ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: FEBRUARY 21ST, 2016
CHAPTER TWO
A grunt that's not mine wakes me up. Snapping my eyes open, I turn around in bed and am met with Griffyn's surprised eyes. I know without a doubt that mine are mirroring that same emotion, but for a different reason.
"Hey. Hi. Hello." I greet, not knowing what to say. The last time we slept in the same bed was four months ago. And four months ago, I didn't have these weird thoughts of him that I vaguely remember having last night before my memory went blank.
Griffyn's surprised look fades and is replaced by a look of amusement as he chuckles. "Hello. Hi. Hey." I blush against my will and sit up, realizing I'm still in my dress, only I have a t-shirt over it. Griffyn most likely slipped it on last night. The thought does not help cool my already heated cheeks. I turn away so he can't see.
"What happened last night?" I ask. I remember getting in the car and the ride home, but after that, it's all blurry. I know nothing bad would ever happen with Griffyn, but still. There are things that I'd like to avoid talking to him about and if I was drunk yapping, then there's a chance that I said something I shouldn't have.
The bed moves as Griffyn shifts his weight and a second later he's sitting on the edge of the bed, his legs dangling beside mine, brushing them a little. I pull away slightly. I must not have done it subtly enough though, because he gives me a look and shifts back so our legs brush again.
"Well, I helped you up here and obviously," he gestures to my shirt, "I slipped that on you. And I went to leave but you practically begged me to stay with you."
He chuckles as I groan and look away. "Wow, now you're never going to let that go for the rest of our lives!" Though, begging for him to stay is not as bad as I thought the news would be.
"You were all like, 'Griff, I'm cold! Come warm me with your body heat!'" Griff says in what I assume is his interpretation of my voice.
I roll my eyes, "I so didn't say that!" At least I hope not...
"Maybe not," Griff shrugs, "but it was something along the lines of that."
"Whatever. I was probably just really glad--"
"Probably?" Griffyn interrupts, looking bewildered.
"--I got to see you before school starts back up. Only two days left." I stand up and head to my closet to pick out a pair of skinny jeans and cute top for the day.
"Actually, there's only one day left until school starts. Tomorrow's Sunday." Griffyn corrects me, following me to my closet. He notices I'm having trouble picking out a top, so he picks a red one and hands it to me.
"Actually, there's two. You have to count Saturday, duh." I inform him, walking over to my bathroom. He starts to follow.
"No, you don't count today. We've talked about this countless times, Carson." He tells me exasperatingly as we reach the door to my bathroom.
I turn and give him a pointed look, pushing him away from the door. "You do count today, you're the one doing it wrong. Now leave me alone! I have to change!"
Griffyn frowns, "I was hoping to distract you with my compelling words and you'd let me in without noticing."
I let out a laugh and shake my head, amused. "Nice try, but no."
He sighs, but walks back into my room and I shut the door. I change quickly, coming out as soon as I can. I find him standing and looking at my mirror. My heart skips a beat, "What are you doing?"
"Looking," he says. He points to the picture I ripped in half yesterday, "What happened to this picture?"
I scurry to come up with a lie, "I went to take it out the other day and it ripped in half." I can't look at him as I say this. He narrows his eyes in suspicion but doesn't say anything. I remember what he said last night about how he can tell when I'm lying and force myself to remain stoic and not give anything away.
"Well, Wes texted me. He's out front with my baseball bag. We have practice in less than a half hour, so I should probably head out." I let out a sigh of relief when he leaves the subject alone.
"Okay." He hugs me before heading out of my room. I don't move and listen closely until I hear the front door shut before sinking into my desk chair and putting my head in my hands. I'm still in the same position when Carolina calls my name from somewhere downstairs.
"Up here!" I call back. Seconds later she's standing in my doorway.
She hesitates before entering and just stands awkwardly in the center of my room. "Hey... I want to... apologize. For yesterday, I mean."
"You don't need to. You were drunk. People do things that they wouldn't normally do when they are drunk." I shrug it off, even though I don't believe my first four words. Whether she's talking about what happened with Griffyn in seven minutes in heaven or the fact that she almost brought my father up in front of him, I'm not okay with either.
"No, really. I should not have brought up your dad. You wanted to keep it a secret from Griffyn and I almost blew it. And about seven minutes in heaven... I don't even know why I made such a big deal. I mean, you were sick and I made it all about me." Carolina just stands there as she gives the speech. I get the feeling that she doesn't want to be apologizing, but I forgive her anyway.
"Look it's fine, but we need ground rules," I say, standing up to face her. I'm not going to let my secret slip before I want it to and the only way to enforce it is to make sure that Carolina and her friends stay away from Griffyn and Parker.
"Okay..." Carolina says, warily, crossing her arms.
