Crushes and Collins

Chapter 7

Chris's POV
Katie has been here for about a month and a half. It's been amazing. But I've had this feeling that the fun will end. The longer she has been here the less time she has left before she goes home. And I'm worried that we won't be able to make the long distance work. Certainty not as well as her friendship with Crawford works. Maybe that's who she deserves. That's where she is right now. She's out with Crawford. Maybe I should let her know what I'm thinking. I don't want to hurt her though.

Crawford's POV
Katie and I are out at the mall walking around some shops for no reason at all. "Oh my god!" She said. "What?" I asked. "I forgot to bring up you're present I got you!" She said and frowned. "Present for what?" I asked her. "We met one year ago tomorrow and I forgot to bring up your present. I left it at home." She said. That's right. We have been friends for almost a year! "How about, you go buy me a different present, I'll get two things and you can have Brent mail it here." I said. "Deal." She said. "We should split up then. So we don't see the presents. Meet at Starbucks in an hour?" She said. "Sounds good to me." I said. She walked away and I walked to one of her favorite stores. LUSH. she's obsessed. She's making me and Chris make a bath bomb on his channel.

I walked into the store and was greeted by the familiar scent. "May I help you?" One of the workers asked. "Yeah I'm looking for a bath bomb and a bubble thingy for a present for someone." I said. "Ah a present for your girlfriend, well what is her favorite scent. I stood there for a minute realizing what she had said. "No she's not my girlfriend. She's my best friend. She's dating my brother." I said and looked down at my feet. "But you like her don't you, I can tell." She said. "Yeah I've always liked her. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of when we met. I want to get her something she'll love." I said. "Well what are her favorite scents. Has she told you about any of the products? We can make a gift box with different products in it for her." The worker said. "Well she likes the avocado bath bomb and the yellow one that turns blue. Fizz something." I said. "Avobath, and Fizzbanger. What else?" The worker was very helpful. "It's a bubble thingy. It smells like orange." I said. "Bright side bubble bar. Perfect." The worker said. "You can fit one more thing. And I have an idea. Do you know if she likes lip scrubs?" "Lip what's" I asked. "Here follow me. This one smells amazing. It's sugar, essential oils, and fragrance. You scrub it on your lips and they make them nice and soft. Try it." She handed me a little pink jar. I tried it and it tasted good. "Yeah I think she'll like this a lot." The worker put the box together and I paid and left. "Good luck!" She called as I walked away.

Katie's POV
I walked away from Crawf and called Brent.
Me: hey can you do me the biggest favor?
Brent: yeah what's up?
M: I left crawfords present at home can you mail it here?
B: the black box with a blue bow?
M: yes that's it!
B: don't worry. It's in the guest room under the pillow. When you got in the car I saw you left it so I packed it. Then I forgot I packed it until I was about to leave. So I put it under the pillow. When I got home I forgot to tell you. Sorry haha
M: oh my god Brent you're a life savor.
B: yeah yeah
M: thank you so much. I love you bro
B: love you too. Bye
M: bye

I hung up and walked the store we passed earlier. Crawford pointed out a nice set of headphones that he wanted but didn't get. So I bought them and went to Starbucks to wait for him. I felt my phone vibrate and saw a text from Chris. "Hey sorry to bother you I know you're out with Crawford. I'll probably be asleep when you guys get home. But there's something I need to tell you tomorrow morning. Have fun."  That was it. A million thoughts ran threw my head and I didn't notice Crawf sit down until he yelled my name and handed me my coffee. "Here just the way you like it." He said. He sat down.

"What were you reading?" He asked. "Chris wants to tell me something but not until tomorrow. That's basically all he said." I said still confused. "Well it's getting a little late, want to go eat and then go midnight swimming?" He said. "Absolutely. This is such a nice day out. And your pool is heated right?" I asked. "Of corse" he smiled.

~~~~

Crawford and I just finished swimming and it's about 3 am. I tried to sneak into bed with Chris but I woke him up. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up." I said. "It's ok. Were you guys swimming?" He asked turning on his light. "Yeah for a couple of hours." I said. "Can we talk?" He asked getting serious. "Yeah what's up?" I asked.

"This is hard to say. I don't want to do this but I think it's the only thing we can do. We need to break up. Hear me out before you get upset. I don't know how well we can make this long distance work. And I don't want it to get to the point where we get fed up with eachother and break up really badly. I don't want to ruin this friend ship. I think it's best for the friendship if we break up now while we are still good friends and happy instead of later when we hate each other. Is that ok?" He said and finally took a breath. "I completely understand. I would rather break up than ruin this friendship. Maybe we can make it work when I don't have to go back to school. If it's alright I'm just going to go back to crawfords room. Is it my turn to make breakfast tomorrow?" I asked trying to play it off. "You sleep in. I'll get it, good night." "Ok night." 

I walked to crawfords room and collapsed into his bed next to him letting a few tears escape. "Hey what's wrong?" He asked the as he turned to face me. "Chris and I just broke up. It's for the best though. The best idea to save the friendship." I said and sighed rolling over to look him in the eyes our faces close. I could feel his warm breath and I leaned in. I kissed him. And he kissed back. I pulled back before I went to kiss him again but he stopped me. "I don't want you to do something you'll regret later." He said. I closed my eyes and nodded. He kissed my forehead and wrapped his arms around me and I fell asleep.