The air conditioning in the airplane was definitely on my list of things that had managed to make matters worse. Things couldn't get any worse, but the freezing air certainly wasn't helping. The one blanket was not sufficing by any means, and Luke probably would have given me his, since he is always hot, but I'd be lucky if I got him to look my way, much less give me his blanket.
Part of me was happy that the first class seats were so far apart. I don't know how either of us could have survived the stupidly long flight only mere centimeters from each other. Every now again I would look his way, just to see if his expression had changed. It hadn't.
I have felt every negative feeling that exists in the human body but I couldn't describe nor tell you how much the feeling of his facial expression stung. The way that he looked at me right before he stormed out of my room, right after it happened. The look of disappointment he wore after telling me what he did.
I pictured this trip to have went many ways, but not in the way that it did. I didn't expect to have such an amazing time. I didn't think that everything could have went so well and how I was able to forget about myself for a little bit. But nothing could have prepared me for how it ended.
Was I kidding myself? Maybe I did? I don't think I thought I was capable of seeing it, much less think about it. That wasn't the plan. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. There was no way; but yet here I sat clutching on to the thin blanket wondering why I couldn't sleep the night before, and why I couldn't sleep now.
The answer lay to my right. He wasn't allowing himself to look at me. I knew him that much. He knew that I would know if he looked my way, so he didn't. I did though. Maybe I was the one being obvious, but I needed to know he wasn't still angry with me. He was. Because the face I met at the office months ago was the face he was wearing now. The face he stopped wearing with me. Only for me to be the one to get him to wear it again.
The things he said afterward hurt the most. I knew he didn't mean them. He was hurt and did the only thing that he knew. His words had much truth behind them and I didn't want to admit them until I sat here and saw how much it affected him.
What did he expect from me? That I would just drop everything and surrender to something that wasn't there? I couldn't do that. It wasn't something I physically could do.
"Then why is it so different then?" His words replayed once again. Why was it so different?
I couldn't. I won't.
I felt myself rip the blanket off of me and head to bathroom. I couldn't sit here restless anymore, feeling like I wanted to scream, with another 10 hours of flying left to go.
I splashed the cold water from the tiny faucet on my face and looked in the mirror.
What's happening to me?
Two Weeks Earlier
"Can you hand me the rag please?" My mom spoke up standing by the sink. I grabbed the rag next to me by the fridge and handed it to her, she nodded her head in thanks.
"Dinner was good. Thanks." I said as I did everyday that she cooked for us. I hadn't really had much to talk about with her lately. She was wrapped up with all of her new job responsibilities that didn't make much sense, and with New York being so soon she was even more wrapped up in that.
She was happy that I was graduating with honors considering my struggles in math, but that too somehow got better. I definitely didn't get anymore 90% tests but I got a solid B in the end grade which was more than enough.
I was surprised that I had A's in most of my subjects with only one other B besides math. She was definitely proud. But that pride sort if deflated when I told her that I wasn't applying to college. I told her the day my final grades came in.
Luke was immensely jealous since he was attending U of S as soon as the academic semester started. I promised that he was going to be fine. He was in reality so much smarter than I was. Things came so easily to him. I noticed that when I tutored him in Art/Lit History. He didn't even need tutoring. He just didn't know any of it because he never bothered to listen in class or just skipped it. He and I both knew if he crammed before an exam, he could have all the material memorized in a few hours. I guess that was just one of those things that Liz didn't know. Hence her worry that he wouldn't pass that subject, resulting to her asking me to help.
Looking back, she probably knew Luke and I didn't get along and wanted to find an excuse to get us in the same room. Clearly it worked.
"You know," My mother said before my foot could touch the first step on the staircase. I turned my attention to her.
"Liz said that she knows the Head of Admissions at Woodsbury College. And they could help you apply this late in the game." Her tone suggestive and my eyes already in the back of my head.
"Mom. I already made up my mind, I'm not doing college this year. It's too much for me." I said being firm. I had to watch my tone with her. Something I havent been the greatest at.
"But a few classes wouldn't hurt. Peyton you can't just waste your time sitting in Luke's room or galavanting outside." Condescendence shining through and I was forced to ignore it. I had to chuckle lightly, it was true, but I had promised to find a job in the mean time.
"I told you already, I'm going to find a job and Luke is at U of S so he is going to be busy himself. I just don't want to commit to something I'm not passionate about."
"Well what are you passionate about?" Now her voice held annoyance.
What was that supposed to mean?
