Catalyst (Forevermore, Book Two) Read Online Free Page B

wasn’t ready to. Hopefully someday he would learn to accept me for what I was. Willow immediately crawled underneath my bed and hissed. She hadn’t enjoyed the car ride, which was no surprise. She hadn’t been in a vehicle since she was taken to the vet and spayed – not too long after Uncle Mitch had given her to me. I was lucky that I made it through the ordeal unscathed, having had Willow in my lap during the drive ‘home’. My uncle lugged a bag of cat food into the room and set it against the mini fridge. I plopped my book bag softly on top of my mattress and set the makeup bag on my dresser. The duffel bag was placed beside the edge of my bed, where I saw a small white paw whip out and swipe at the zipper.
    “ Thanks for bringing me back,” I said with a subtle frown. “It wasn’t easy being there.”
    Mitchell pulled me into a hug and squeezed tightly until I gasped for air. “You’ll all make it through this, slowly but surely. I remember when your Gran and Grandpa divorced, it was really hard on Jason and me ... but after a while, it almost felt normal … like they were never really meant to be together like that.”
    It didn ’t even feel like Gran and Grandpa weren’t my grandparents, though they technically had no blood relation to me at all; I wondered if they knew that. “It just seems so sudden ... and so unreal.”
    “ I know exactly what you mean. With your Gran and Grandpa, it didn’t even seem possible. They acted like they were the happiest couple on the planet, but it turned out it was all just that — an act. They didn’t want Jason and me to realize how unhappy they really were. Somewhere along the way, they figured out that life wasn’t worth spending with someone you couldn’t be happy with, especially not for someone else’s sake. Your dad … Jason … I don’t think he was ever a hundred percent with being with Eila, and I think she knew that all along too … a little, at least.”
    “ Yeah …” I said and pulled away from him. “It’s just weird. Why wait this long? Why wait until my real mom came into the picture?”
    “ They did it to protect you, just like your Gran and Grandpa did for us. They were more concerned over your happiness than their own. Now maybe they’ll go their own ways and find out what — and who — makes them happy. Who knows, they might just find that they were in the right place all along .. in their own time.”
    “ I already know what makes Eila happy. Her bakery.”
    Mitchell nodded. “And I know what makes Jason happy,” he said with a grimace.
    “ My mom,” I said knowingly.
    Once more, he nodded. “That’s always been the case ... I just don’t want him to get hurt over it again. I don’t think those two were ever meant to be, either.”
    “ Yeah …”
    But nor do I want him to try to get with her, now th at I know my real dad is alive.
    I wasn ’t sure what else to say; it was weird having my uncle speak to me so bluntly about all these things. I was so used to him treating me like his little baby niece, even though I was way past that stage.
    He patted me on the shoulder and kissed me lightly on the cheek. “Let me know if you need anything, okay?”
    “ Yeah, sure,” I said and walked with him to the door. “Have fun with Jason.”
    “ Oh, definitely,” he said with an amused grin. “It’ll be like when we were around your age and lived together.”
    “ You lived together when you were my age?”
    “ Yep. After your Gran and Grandpa divorced, we lived together in your mom’s old house that’d been left to her by her mom while she was living with Salem.”
    “ Wow ...” I said blankly, trying to imagine what that must have been like — two teenage boys living alone together under one roof. “I never knew.”
    “ Now you do. I’ll see you later.”
    “ Bye,” I said and locked the door behind him.
     
    After I had everything unpacked and in its place, I filled the cat’s dishes and tried to lure her