Guilty By Association

Chapter 26 - Changing The Plan

Chapter 26 – Changing The Plan

Kelsey felt strong and emboldened by her discussion with Chris while he was there. But ten minutes after he left, she began to question herself. Chris was right. She was scared. This was all so new to her.

Before, she barely went out. She would only go out with Kara. At school, all of her friends were with her in school. She never met any of her friends outside of school and as soon as they all graduated and went their different ways, they all lost touch.

Kelsey knew she wasn’t an extrovert. She was probably the definition of introvert. Now, she had this thing with Alex and the only people she could go to talk about it either told her to confront him or were fugitives of law, mainly Kara.

She couldn’t sleep all night and the sleep she did get didn’t last for very long. She was awake bright and early at 6 o’clock and was now pacing in the living room in her pajamas.

It was a whole different story that Verona hadn’t arrived last night. All Kelsey got was a phone call telling her that she’d be spending the night in Dylan’s apartment. She didn’t know if he cousin talked to Dylan and sorted out their misunderstanding, but that they were spending the night in the same accommodation. Just fantastic.

So, she’d had the whole night to think about what had gone wrong. The last time that she’d been normal with Alex had been during Dana’s wedding, at the church. It was beautiful. The memory of the event brought a smile to her face.

Then, she remembered Nina and the frown just slipped right off of her face. She didn’t really want to admit it but Alex’s two-day relationship was right. Alex was afraid of commitment. Maybe it wasn’t entirely fear, though. Maybe he was just reluctant. She was willing to give him his space. The way she saw it, she already had.

When Alex started talking about sending her away, she told him to stay away. But since then, she’d met him at the gun training. She still didn’t know if it was intentional. What if Alex had come there knowing that she would be there? Maybe he came because he wanted to see her or talk to her?

Then, why hadn’t he?

If anything, she found him to be even more arrogant and annoying than before, a little too much if she thought about it.

The sudden ringing of the phone startled her. She stared at it for a second before she made her way over to the device and lifted the device and pressed it up against her ear, wondering who would be calling on Verona’s landline while Verona wasn’t there. “Hello?”

“Hello?” The person on the other end of the line spoke. “Kelsey?”

“Speaking.” She said, trying to place the familiar voice. “Chris?”

“Yeah, hey.” He said.

“Who gave you this number?” She asked.

“I found it in a phonebook, but that’s not why I called. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today. Do something?” He asked, his voice calm and smooth.

“Um…”

“It’s not a date.” He quickly clarified. “I know that you’re not looking for that right now. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out like friends.”

“Oh.” Kelsey cleared her throat. “Actually, I was thinking about what you said yesterday, and you were right.”

“I was?”

“Yeah.” She responded. “I think I’m taking the easy way out here. Ending what he had isn’t going to solve the problem. I’m going to go to Alex and tell him exactly what’s on my mind. Then, I’ll deal with whatever happens after. He has commitment issues maybe, but then, so do I.”