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that you're not showing any interest in anything. You get good grades, but other than that you don't do anything else soul enriching."
Soul enriching?
Did Liz lend her one of her Dr. Phil self help books?
"Mom please. I made up my mind. I'll find a job after we get back from New York and in that time I'll find something. Promise." I said just to shut her up. It would keep her calm and off my case.
She sighed surrendering.
"Okay." She said focusing on the dishes once again.
"How was the session at Melissa's today?" Here we go again.
"Good." I said. It was the first session since I told her about that night. She was normal about it and we are working on it. Realizing what happened to you is the hardest part, but it's the first step.
I noticed myself getting more and more angry since saying it out loud. Before I was sad, afraid probably even depressed.
The day I told Melissa, I wanted to curl up and cry. I couldn't do that because I was with Luke. Once Luke got pissed at me for not telling him what happened, I left and was happy to know my mother wasn't home and I stood under the shower and cried for exactly an hour. I broke a perfume bottle in rage, but after that, I fell asleep and felt better. Luke also texted me the next day to hang out, so he got over it pretty fast.
Those feelings of sadness and fear still exist but they're fading as anger shines through. I was getting oddly violent. Like I wanted to cause them all physical pain. I wanted to burn down that building with them in it-
Stop. Breathe.
I breathed in and out. Not today.
--
"Did you know that I once saw a shark?" Eric muttered as I concentrated on getting all of the sand off of the towel. I hated sand.
"Really?" I asked in interest.
I assumed that people only dramatized the whole 'sharks eat people in Australia' thing. Apparently it's a thing and Eric's will to tell his shark tale made that evident.
"Yeah I was 18 and we decided to go night swimming," He started to say. He had his big hat on again probably because the sun was scorching. We had just gotten to the beach because Eric was adamant on coming here. I didn't know why he wanted to go to the beach so badly, but that was all he insisted to do. We hadn't hung out in a while and even stopped texting for a bit. I don't know what caused the sudden pause but somehow he texted me again, and here we were.
I mentioned going to the beach once to Luke, but he said he'd rather be dead than go to Bondi Beach.
"And of course we thought we were so Macho and cool and went in the water although the red flag was up. About two minutes later my friend who had swam out the farthest, said he felt something slippery swim by his leg. Five seconds later we saw the shark's fin." He said, a little but of embarrassment in his voice.
"Needless to say we screamed like children we were and got the fuck out of there." He laughed and I joined it.
"Well good none of you got hurt."
"I know right." He nodded looking down and fiddling with the sand.
"So are we going to go in water? Today is apparently the warmest it's been all year." He suggested and I looked in the distance to see all of the kids having fun with their parents, and young people my age spraying each other and just enjoying the simplicity of some salt water and some sand.
"Sure." I smiled getting up. He got up as well and proceeded by taking off his shirt. I was amazed by how many tattoos he had on his body. I had only seen his arms and thought that he didn't have anymore. I had to look away or else I would be staring but I was intrigued by the randomness of each one.
I was reluctant to take my clothes off to reveal my bikini, but I knew that we were going swimming and me keeping my shirt on would bring more attention to me than just taking it off and acting like it's no big deal.
After I discarded most of my clothes I raised my arm for him to lead the way.
"So you've really never been here?" He asked as we walked across the sand.
"Nope. Shocking I know." I chuckled.
"No it's not a big deal, I just assumed that you would have ended up here with Ash and them since they're here almost all the time." So he clearly didn't know about us not being on speaking terms.
"So you don't know?" I asked.
"Know what?"
"Ashton and I don't really talk anymore." I informed. It sounded so weird to say.
"What? No way, what happened?" As if I wanted to keep repeating that story over and over.
"It's complicated, but he was acting weird for a while, and I tried to help him out and it got blown up in m face. Some really messed up things were said to me and I got the blame. So I just don't fuck with it anymore." I said. Great way to keep a light mood.
"Wow I had no idea. Well that explains a few things." He tilted his head in confirmation. What did that explain? Did they talk about me?
"What does it explain?" Curiosity coming in for a visit. He coughed a bit.
"Nothing, it's no big deal. Come on, jump in."
I hadn't realized we were by the water already when he dived in and I stood my the shore. I needed to know what he meant. I didn't want to ruin the day thinking about it or bothering him if he didn't want to tell me, but I had this weird feeling that Maggie had a hidden agenda and was spreading some weird shit.
I dived into the water with my eyes closed since I despised salt water and couldn't swim in it without my eyes being closed. I swam a few feet out until I felt my head hit something hard so I grabbed a hold of it and came up for air.
