"On the secretly blushing cheek is reflected the glow of the heart."
-Soren Kierkegaard
I arrive at school and make my way through the doors. After swerving through the mass of people I finally make it to my locker where Heather is waiting for me. I smile at her and she frowns as she notices the dark circles under my eyes. "Did something happen in the weekend?" She asks and I look at her for a moment, debating what parts of the truth I want to tell her.
"Yeah kind of, I can't really tell you yet, but one day I'll tell you." I say to her and she looks at me with confusion, "I promise, I'll tell you but I'm not ready yet." She accepts that I'm not ready to tell her what happened, and we start making our way to class, hoping to get there a little early. On the way we meet Caleb and he drags me away from Heather. I wave at her and mouth sorry as he pulls me around a corner.
"Kaylee."
"Yes Caleb?"
"I need your help. You know how me and Damon..." He says but can't finish and starts looking around the hallway making sure no one is listening.
"Yes, I know, what about it?" I ask him.
"Well we are planning on telling the basketball team and going public, but I want to tell Heather first, so she's prepared." He tells me, "Plus it would be mean if I didn't tell her first seeing as she is our best friend."
"So, you need help telling her?" I ask him. "It shouldn't be hard; you guys are good friends."
"Yeah but still, I haven't even told you guys that I'm..." He says, then whispers, "gay."
"Ok, lets tell her at lunch, and if she asks how I know already I'll just say I walked in on you guys making out." I tell him.
"NO!" He shouts and I laugh at his reaction. Heads turn towards us to see what's going on but turn away when nothing happens. "I mean, no, that's kind of weird isn't it?" He asks.
"Yeah I guess, I'll just say I happened to find out on accident then." I tell him and pat him on the shoulder. "Man are you getting taller or something?" I then ask him, "Don't worry I'll help you tell her at lunch."
We then head separate ways and I reunite with Heather in physics. Classes go past and soon it's lunchtime. Heather and I make our way to the basketball team's table and sit down. I realise I'm sitting next to Lucas and internally freak out. After what happened I feel a little awkward. I see Caleb come to the table and remember what he asked me this morning. He asks to talk to me, and Heather and we make our way to another table to sit by ourselves.
"What's this about?" Heather asks and looks at us as we eat awkwardly, "Is there something you guys need to tell me?"
"Yeah actually, Caleb has something to tell you", I say and look at Caleb. He looks between Heather and me awkwardly. Heather looks to me and then back to Caleb. I look at Caleb and back to Heather. We awkwardly look between each other before someone finally speaks up.
"What is it?" Heather asks, "You guys are making me nervous, is it something bad?"
"No, not something bad", I tell her and look to Caleb. "Come on Caleb, tell her already."
She looks to Caleb and he looks at her with a frown on his face, "I don't want you to treat me differently."
"Don't worry no matter what it is I won't treat you differently, unless you're a murder or something." She laughs. We stay silent for a second and she looks at us with shock, "You're a murderer?!"
"NO, no, no." I tell her and laugh, "no, come on Caleb stop wasting time."
"Ok..." He says and looks at Heather, "Me and Damon are going out." The words rush out of his mouth like a waterfall and he waits for her reaction. Her mouth slowly falls open and she looks at him with shock. She stays like that for a while, a real-life version of The Scream.
"Actual?!" She asks and then whispers, "You're gay?!" He looks at her with a shy smile on his face. And she squeals, "Oh my gosh I would never imagine..." She pauses for a moment, thinking about something before smiling at Caleb and saying, "I'm happy for you."
We start making our way back to the basketball team's table when Heather stops me and asks to talk to me in private. We make our way out of the cafeteria and find a tree to sit under. She sighs as she sits down, and I look over to see tears forming in her eyes. I look at her and ask what's wrong.
"I have to confess something..." She starts. "I actually like Caleb, not just as a friend but as more. I know, it's silly. I thought maybe there was a chance for us to be something more in the future. So, when you said he had something to tell me there was a little part of me that was hoping he wanted to confess his feelings for me. It kind of hurt that it was the opposite."
I look at her with my mouth hanging open, I try to say something, but I can't, and I sit there with my mouth opening and closing like a fish. It's a while before I finally say, "I'm sorry Heather."
"No, don't be", she says and smiles at me. "I'll get over it, I'm just stupid for believing I had a chance."
"No, you're not", I tell her. "No one saw it coming, believe me."
She smiles at me and takes my hand, "Promise you won't tell him?"
"Yeah don't worry, I won't." I say and squeeze her hand. We get up and walk back to the cafeteria. After making our way back to the table we sit down and join in the conversation. I smile at Heather once more and she smiles back. I think she will be ok.
I look over and Caleb and he looks at me. He mouths 'thanks' and goes back to chatting with the others. "Hey, you guys wanna have a sleepover at mine?" I hear Noah announce to the group.
"All of us?" I ask and he nods. "Isn't it a little weird with girls?"
"Nah its fine, we're all good friends", Josh says.
"Ok" Aiden says and everyone else agrees to come. I look at Lucas and he looks at me. I quickly look away and he laughs.
As everyone is talking, he leans over to whisper in my ear, "are you embarrassed from what happened the other day?"
He looks at me and watches as a smirk forms on my face. I decide to be brave, so I lean over and whisper in his ear with my heart beating fast, "nah, Emily won't tell. Plus, I gotta say you look good with no top on."
I go back to eating and I realise that the table is quiet. I look up and see everyone looking at Lucas and me. "What did you whisper to him to make him blush that much?" Carlos asks and I look over to Lucas, just now noticing how red he got. I laugh as he covers his face.
"Secret." I tell everyone with a laugh and go back to eating.