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.
"Look- I don't know what Wesley told you, but whatever it is he's just-"
"Is it true?" I asked, trying to get her to tell me. It took her a while, but she finally nodded, looking like she was about to cry.
"I didn't want to hurt him!" She sobbed. "I didn't want to hurt anyone! But I- I- just couldn't tell anyone, I still can't tell anyone. Not my parents, not Dylan- I didn't know what to do!" The tears were rolling down her cheeks quickly.
"Did you love him?" I felt the need to ask even though I suspected what her answer would be.
"I did, but not in the way he wanted me to." She said sadly.
"Caroline, you need to stop hiding this from everyone. You need to come out, tell your family." I encouraged her.
"No! I can't, you don't understand! My family would disown me!" She sighed. I understood where she was coming from, but she needed to come out.
"It's not fair, Car; to you, and to everyone else. You shouldn't have to be sneaking around all the time, and you shouldn't have Wesley keep up this asshole persona that you've labeled him as! Everyone thinks he cheated on you, and we both know that's not what happened." I said. Slowly, she started to come to terms with what was saying.
"What you're saying about Wes is true." SHe sighed. "It's not fair to him that I'm using him as a scapegoat."
"So you're finally going to tell your family?" I asked. She seemed to ponder this for a moment before turning to me.
"How about a deal. I'll tell the truth to my family when you admit the truth to yourself." She gave me a serious look.
"Huh? Admit what truth-"
"The truth that the reason why you're so mad at Wes is because he's not Keaton." She stated. I blinked a dozen times. What? That didn't make any sense. "I can see it in your eyes, Gabby. You're mad at Wesley because he loved you when his brother didn't. I think Wes always knew deep down that it was Keaton whom you really wanted. I think he cheated on you to give you an escape; an easy way out." Caroline told me. "Wes would never admit it out loud, but it makes sense. That boy is one of the nicest people I know; would he really cheat on you for any other reason?" When her words finally sunk in, I couldn't help the feeling of despair that was settling in my stomach. Was I just using Wesley this entire time? No, no way.
"I really did like Wes." I admitted out loud.
"But you love Keaton." Once she said it, I knew it was true. I was in love with Keaton Robert Stromberg. I think I always have been. "So what are you going to do?" She asked me.
Keaton POV
I didn't realize until now that all the photo albums and scrapbooks that we had were all from Washington. Mom didn't have anything from after we moved to Cali, it was just pages and pages of memories from Sequim. But I was okay with that because it was the Sequim days that I was looking to remember.
I grabbed a stack of albums and tucked them under my arm, taking them up to my room. Flopping down onto my bed, I cracked the first one open. There were pictures of our old house, Wesley's first day of second grade... me with my arm around a kid named Jeremy that I still talk to to this day...
I flipped through a few more pages, finally landing on what I was looking for. There she was with her messy brown hair stuck in pigtails, a wide smile on her face, laughing at me who was crying on the ground. The memories of that day came rushing back to me, and I started laughing.
Gabby and I were playing tag with some other kids in our neighborhood, when some dick named Timmy came and pushed me over. I of course dropped to the ground like a rock and scraped my knee on the pavement, causing me to cry hysterically. And Gabby being Gabby was standing there watching me; cackling. That was pretty much our friendship in a nutshell.
Next my eyes drifted to another picture of Gabby and myself. We were older now, maybe eleven or twelve- sitting outside on the front porch of my old house. It was summer, and rainy, but the two of us had gone outside to get some fresh air anyway. There was a blanket stretched across us and she had her legs draped across me, both of us holding a book in our hands. Harry Potter. That's what it was. Each of us would read a chapter at the same time and then discuss what happened.
As the pages went on, it was just more pictures of Gabby and myself. I couldn't help but notice that excited spark in my eyes in each photo. Gabby Mullens made me happy. Why the hell did I go and screw that up. Suddenly, I heard footsteps pounding up the steps. I shut the scrapbooks and shoved them to the corner of my bed. Wes would give me so much shit for taking a trip down memory lane.
"Keaton?" The door to my room swung open to reveal Gabby. She looked stressed out, and panicky, as if she had just realized something was weighing down on her mind. She looked cute with her hair in that loose braid. She was gnawing down on her bottom lip gently, and I couldn't help but feel my heart clench in my chest. She was so beautiful, but she wasn't mine anymore. I had screwed up all those years ago, and now she was gone. She was into my brother now. However, I knew that she was hurting, and I felt the need to help her.
"Hey Gab, what's wrong?" I asked, standing next to the window. From across the room, she turned to me, playing with the doorknob.
"I need something from you." She said calmly. Well that wasn't good. When Gabby had that tone in her voice she was about to do something drastic. For all I know she wanted me to rob a bank.
"Uhhh okay. What is it?" I asked nervously. She didn't say anything, instead she just glanced back over at me, then strutted over to me. before I could ask what was happening, she ran her hand through my hair and pressed her lips to mine. Needless to say, my eyes almost fell out of my head. Before I could anything, she pulled away.
"I- I'm sorry. I just needed to know- I'm sorry. That was stupid." She stuttered, turning away from me to run out. Just as she took her first step, I reached out to grab her by the hand. She seemed surprised by this, but not as surprised as when I pulled her back to me, crashing my lips back onto hers. If it wasn't clear to me before, it was now. I wanted gabby Mullens. I needed her. I was in love with her.
:O what did you guys think?