"Looks like you swam right into my arms." Eric laughed standing in the water. I was paddling my arms to keep me afloat since I was too short to touch the ground at this point.
I laughed also, partly in embarrassment that I had collided into him, but better him than some random old man.
"I guess I did." I smiled and kept moving around so I wouldn't drown.
He smiled.
"You can't reach the ground can you?" He said noticing me struggling to stay still.
"Nope." I laughed.
"Here, let me help you."
He took me by the waist and grabbed underneath my legs to hold me sideways. I considered jumping off and just struggling but I told myself that it was okay. And it definitely did help.
"Well that is certainly easier," I started to say coughing a bit. Yes, I was a bit uncomfortable. Not because he was holding me, but because I had a feeling of what was probably going to happen in the next minute.
"Thanks." I finished the sentence looking at him.
"My pleasure." He smiled.
His gaze hadn't left mine in over 20 seconds. It was so strange but I couldn't really look away.
A few seconds later his hand came close to my face as he tucked the long wet strand in front of my eye behind my ear. I had never felt so much nervousness like I did in that moment.
Before I could think about how much I wanted to get back to land, he moved his head closer to me and pressed his lips against mine.
I was frozen and had no idea what was happening but I wasn't scared, or uncomfortable or anything. That's the thing, there wasn't anything. Because everything disappeared I kissed him back and just as I thought it would become more, he pulled away. Not in an abrupt weird way, but he slowly pulled away.
His hand continued to stay on my face and he looked into my eyes again.
"You have no idea how long I wanted to do that." He said in almost a whisper. I smiled at the thought and how cute it actually was, and if he kissed me again I definitely wouldn't pull away, but wasn't there supposed to be that 'wow' factor when you kissed someone you liked? I was pretty sure that I liked him. As much as I could for someone like me. He was attractive, polite, sweet, he didn't make me feel like I was wrong for being the way I was, yet the second he kissed me, I just didn't feel it. He clearly did, since the look on his face afterward said it all.
"Well I'm glad you did." I said. What?
I wasn't not glad that he did it. It was certainly nice but I didn't want to give him a wrong impression, which is exactly what I was doing. I shouldn't have said that. But I could not have just kept staring at him without reaction.
"I'm glad that you're glad."
Shit shit shit sh-
And then he kissed me again. This time I was more in front of him and holding onto him by having my arms around neck, latching onto his neck.
Well this isn't so bad.
This time I felt a sense of urgency. It was more intense and he kept trying to get me closer to him as I subtly tried to keep the distance as it was. It wasn't horrible and I didn't feel like I was dying, but if I had a choice to stop or keep going, I would stop.
After a few seconds I decided to take initiative and be the one to pull away discreetly. I didn't want to hurt his feelings by just breaking contact and leaving but I knew that it was enough for me.
"I'm starving." I said randomly trying to get attention away from us kissing.
"Then we'll go get some lunch." He said still smiling. He was pretty much ready to do anything I said. If I I wanted to go find some sharks and play with them he probably would have.
"Race you back to shore." I said diving into the water and swimming away fast. Another way to divert us being together.
I felt terrible because I knew I wasn't confused. The thought of being close to a person was terrifying to me, up until the point that he did it. He even did it again and I wasn't afraid of it. I actually maybe even liked it, I just felt like something might have been missing. I didn't know what any of it felt like, but I just assumed that when it's the right person, you don't think about not kissing them when you're kissing them. And I did when I was kissing Eric.
Upon my arrival at the shore I saw Eric already standing there waiting for me. No surprise, he was huge and I was me.
"There's a Burger Shack right by our towels." He said once I came up to him.
"Perfect." I smiled. I was a bit out of breath from swimming so fast.
-
"Double cheese?" The waiter asked holding two plates.
"Me." I said referring to the double cheese burger I ordered.
"And one Veggie with no sauce for you then." He said giving Eric his plate.
I wasn't one to judge but that was a very boring sounding burger.
"Veggie burger huh?" I said commenting on his choice of food. He laughed and shrugged before putting his hair up in his manly pontytail.
"Yep. I've been Vegan for the past year. Never going back." He said and I nodded in understanding but I wasn't really sure how to comment on it.
"No sugar, no animal products; you clearly have a lot of self control." Me saying so while taking a bite of a double cheeseburger while washing it down with a Coke.
"Well when it comes to that, yeah I do," He sipped on the water before continuing.
"But that doesn't apply to everything." He winked.
