Intercept My Heart

Chapter 40

After the situation at the football house, Chloé, Morgan, and I made it back to their dorm room around 6am. Chloé is now tearing through her closet, frantically throwing her clothes into her suitcases. She's a mad woman, Morgan is looking between Chloé and I waiting for one of us to address the elephant in the room.

The elephant being Chloé asking me if I knew what Austin had planned or the fact that little miss Morgan has love bites covering her neck. 

I'm not sure why Chloé would accuse me of knowing why Austin did what he did. I was just as clueless as they were, so I finally clear my throat.

"Chlo'?"

She finally lifts her head from her suitcase, her blue eyes rimmed red, her cheeks flushed.

"Why did you think I knew about what Austin's mom did?"

She stands tall, hands on her hips and honestly she looks pretty intimidating right now. "I don't know, maybe because you're always with Cade and he obviously knew."

Just because Cade knew doesn't mean he would tell me. Austin is his best friend and quite frankly it had nothing to do with me or him.

"Sue me for being around my boyfriend that I just so happen to tutor two days out of the week!"

"Oh so now he's your boyfriend? See that is the problem with you. Every time you get a boyfriend you forget about us!"

Cade isn't my boyfriend, but I'm pretty sure we were about to have that talk this morning before the drama started.

Morgan raises her hands in surrender. "Leave me out of this. I don't have a problem with it, as long as she's happy."

Chloé and I have always been the closest. We have been inseparable since kindergarten, we cheered together all of middle school and highschool, countless sleepovers with us 3, but me and Chloé have always been attached at the hip. With that being said, she's clingy and that's okay. I don't mind, but times like this when she's going through something, she will use it as leverage and make me feel like I'm a bad friend.

Morgan and I have been as supportive as we can be with the little information she will let us know about her parents. She won't let us help her, she's going through this alone because she insists that she is "fine". Between Morgan having a big workload this year and me over studying for my art classes, we don't spend as much time together anymore. But it's not because of this relationship with Cade.

"Every time I get into a relationship? You mean the only one I've ever been in?" I'm standing up now because that was a low blow from her. She's taking her anger out on me and my plan was to just comfort her and to reassure my best friend that she could do much better than Austin. "And have you ever thought to yourself that maybe I stayed in that clingy and controlling relationship for so long because you're clingy and controlling too? Maybe I thought the way Jordan treated me was normal because you, my best friend, treats me that way too."

While my words are only partially true, I don't care in this moment and it's not like she's going to tell us all of the details from her encounter with Austin anyway. We're going to be blindly comforting her while she tries to convince us that she'll be okay.

"Let's all take a deep breath and cool down." Morgan suggested, trying to deescalate the situation.

"Good idea, but how about I cool down at my own place?" I place my hands on my hips, mirroring Chloé.

"And maybe call Rosalie? You know, you replaced us with her before we got to campus anyway."

"Again, leave me out of this." Morgan said.

I roll my eyes because Chloé is just being ridiculous right now, I know that she probably still has liquor in her system, and she's upset about Austin.

"We can talk when you're nicer." I say to Chloé as I give Morgan a hug and leave their building.

****

It's been two days since I've seen Cade. I told him that I'm studying for midterms and also comforting my best friend. This statement is only partially true. I'm studying for midterms, I have books and highlighters everywhere as I work productively for the second day in a row. I am not however, comforting my friend because she left the group-chat and I have not heard from her since our little argument.

I want to badly apologize to her. I want to talk to her and be there, but maybe we need this little space. Chloé is stubborn and I know from past experiences that she may need a few days to see that I am not the enemy.

I place the cap back onto my highlighter as I stare down at my phone. I so badly want to talk to Cade and tell him about what happened. I want to tell him the last two days have been so boring without him making jokes and stuffing me with foods.

I miss the smell of his cologne, the way his lips tug up in the corner when I compliment him, his fluffy brown hair and the way his muscles flex when he runs his fingers through it.

I finally press the FaceTime button and call him.

And the way his smile grows once the call connects makes my heart tug a little.

"Hi, princess." his voice filters through the speaker, warm and welcoming like home.

"Hi,"

"You miss me?"

I feel my cheeks warm. "I do."

"You hungry?"

I've been studying all day and the granola bar I had hours ago has worn off. "I am."

"I knew it, my hungry girl."