Once Upon A Bus Ride

Chapter 64: Someday

She wasn't wrong. Paige's parents and mine have always been friends. I knew her even when I had been homeschooled as a kid. Shannon was my best friend, and an amazing one at that, but I had known her only four years.

I still remember waiting to see the principal on my first day when Shannon was brought there for allegedly stealing a junior's car keys and attempting to run him over in the parking lot because he and his friends kept catcalling and making inappropriate comments at her in the hallways. Well, not allegedly, there were multiple witnesses and she admitted to it without any remorse but that's not the point. The point is that even though there and then after talking to the crazy girl and deciding we were soul mates, she still wasn't my oldest friend. Paige was.

"I fitted in quite well freshman year," Paige continued with a sad chuckle. "I gravitated towards a different crowd and you were with Shannon. And then we met Mace and Sienna, and I thought that it wouldn't be so bad sharing you with other people if that meant I'd at least get a small part of you. And so I forced us into this group that I thought I could control, but I could still see the division. I know it all sounds creepy and obsessive-"

"You think?" I remarked.

"-and now that I'm saying it out loud I realize I had serious attachment issues but Morgan you were like a best friend to me, and I missed that, and us. And so I just got used to being salty, but that wasn't really justified because you were still the nice girl that everyone loved. And then you did what I never had the guts to do and started talking to Aaron."

My mouth hung open at this. "Aaron? What does Aaron have to do with this? And please don't say what I think you're going to say."

"I didn't even know his name until that day I snatched his iPod from you and watched you go give it back to him," she continued to confess. "Up until then he was just the guy across the courtyard that I liked but was too focused on other people's opinions to do anything about it. My parents wanted me with someone like Cole, who's family had connections in business and what not. People in school expected Paige Cross to be on the arm of Sterling's most eligible, no matter if they were assholes. As far as I was concerned he was just the regular guy I admired from afar, and did nothing about. That's why I was so against you going to talk to him, and why I acted the way I did after that."

As much as it made me want to throw up, it made the most sense. I wondered why she made such a big deal about the superficial divide between the kids at his school and mine. I guess it was more about her not wanting anyone else to have the guy she couldn't have.

"So...do you still...like him?" I asked.

She shook her head. "God no, I got over that when I began to see the way he looked at you. For me it was just a case of thinking he was handsome. You actually got to know him, and love him, and so I backed off."

"Yeah but then you went for Shannon's boyfriend instead," I said.

She wiped her tears and took in a breath. "I know I'm a bitch, and that I'm messed up, and that I don't deserve any help from you, but Morgan I am sorry too. I don't even need you to help me, just need you to know that. And I'll apologize to Shannon too, and Aaron, and Sienna. They don't have to forgive me either, I'm just sorry."

She started crying again and I tried to remind myself that she was a terrible person and that she was probably tricking me into believing she was sorry.

But the look on her face...God it was enough to melt my heart which was stone at the moment.

"Are you going to keep the baby?" I asked.

"I don't know...maybe not," she cried. "My parents will cut me off if I do, and I don't know where to get an abortion or how. I don't even know if I want to get an abortion."