California Dreaming // keaton stromberg

Chapter 17

Keaton POV

I was messing around with a bass track on garageband when I heard my door swing open and hit the wall. It was so loud that I could hear it through my headphones. I swung around in my chair forcefully, about to strangle Wesley for not knocking, but my anger dissolved when I saw it was Gabby standing in the doorway.

"Do you know a girl named Caroline Price?" She asked me randomly. I pulled a face, not recognizing the name particularly, but then it clicked.

"Caroline Price... I think she's a year younger than us right? Wes used to date a Caroline Price." I said finally. I wonder why Gabby was asking about her.

"Ugh, I thought so." She growled, flopping down on my bed.

"How do you know Caroline? She doesn't even go to our school." I asked. Although she lived in Huntington Beach, I'm pretty sure her parents sent her to private school: you know, the kind where you have to wear a uniform everyday and make sure that your blazer was always neat and clean? I remembered Caroline, with her crisp, white button-down shirt, and matching plaid skirt. The way she was always leaning against the counter in the kitchen; watching Wes attempt to cook her a snack, or sitting at the kitchen table, having him help her do her homework. Caroline was one of the good ones. In fact, she was probably the last real girlfriend that Wes had.

"I met her brother today." Gabby let out a huffy breath. I still didn't get how Caroline was connected to all of Gabby's problems, but I didn't want to set her off by asking too many questions. The girl had enough on her mind already. The one thing that I did suspect, however, was that the relationship between Caroline and my brother had somehow escalated Gabby's anger.

"Okay, so what's up?" I asked. Screw trying to protect her feelings. I was super confused about what exactly was going on. And if all this questioning just makes her explode, then that's okay. I'll be a shoulder for her to cry on. No matter what, I'll always be here.

"Do you know how Wes and Caroline broke up?" She asked me and I shook my head no. Now that she mentioned it, I was always a little fuzzy on that subject. "Well Caroline's older brother Dylan met Wes one night at a party. This was back when Wes was going out with that other girl-"

"Vanessa." I said outloud. The image was becoming clear in my mind. I remembered the night that Wes left for that party.

"Right, Vanessa. Exactly." She nodded. "Anyway, so Wes and Vanessa get to the party and Wes disapeared for a few minutes to get drinks. When he got back, he saw Vanessa making out with some other guy on the couch."

"Ouch. That's rough." I scrunched up my face to form an expression of pity. Wes never told me about that happening: I actually felt sorry for the guy.

"Yeah, that's what I thought at first." Gabby started. "Turns out that guy was Dylan Price." My eyes widened slightly as the story took an interesting turn.

"Oh no. Don't tell me..." I trailed off, afraid to find out that I was right about the way this story was going.

"Yep. Wes only went out with Caroline to piss off Dylan." Gabby sat on the corner of my bedspread, still fuming. This really pissed her off. I thought back to after Wes and Caroline broke up and how devastated he seemed.

"Wait... this doesn't exactly add up. Wes was really upset when he and Caroline broke up." I rubbed the back of my head. Even though I wasn't exactly sure how the break up went, I know that Wes didn't want to dump her. Caroline was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. "Are you sure he was just using Caroline? Did he say that exactly?" I asked.

"Well... no." She admitted. "He was trying to tell me that it didn't go down like that, but I thought it was just some desparate ploy." The expression on her face changed from one of anger, to one of guilt. "I... I think I need to go talk to him." She rose to her feet and rushed out the door before I could stop her. Great, I was basically pushing them back together. what have I done?

Wes POV

"Wes?" I heard a quiet voice coming from the doorway of my bedroom. I cracked an eye open to see Gabby standing there: not looking like she wanted to kill me for once. "Sorry, I didn't know if you were asleep or not." She said, stepping fully into my room now. I sat up in bed so I could pay more attention to her. Girls like it when you make eye contact with them. I read that somewhere once.

"Not asleep, just thinking about things." I admitted.

"I was kind of unfair to you today." She trailed off.

"No, I deserved it. I cheated on you and I deserve to have you hate me and-"

"Not about that, about Caroline." My entire spine stiffened at her name. Caroline Price. "I didn't let you explain your side of the story."

"It doesn't matter anyway. I cheated on you, I'm a bad guy." I groaned, shifting my gaze to the window: allowing me to focus on something outside. Screw eye contact; just looking in Gabby's direction was making me nervous. And I didn't want to talk about Caroline. Hell, I didn't even want to think about her. I didn't want to think about her ever again.

"It's true. You did cheat on me, but that's not what this is about. Dylan said that you dated Caroline just to get back at him. Is that true?" Even though I wasn't looking at her, I could feel her eyes burning holes in the side of my face.

"At first it was." I admitted. "But then I really started to like her."

"Then what happened with you two? Dylan said that Caroline came home crying one day, saying it was your fault." She said quietly. I finally looked over at her.

"That's just the way it had to be. She wanted to blame someone; even though there really was no one to blame. It's just who she is." I admitted. I can't believe I was telling her this, I haven't told anyone this before. I promised Caroline that I would never tell anyone.

"Wes, what happened?" She asked.

"Caroline was the first girl I really fell for. She wasn't like any of the other girls I had ever met before--she was special. But one day, when we were at a party, I walked in on her and kind of saw something I wasn't supposed to." I said, still evading the truth a little.

"Wow, parties just aren't your scene." She joked. I muffled a laugh, but didn't smile. "What happened?" She repeated more serious this time. I was going to tell her. I was finally going to tell someone.

"I walked in on Caroline making out with another girl." I said. Gabby's eyes widened, but I didn't stop talking. I was on a roll. "Apparently she was the one using me: to make her family think that she was into guys. At first it hurt a lot- I mean I was being used. But when I stormed out of the party she chased after me, crying hysterically begging me not to tell anyone. So I decided to keep up appearances. We both decided that it wasn't fair for us to keep dating after I found out the truth, so we staged a 'break-up'. Car kind of went a little over the top with the waterworks though, and Dylan heard her crying, and confronted her about it, and so she kind of just told him that I had dumped her."

"Wes-" She started to say something, but I kept going.

"When Dylan found me the next day, he kind of punched me in the face a million times, but it was worth it. I agreed to keep Caroline's secret because she meant a lot to me. She deserves to come out on her own terms, not mine." I grabbed a bottle of water off my nightstand and downed it in one gulp. Was it getting hot in here?

"So you were actually protecting her?" Gabby asked me and I nodded slowly.

"Yeah, yeah I was." I said, smiling slightly. If I had anything to be proud of, it was helping Caroline. I still talk to her, even today.

"What you did to me was wrong, but you're not a bad guy Wesley Stromberg. We just need some time." She told me. And with that she got up and left; leaving me behind with only my thoughts.