We Were Giants

Chapter 6

When Monday rolls around, I'm still riding the high of the fantastic weekend. I text Kayla early to make sure she'll pick me up, so I can hear all about her date and she can tell me all about her weekend. It's been years since I've been this excited for a Monday. Maybe I'm sick.

When Kayla pulls up to my house, I run out to meet her, for once ignoring my rumpled appearance. So, what if my clothes have wrinkles? It's high school, not Milan fashion week.

"You're smiling," Kayla observes cautiously. "Did your plan to take over the world finally work or something?" She laughs, then speeds out of my driveway.

"Just had a good weekend. That's all," I say. Then I tell her all about it. About driving Isaiah's car and being really bad at games and nearly (but not quite) shrieking at The Blair Witch Project. I tell her about the next day when Isaiah decided to take Thomas and me for burgers at the diner by our house instead of eating leftovers, like we normally do on Saturdays. I tell her about how much fun I had and when I can finally say no more, I just keep smiling.

"Sounds like you had a nice date, then," Kayla gibes.

"Hey, now," I act offended. "But, speaking of dates, how was yours? Are you the future Mrs. Cameron Mathis?"

I know this is the only reason she even mentioned the word date. Kayla's manipulative like that. And judging by the smile she's trying to conceal, it must have gone very well.

"It was wonderful, Cade," she says as if she's auditioning to be Broadway's next Cinderella. "Dinner was delicious. We went to that new steakhouse that just opened up. He apparently knows the owner; we didn't even have to wait when we got there. Our table was already ready for us! Then we went to the movies. The movie was horribly boring. We left halfway through and went to walk around the park."

She seems so blissful, talking about her date. She has that new-relationship glow, the one she gets every time she starts dating a new guy she's been chasing for a while. She looks happy.

And beautiful. Another telltale sign that her date went well is that she's wearing makeup. Kayla's naturally pretty; she always has been. But when she's in a relationship, she's a knockout. She fixes her hair every morning and does her makeup and wears nice clothes. I've always wondered why she didn't do this when she was trying to attract a boyfriend, but she always says that she has too much respect for herself to try to get a date based on her looks.

I get that, I guess. I mean, I'm not getting a date anytime soon based on my looks, so that's nothing I've ever had to worry about.

"So, are you guys an official couple?" I ask, already knowing the answer. The car wouldn't smell like Clinique Happy if she were still single.

"We are," she grins widely. "I wanted to call you and tell you everything yesterday, but I didn't want to disrupt your amazing weekend with Isaiah." I can hear disdain in her voice. "I didn't even know you two hung out, except at school."

I should have expected her to be mad, I guess, but it somehow still takes me by surprise. I honestly don't know why she's upset, or even why she has the right to be upset. I definitely wasn't a part of her weekend planning. And I was supposed to be.

"We don't," I shrug, knowing that I'm being passive aggressive. "I mean, we didn't. That was the first time." I'm allowed to have other friends, I think, but I don't say. That would be bad.

"You were busy this weekend. Why's it matter that I hung out with Isaiah?" I feel like we're talking in circles and getting nowhere.

"I had a date. I thought you'd be happy for me, Cade. I thought you'd care." Her voice has reached a pitch that could shatter glass. When she's mad, her voice always gets higher, not louder.