Oh goodness.
I started to sip on my Coke to hide my discomfort at his innuendo.
His phone started to ring and I was happy that there was something else to distract us both from that.
"Yeah how did you know?" He said into the phone.
"Oh no way really? Yeah I'm here at the Burger Shack with Peyton, why don't you just join us?"
Who was he talking to?
Then he started to laugh into his phone.
"Not quite, but it's looking good."
"I think so man. I don't know where all of you got that from because that's certainly not what it looks like to me."
What are they talking about? Damn I hate not knowing what people are talking about or what was going on.
"Alright man see you in a few." He finally hung up.
"Who was that?" I said.
"Actually, it was Calum. He saw us by the shore and he's meeting us here with his friend Dylan. You've met him before."
Calum? Really? I couldn't help but be irritated.
"Oh." I said, clearly not amused.
"If there's a problem I can tell them not to come." Eric was trying everything to keep me happy but it would be rude to send his friends away after he invited them. And he didn't know that Calum was sort of involved.
"No it's fine, I just...Never mind it's fine." I smiled in reassurance.
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure." I said looking right at him and his gaze wandered to the direction of the water and then back at me.
I felt his hand take mine and I went back into panic mode. What was I going to do?
"I really don't get it." He said out of nowhere.
"Get what?" I asked.
"How somebody can look the way you do after being submerged in salt water."
Okay, that was sweet.
"Oh c'mon." I said rolling my eyes. I was really bad at taking compliments.
"That's what you always say when I compliment you." He said.
"I'm not good at accepting compliments." I mumbled quietly resting my face on my other free arm.
"I noticed,"
"But get used to it, because that's all you're going to hear from me."
I smiled once again because he knew how to do that. His charm was something that I had never seen before. And he did get me to smile and feel kind of happy in the moment, but I still wasn't into it. I knew I was an idiot for it, because clearly he was the perfect example of someone that I would need in my life, but it wasn't it. I knew that much.
"Took you bastards long enough." Eric said loudly and finally let go of my hand, and I got the message that Calum and Dylan showed up.
"Hey guys." Dylan said as if he knew me. Well I met him, that time Tara and I saw Eric and Calum at the Cool Room, and we danced a bit, but I knew nothing about Dylan and Dylan nothing about me.
Calum and Eric exchanged their manly handshake-hug things and Calum then turned to me.
"Hi Peyton." Calum said nonchalantly and looked like he was going to go in for a hug but I turned away. Maybe I was being petty, but I was still very much upset.
Eric furrowed his eyebrows at the encounter since he was always extremely polite and I clearly wasn't.
"Here guys sit." Eric said pointing to the two extra chair beside both of us. Dylan sat at the spot next to Eric and Calum took the seat next to me.
They all started to talk about something I didn't care about and I was more uncomfortable with the whole thing than I led on.
"I'll be right back." I said only to Eric as I got up to go to the bathroom.
Walking past the little bamboo bar I heard a voice call after me.
"Peyton wait up."
I turned around to see Calum.
I rolled my eyes.
"I have nothing to say to you." I said turning back around.
"Peyton stop. I was hoping this was resolved." He said.
I laughed.
"Resolved? Since when were things resolved because I didn't get the memo, nor an apology from anyone."
"Maggie and Ashton were really upset." He said. Was he trying to justify their behavior? Was he now trying to justify his behavior?
"Oh they were upset. Yeah poor Maggie and Ashton." My sarcasm loud and clear.
"I just honestly didn't understand what I did to you to deserve the way you acted towards me that night." I said with disappointment.
"I know I was a bit cold, I am sorry for that. It's just I've known Ashton since we were little kids. And he told me he was upset with you from before and Maggie was too and I was caught in the middle." He defended. Just not well enough.
"Calum we're not children. You don't have to be upset with me because they were. I did absolutely nothing to you. And while we're at it, absolutely nothing to them."
I took a pause.
"You attacked Maggie, Pey."
"I attacked her because she attacked me. You heard what she said."
He sighed clearly overwhelmed. I was angry that I was being made the villain and Maggie was the innocent little girl who got attacked.
"Maggie always kind of overdoes it when she's upset and she was wrong, yes, but you did physically try to hurt her." Why was he defending her?
"I've had enough of this. This is ridiculous I refuse to be the villain here."
"I'm not saying you're the bad guy." But he was implying it.
