will, we were all over each other. After your graduation when we all went out to eat, you could barely talk you were kissing me so much. It was making your grandmother really uncomfortable. When she asked you how long we’d been dating, you told her eighteen hours! How do you think that made me look?”
     
    I remember now. That dinner was really fun. It felt great not to be ethically bound from putting my hands all over her, so that's all I did all night long.
     
    “But it’s sort of true,” I say. “We were only officially dating for eighteen hours.”
     
    Lake hits me on the arm. “She thinks I’m a slut, Will! It’s embarrassing!”
     
    I touch my lips against her ear again. “Not yet, you’re not,” I tease.
     
    She pushes me away and points to herself. “You aren’t getting any more of this for twenty-four hours.” She laughs and starts to walk backwards up her driveway.
     
    “Twenty-one,” I correct her.
     
    She reaches the front door and turns and goes inside without so much as a goodnight kiss. What a tease ! She’s not getting the upper hand tonight. I run up the driveway and open her front door and pull her back outside. I push her against the brick wall of the entryway and look her in the eyes as I press my body against hers. She’s trying to look mad, but I can see the corner of her mouth break out into a smile. Our hands interlock and I bring them above her head and press them against the wall. “Listen to me very carefully,” I whisper. I continue to look her in the eyes. She listens. She likes it when I try to intimidate her. “I don’t want you to pack a damn thing. I want you to wear exactly what you were wearing last Friday night. Do you still have that ugly shirt?”
     
    She smiles and nods. I don’t think she could speak right now if she wanted to.
     
    “Good. What you’re wearing when we leave tomorrow night is the only thing you’re allowed to bring. No pajamas….no extra clothes. Nothing. I want you to meet me at my house at seven o’clock tomorrow night. Do you understand?”
     
    She nods again. Her pulse is racing against my chest and I can tell by the look in her eyes that she needs me to kiss her. My hands remain clasped with hers against the wall as I move my mouth closer to her lips. I hesitate at the last minute and decide not to kiss her. I slowly drop her hands and back away from her and make my way back to the house. When I reach my front door, I turn around and she’s still leaning against the brick in the same position. Good. I got the upper hand this time.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Friday, January 20 th , 2012
     
    Lake will never read my journal, so I should say what’s really on my mind, right? Even if she does read this, it’ll be after I’m dead when she’s sorting through my things. So technically, maybe one day she will actually read this. But it won’t matter by then, ‘cause I’ll be dead.
     
     
    So, Lake…if you’re reading this…I’m sorry I’m dead.
    But for right now, in