"No bringing up my dad whatsoever and... I think it'd be best if you and the girls just steered clear of the Rivers family." I try to justify this rule as me trying to make sure that my father is not brought up, but honestly, I can't bring myself to believe it. I wonder if I'm making Carolina stay away from him because she tried to get with him the other night, instead of the intentions I'm stating.
Carolina doesn't say anything for a while. She chews the inside of her lip, staring at me. She must've thought I was going to change my mind under her stare, because when I don't, she frowns, "Fine. Yeah. Whatever."
I smile a real smile, glad that it's settles, "Good. Now, I think I chipped some of my nails last night... Manicure?"
I pull up to the baseball fields just as the boys are headed out of the dugouts. Searching the crowd for Griffyn, I finally find him talking to a vaguely familiar redhead. I can't recall her name. When he sees me approaching them, he smiles and waves.
The redhead turns to me and manages a small smile. I still can't place a name with her face, but I do know that I've seen her face on countless posters in the halls in past school years in which she's run for student council.
"Hey, Griff." I stop and place myself a little closer to him than I usually stand, brushing up against him. I turn to smile at the redhead. "Who's this?"
The redhead swallows nervously but doesn't say anything. Griffyn gives me a look but introduces her. "Carson, this is Melody. Melody, my best friend Carson."
I do not miss his emphasis on the words, best friend.
I nod, checking her out. Curly red hair adorns her face and her narrow, lanky body is clad with a preppy schoolgirl outfit. Her curves are practically nonexistent, so I don't know what Griffyn even sees in her. I stop my thoughts from going any further when I catch myself comparing myself to her. Why should I even care what Griffyn does? I'm not his keeper.
I'm just trying to be a good friend, I tell myself. I don't want him to end up with someone not worthy of his love. Honestly, he could do a lot better than Melody.
"Well, I've got to get Griffyn home. Meeting you was... nice." I'm barely able to squeeze out the word nice. I can't think properly with all of the thoughts racing through my head at the moment.
Melody murmurs out a quick goodbye before scurrying off to another guy on the baseball team who's definitely a JV player. She must've come with him to watch his practice. Another reason why Griffyn shouldn't date her: she doesn't have a car.
I shake my head, ridding those kinds of thoughts from my head. When did I become so judgmental? Last year, she would've been an ideal choice for another best friend. I sound like... Carolina.
"What was that about?" Griffyn asks as I begin driving home.
"What do you mean?" I busy myself with looking everywhere but at him as I drive the way home. I can actually drive these roads with my eyes closed, but I can't find the courage to look at him all of the sudden. What's up with me? I seriously need to get some therapy. I shouldn't be acting this way with someone who's supposed to be my best friend.
"You know what I mean. Melody is a nice girl. You didn't have to be so rude to her. Did she do something to you?" Griffyn sits up and tries to get me to glance over at him. When I don't, he leans back, heaving a sigh. "Are you... jealous or something?"
"Jealous?" I laugh, shaking my head. "You're absolutely crazy. Why would I be jealous of a girl talking to you? It happens all the time, Griffyn. I'm used to it."
Griff nods, "I guess so." He looks down at his hands. "I mean, I'd understand if you were jealous though."
I pull into my driveway and shut the car off, turning in my seat to face him, "Griffyn, I'm not jealous! Stop being so full of yourself for once and just listen to me! I'm just in a mood is all."
Griffyn looks up at me seriously, but after a few seconds he smirks, "Are you on your period, Carson?"
I gasp and smack him. I get out of the car and he follows, following me into the house. "I can't believe you just said that to me. In our friendship, we don't discuss periods, okay? That is strictly a discussion that should be with Parker."
Griffyn follows me into the kitchen and hops onto the counter to sit, "What's the big deal? So, you're bleeding out of your... downstairs... So what? It happens to everyone."
"Everyone?" I raise an eyebrow at Griffyn, stopping in the middle of the kitchen. "What are you trying to say, Griff?"
Griffyn turns red and reaches up to mess with his hair, "Um, that's not what I meant. That came out wrong. I meant to say that it happens to every girl."
I laugh, "Whatever." I start pulling out the chocolate and vanilla ice cream and set them on the counter. "Let's just ditch the period talk and make our G&C Sunday."
"Ah," Griffyn sighs, sliding off the counter to take random ingredients such as nuts and sour patch kids out of the cabinets. "The Griffyn and Carson Sunday. Nice choice. I get to choose what we do next Friday, though."
Every Friday during the school year since sixth grade, Griffyn and I would get together and do something. Sometimes it's watch a movie, other times a G&C Sunday. We have tons of different things that we've done, but the G&C Sunday is my all time favorite. Griffyn likes to change it up and pick really... interesting activities though.