"So did Ashton conveniently forget to mention that he came to me months ago for help, because Maggie was out of control? Because she was abusing alcohol? Did he tell you that I tried everything to be her friend and she just out of nowhere rejected me? Or how about the fact, that I showed up to a party I didn't want to come to, to help her and try to talk to her, even after Ashton yelled at me because I told him that it would end badly? And then when I came up to you, who I thought was my friend to make conversation you too rejected me like I wasn't even there? And let's not forget when I tried talking to her as a friend worried about her she started screaming at me and calling me names? Of course you didn't know that, because you were in the loud basement downstairs. So when I come downstairs and call her out on it, I look like the crazy bitch."
I had to catch my breath after that one.
The look on Calum's face was unreadable.
"Are you serious?" He seemed upset.
"I am. I only wanted to help, and I got rejected by every person in the room. I was humiliated by Maggie and yelled at to leave by Ashton after he came to me. I wanted no part in any of it. I don't even know why Maggie had a reason to be so mean to me, even before it all went down."
"Peyton, I'm so sorry I had no idea. They never mentioned any of it, I didn't even know she had a problem." He muttered clearly upset.
"Of course he didn't. I just don't understand what I did all of a sudden that they both started to hate me out of nowhere. And I asked myself the same with you."
"I don't hate you Peyton. I think you're one of the coolest girls to be around, I just didn't know what to do because I was stuck in between. But it was wrong of me, I'm sorry." He said. I was relieved to know Calum apologized and that the air between us was clean.
"It's fine, I'm just happy you know the whole truth now." I said feeling much better.
"Me too, I can't believe they kept all of that a secret and blamed you. And all those things they sa- I'm just glad we're good again." He said interrupting himself and avoiding what he was going to say.
What were they saying about me?
"Me too, Mr. Steal Your Girl." I said humorously by lightly punching him on the shoulder like I always did. He laughed at the interaction and I pointed to the table.
"We should get back, we've been talking here for a while, I don't want them to think we ditched them." I said as Calum nodded and we both headed back to the table.
-
"So what did you say?" I asked Dylan as he was telling us a story of how he almost got arrested for taking a crap in front of a fast food restaurant.
"Well I didn't want to have to pay an insane fine, so I told the officer that I had a rare stomach condition where I shit like every hour." He said and I shook my head and out my hand on my face.
"Oh my god." I laughed.
"There's no way he bought that." Eric said.
"He didn't, so that's why I called my colon specialist Dr. Hood to explain it to him." He then turned to Calum who was smiling in memory of the story.
"You're insane." I laughed. I honestly couldn't believe that a cop believed Calum was a colon specialist and that Dylan had that ridiculous disorder.
"And it worked?" Eric asked.
"Perfectly. I got out fine free. The cop even wished me good luck on finding a cure." Dylan said with pride as he finished the story.
We all laughed about it for almost a minute because it was just that ridiculous but hilarious.
I felt the first mosquito of the night try to bite me, and that's when I realized how late it got. We eventually moved ourselves back to the beach and had been sitting by the water until it got dark. A lot of people were still at the beach but you could tell the people were slowly starting to head home at this hour. I was genuinely having a good time but unfortunately I felt myself getting tired. Calum and Dylan clearly weren't tired because they always had a bunch of energy. I however was different and I made that obvious when I started to yawn.
"Are you tired?" Eric picked up on my yawn and I didn't want to ruin the fun by wanting to leave, but I was soon going to fall asleep on the sand.
"Actually, I am. I was up early and-"
"Home it is then." He said jumping up to his feet to leave. He was always trying to make sure I was happy and that made me more sad than happy.
"I had so much fun with you guys." I said to both guys. I felt bad for being so rude to Dylan, he was actually a really funny guy. He was really dorky at times and he was kind of clumsy, but he had this cute innocence to him which was refreshing for someone our age.
"Peyton, this Saturday we're all at the Cool Room, you in?" Calum said.
I had planned to hang out with Tara on Saturday, but I figured that Tara never says no to a party, and she certainly wouldn't object to see Calum again.
"For sure. Text me." I said smiling.
We all said our Goodnights and Eric and I headed up the beach to his car. The hot air started to go down and there was refreshing breeze. I closed my eyes and breathed in the beach air. It really was nice. I felt good.
Once we reached the car and got inside, I knew that I could easily fall asleep at any second. I didn't want to because the car ride back to my house was rather long and if I fell asleep, Eric would definitely carry me in and I didn't want him to do that.
I turned on the radio to get some music going to keep me awake.
"I had a great day today." I said out of nowhere. I had to be careful how that came across though.
"So did I." He said taking a short break from looking at the road to looking at me.
