Heart to heart

Nine

IT HAD BEEN A WEEK. A week since we all got here. It took only a week for me to completely forget about Ben and daydream about Callum.

Since that day he braided my hair, we hardly saw each other.  Whether it was from across the hall or at breakfast, he was always gone somewhere. His car was nowhere in sight and he came back late at night. I figured he was going to his practices and games but sometimes he never came back for the night.

It was embarrassing enough that I only thought of him and even when I had my head buried in a novel, I couldn't wait for him to come back. Hearing his door shut or the sound of his footsteps made me lighthearted. I had no expectations of him coming to my room, it would have been strange. What was weirder was that he hadn't tried anything since then. Was that a part of his game?

I recalled the last week Ben and I were still together. We talked almost every day, sending each other funny memes, and asking questions about how our days went. You know, normal stuff.

That specific week, he was distant. He had always been closed off but I could just sense the shift in our conversations. The more he left things unfinished, the more I obsessed about it all. He wasn't answering my texts, he didn't ask about my day, he didn't want to hang out. Deep down, I just knew where it was leading. It was inevitable.

Not seeing Callum made me think about him a little too often. Was that it? Had he tried to get inside my pants and now that I had turned him down he was bored? Because if I recollected the memory properly, I had returned his intentions by letting him braid my hair. Hell, I let him touch and kiss me in places no one had kissed me before.

Juliette and Margot had been spamming me, asking for updates. Facetiming them would have been better but I was a coward. I sent them a quick text of what had happened. His mouth did not meet mine for the night, but he had flirted with me. They wanted more details, and if it wasn't for what had happened with Ben, I probably would have told them. It seemed not proper and I was wary of whom I trusted. Anyone could betray anyone, I grasped that concept pretty well.

Emily had been busy with her family, picking up strawberries at their farm not far from the lake. She texted in the group chat, demanding everybody's presence for Saturday afternoon. Nobody asked why, the reason seemed to be as clear as day.

She picked me up last, knocking on my door like something terrible had happened. My father welcomed her into the house and she dragged me out of my bedroom, out of my thoughts to tan for the rest of the day.

As promised, everyone else was there. The guys were drinking beer and playing a dull alcohol game. They were dense, it was no surprise. I was closer with them than I was with the girls, though. They were nice and very cautious around me. It made me feel unwanted and I did not want to step over things that weren't mine.

Jake was the first one the come to me, lifting me off the ground and spinning me around. He was taller than last summer. Too bad I couldn't mess with him about his height.

I told him to put me down and when he did, I raised an eyebrow. We had never been so close, he and I. Laura had a huge crush on him and we all knew Jake liked her too. Out of all the guys, he was the goofiest. Which, came as a surprise when I learned that Laura was crushing on him. She was the sweet, innocent kind of girl. Brown hair and blue eyes, straight A's, strict parents. I never thought Jake was the kind of guy she went for but, I saw the appeal.

After putting me down, Seth and Liam made me do our handshake. It was stupid that we were still trying, it never worked. Taking someone out of it must have been the solution but we couldn't do that. We made it up the three of us, we had to figure it out.

Seth and Liam were brothers. They were always hitting on me, thinking it was a smart thing to do while their girlfriends were watching. That was right, Mia was Seth's girlfriend and Daisy was Liam's. This quartet was a great pair. Unlike Laura and Jake, they admitted their feelings for each other as soon as they knew it was mutual. They were inseparable ever since. If they were to break up, my expectations for love would have died. Literally.