"Whatever. You know that if I don't like it, I'll be able to talk you into doing something else like every other time, right?" I've always been able to change Griffyn's mind about our Friday activities, since he seems to have a week spot for my koala-hugs (well it's more like he gets so annoyed with me hanging onto him, that he promises to do something else if I just let go).
Griffyn rolls his eyes and points a finger at me. "Someday, I'm going to catch you off guard and your koala hugs won't affect me anymore. What are you going to do then?"
"Keep dreaming, Rivers. That day will never come." I give him an innocent smile and start to pile both chocolate and vanilla ice-cream in a huge bowl. Griffyn grabs a towel and tucks it into his shirt for no reason, making him look like a dork. A very handsome one.
My eyes widen as the thought sneaks it's way into my mind. I quickly wipe it away and watch as Griffyn grins widely and grabs a handful of jelly beans, throwing them on top of the ice-cream. I add sour patch kids and some nuts. He ads some chocolate syrup and I throw in chopped up strawberries. I can almost forget about what just raced through my mind as I busy myself with making this very grotesque sunday.
"This is going to be deliciously disgusting," Griffyn tells me as we continue piling foods into the bowl, mixing every so often. I agree with him. "No! We almost forgot the secret ingredient!"
I gasp way too dramatically, "Well we can't have that." We both race to the cabinet where we keep the secret ingredient. I get there before him though and swing it open quickly.
Griffyn lets out an, "Oof!" as it gets him right in the gut.
"Oh my gosh, Griffyn. I'm so sorry!" I go towards him, wanting to know what I can do to help him, but he just stands up and takes the towel from the neck of his shirt. He starts to twist it up and I hurry to get a weapon. The first thing I grab is a broom. "Don't you dare, Griffyn!"
Griffyn grins mischievously, "I'm so getting you back for that."
I don't even bother answering before I'm running and putting the dining table between us. Griffyn laughs and chases me around it. "Stop, Griffyn!"
Before I know it, we're both laughing and out of breath. He's been playing baseball and working out all summer, whereas I haven't been, so when I start tiring out, he catches up to me. Tackling me, we both fall to the floor.
When the laughter subsides, we both sober to realize that he's on top of me in a compromising position. His grayish eyes flicker only slightly down to my lips. I wouldn't have even been able to tell that he did if I hadn't been watching him so closely, but I was and my heart skips a beat, speeding up. He starts to lean in slowly, too slowly...
"Can't keep my hands to myself, no matter how hard I'm trying to..." Griffyn's phone interrupts the moment with a Selena Gomez ring tone. He pulls himself off of me too quickly and curses, answering his phone.
"Hello?" He's breathing a little fast as I watch him. His back is to me and he's staring out the kitchen window, messing with his hair. "Woah, Mom. Calm down. What are you saying?" He pauses to listen to what she has to say and sigh. "Yeah, okay. I'll be right there. Bye." I see his shoulders tense as she says something back at a louder volume to where I can actually almost make out her words. "Fine... Love you." He mutters quickly before hanging up.
I realize that I'm still lying on the floor as he turns around, so I hop quickly to my feet. My heart is still racing like crazy, and I honestly don't know how to act since I don't really know what just (almost) happened, but I try to appear normal. "Really, Selena Gomez?"
Griffyn rolls his eyes, "Parker's an idiot."
"What'd your mom want?"
"She... wanted me home," He glances over at the mess that we made on the counters, his gaze slowly shifting over to the uneaten sunday.
"It's okay. I can clean all of this up. If she wants you home, you need to go home." I say, fully meaning it. I'm a bit disappointed that he can't stay and eat it with me because that's the best part, but I can't argue with the parents, especially his.
"Really? You don't mind? It's not even me who's being ditched and I still feel terrible." He messes with his hair as he finally meets my eyes.
"Yes, I don't mind at all. You should probably go and see what your mom wants."
"Okay," he sighs, finally relenting. We both walk towards the door and when he opens it, he stops and turns around. "Um, bye."
I smirk, finding the perfect opportunity to make things normal between us again by teasing him, "Now is that any way to say goodbye? Didn't your mom tell you to say, 'Bye, I love you'?"
Griffyn groans, "Oh my God, you heard that? I'm so going to have to have a talk with my mom. That's so embarrassing."
I laugh, "No, it's not. It's cute that you care about your mom. Don't hurt her feelings."
Griff rolls his eyes and walks down my front steps. "Whatever. Bye, love you, Carson." He laughs as he walks away and I force one too, but when I shut the door, my heart hurts.
What the hell is happening to me? Did my dad have some kind of heart disease that I never found out about? That's got to be the only way to explain how I'm feeling, because there is no way that, in any universe, I'd like Griffyn.
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