Luckily, Eric wasn't a dry person so it was easy to have conversations with him. They kept me awake and attentive of what was going on around me.
I was dreading coming home because I knew I would have to make it clear to him how I felt. I didn't want to do that. He was such a good guy and I wouldn't want to hurt him. I guess looking back, a problem like this was a luxury one to have, but it still stung.
But sure enough, the car came to a stop as we stood in front of my house.
"Thank you for driving me home." I said in gratitude. It really was nice that he always drove me places and picked me up.
"I'll walk you in." He said taking off his seatbelt.
Oh no.
We both walked next to each other on the way to the porch and both stopped and turned to each other once we got there.
"So first beach day was a success. We should do it again." I said. Stop being so nice.
He smiled.
"It was. And I intend on doing it again. And doing this again." He said while leaning his head to mine.
Not again.
He had kissed me for the fucking third time and this time I was the one to abruptly pull away before it was too late to.
He looked confused.
"Look Eric," I started to say.
"Oh no. Well that doesn't sound good." He laughed trying to lighten the tension.
"I love hanging out with you, you're such a cool guy. It's just, I...Those things I said to you in front of the Cool Room on my birthday, those things haven't changed." I said trying to be clear without hurting his feelings.
"I know. Simple, easy all of that. And that's what I've been. There's nothing complicated about any of this." He said defending the whole thing. He was right, he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was doing everything right. Just something didn't fit for me.
"It's actually very simple. I like you Peyton. I like you a lot. And I thought you felt the same." The last part of the sentence went down into almost a whisper. I felt terrible. He was clearly not happy about it.
"I did, I mean I thought I did....I like everything about you, I do-"
"You just don't like me."
"Eric I don't know what it is, it's just something is stopping me. I don't know what it is, but it's there."
He was looking at the ground and put his hands in his pockets. Nodding his head every few seconds in disappointment. Then he looked up and tilted his head.
"So it's true. They were all right." He said, but clearly to himself.
What?
"What? Who was right about what?" My confusion clear as day.
"Look Peyton, when you like someone, you're not supposed to think about whether you like them, or tell yourself you like them. You just do. And you telling me you thought you liked me, is answer enough." He was upset. Fuck this was more difficult than I thought.
"I'm so sorry Eric. I hope you're not angry with me." I said. I really didn't want to stop hanging out with him just because of this. It didn't seem logical to me, especially if we got along.
"Of course I'm not angry Peyton. I'm a bit disappointed, but it is what it is." He kept trying to smile but I could see that his smiles now were different than his usual smiles. They were fake.
"We should still hang out though, and go to the beach and do all of that. Nothing has to change." I almost cringed at my words. I sounded like I copied the script of a bad teen rom-com directly from Netflix. But oddly, it was the only thing I could think of saying in that moment.
"Definitely." He said smiling again. He opened his arms to give me a "you don't like me romantically but I'll still send you memes" kind of hug.
"And just for the record, I really do hope you two work out." He said right after we came back from the hug.
Wait what?
"What?" I furrowed my eyebrow and winced in utter confusion.
"Goodnight Peyton." He smirked knowing exactly what he was doing as he turned around and walked in the direction of his car. His sudden exit made sure that he couldn't elaborate and I was left confused as ever.
What the hell was he talking about? What did he know that I didn't? What did everyone in this fucking city know that I didn't?
He waved to me once he got back to his car and I waved back.
I stood in the darkness on my porch and breathed in the cool air. I was content with many things in life. No matter how hard, I was content that I told Eric how I felt. I was content that I mended things with Calum. I was content that I was enjoying the company of others. I was not however, content with whatever Maggie was telling people and whatever was going around. I wasn't going to have any of it. And I was going to find out what it was.
(A.N Wassssup people! Hope you loved this chapter as much as I did. I am incorporating that future/past thing that I did with Chapter 37-Fright Night, except this is gonna go for multiple chapters up until the climax of the story. Something I call the "Big Event" so as you could tell, the first part of this chapter was already after it happened, and now all the chapters until then are leading up to it, with me switching every now and again. I find that its such an interesting way to write and very fun to read. I NEED YOUR HELP! I lost so many readers its not even funny so PLEASE after you've finished this chapter, just click the share button and share it on twitter! Tell your friends! Get this story the reads and attention it deserves! COMMENT below telling me your theories and what you thought of the chapter. I need to know these things I so I know whether I should continue writing like this! Love you lots -Liz
PS - this chapter in unedited so sorry for any typos.)