California Dreaming // keaton stromberg

Chapter 18

Gabby's POV

"You know when you called me asking for a favor, this wasn't what I had in mind." Dylan frowned at me. I laughed and shoved his shoulder lightly.

"Come on! I have like no girl friends here." I argued, my point completely valid. The only people I hung out with were guys. There was Keaton, Wes, Drew, Dylan, the guys from the beach, from the skatepark... the list went on and on. Sure there were some girls from school, but I didn't really have anything in common with them.

"What about the girls from school?" Dylan protested as if reading my mind.

"I don't have anything in common with them."

"And you have stuff in common with my sister?" I could hear the suspicion in his voice. I just wanted to talk to Caroline about what happened with Wes. I needed to hear her point of view because frankly, Wesley Stromberg still couldn't be trusted.

"Chill out Price," I referred to him by his last name to make my argument sound tougher. "We're going to get our nails done, I'm not dragging her out to the club or anything." I rolled my eyes.

"Fine. She can come." He sighed in defeat. "But if this is just some evil scheme to get her back with that asshole Wesley Stromberg, I'll never forgive you." He said pointedly. My eyebrows rose in shock at his confession.

"Dude that is the complete opposite of why I want to hang out. I really just need someone to talk to about him. Caroline and I were both dumped by the same guy," I started, feeling slightly guilty about saying the last part out loud. Wesley didn't do anything wrong here, it made me sad to even hear myself say things about him that weren't true. Or so he said. "If anything this is a Wes Stromberg hate club." I chuckled nervously. I rocked back and forth waiting for him to say or do something.

"A Wesley Stromberg hate club, hmm. I'd join that." He gave me a small grin.

"First rule of hate club, don't talk about hate club." I raised a finger over my lips in a shushing motion. "Second rule about hate club: girls only." I smirked at him. Dylan rolled his eyes and disappeared inside his house for a moment.

"Car! Gabby's here!" He called through the hallways. I could hear footsteps and soon enough a girl with dark blonde hair and green eyes appeared in front of me. Tossing my hair over my shoulder, I linked my arm through hers, smiling sweetly at her brother.

"Don't wait up, Dyl Pickle." I gave him a tiny smirk. He let out a quick snort and shut the door, shaking his head like he didn't even want to know.

My wet nails were going to make driving back pretty difficult, so we decided to go grab milkshakes at the ice cream place next door. Caroline was nice and everything, but I hadn't actually gotten to talk to her at the nail place about the thing that was pressing on my mind. Luckily, she gave me a perfect way to throw him into the conversation.

"So my brother tells me that you went out with Wesley Stromberg for a little while." She awkwardly stirring her strawberry shake.

"Yeah. I did. That's kind of why i wanted to talk to you." I admitted.

"It is?"

"Yeah..." How do I even bring this up? Will she freak out when she knows that I know? Will she be mad? Will she deny it? "After I found out that Wes cheated on me I ran off to the skate park where I met your brother. When he found out that Wes was the guy that cheated on me, he went insane and told me what happened to you." I started. Caroline was staring at me, her face neutral. "So of course, I went back to Wesley's house ready to punch him in the face a couple of times for cheating on you too, but before I got the chance, he told me what happened. Everything that happened." And that's when I saaw her face pale slightly. "So what I'm asking for is your side of the story." I told her, folding my hands together.