Chapter Thirty
"Are you insane?" I asked Tyler from across the table. I sincerely wanted to know the answer.
"Nope," he replied, popping a fry into his mouth. "I'm dead serious. It'd be so much fun!"
"Um, no, it wouldn't." I argued. "It would be a near-death experience, that's what it would be."
"It's skydiving! Don't you think it would feel so exhilarating?"
Me, along with half of everyone else, shook our heads at his question. Faith, Andrew, Logan, and I, all agreed that there was no way in hell we would ever skydive. Mean while, Daniel, Thomas, Cole, and Tyler had it as the first thing to cross off of their bucket list.
"Yeah, no. I am perfectly fine staying here – on the ground –where I belong."
As Tyler continued talking about his dreams of going skydiving, I couldn't help but glance at Faith, who was sitting right beside him, snuggled underneath his arm. I smiled at them to myself. Tyler hadn't asked her to be his girlfriend, yet, but everyone knew they liked each other.
As I observed Faith, I saw her glance at Logan, as if she was telling him something with her eyes. Logan nodded discreetly, before standing up from the table.
"I gotta go, guys. I have to go ask Mrs. Jackson for some help with my english project. I told her I'd be going during lunch." He said, picking up his trey. "I'll see you guys later." With a wave, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the cafeteria.
While the rest of our friends continued talking, I muttered to Thomas, who was sitting to my left, "Do we even have an english project?"
"Nope," he replied.
I frowned, wondering why he would make up an excuse to leave. Just as I was about to ask Thomas again, Faith stood up, too.
"I'm leaving, too. I forgot I offered to help Mrs. Garcia grade some papers." She said, sending everyone an apologetic smile before turning and heading in the direction Logan had gone.
I narrowed my eyes into thin slits as I watched her walk out of the cafeteria. I knew they were only looking for an excuse to be able to meet up at Faith' locker, just as they had been doing the past few days.
I wished I could say that ever since the Thanksgiving dinner at Logan's house, Logan, Faith, and I had grown closer. But that, unfortunately, wasn't the case.
I mean, we weren't fighting or anything like that, but it was clear to me that something odd was going on between them. It seemed like they were in on something that I wasn't, and I felt like I was being left out on something important. Every time I pulled someone to the side to ask if they knew what was going on, though, the response I received was a genuine look of confusion.
I had caught them a number of times meeting up at Faith's locker after school and talking to each other quietly. Not to mention they were standing awfully close to each other for my liking, and that Faith seemed to be extremely giddy and smiley whenever they were together.
Faith? Giddy and smiley? That's when I knew something was up.
But what bothered me the most, however, wasn't that they seemed to be hanging out together more than usual, but that my two best friends where hiding something from me. I knew that if I didn't find out soon, I was going to loose it.
"I'll be right back," I told no one in particular before bolting out of my seat and going after Faith.
I exited the cafeteria and glanced around the hallway, wondering which way they had gone. I caught a glimpse of Faith as she was turning at the end of the hallway and followed her.
I peered around the corner, and sure enough, there she was, on the other side of the wall with Logan. They were standing close to each other and talking in low voices. It was almost as if they didn't want anyone to hear their conversation. But why? Why were they being so secretive?
While all these questions swirled inside my head, I watched as Faith grinned widely at Logan. She jumped up and down in excitement before throwing her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up from the floor.
My heart dropped.
A burning feeling rushed through my veins, and the rapid beating of my heart pulsed through my head. Even though they were only hugging, to me, it felt like they had just kissed each other. I hated how they almost looked like they..
A lump formed in my throat.
All the secret meetings at her locker, the way they spoke quietly to each other, Faith being all girly around him..
I leaned against the wall for a second and then pushed myself off, walking back into the cafeteria with tears gathering at the corners of my eyes.
❧
After lunch, I walked back to my locker alone, thoughts still jumbled up in my head. When I heard a familiar voice call out to me, my chest tightened.
"Lauren!"
I felt my anger boil inside of me just at the sound of his voice. I ignored him and continued grabbing my books.
"Lauren?"
I closed my locker as he came to lean against the lockers next to me and started walking away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the smile slip from his face.
"Hey," He said, grabbing a hold of my arm and gently pulling me to a stop. "What's wrong?"
I turned around to face him just as Faith was approaching us.
"Lauren, hey!" She said, grinning at me.
I looked from her to Logan, wondering how my two best friends could pretend like everything was perfectly fine.
I forced a smile. "Nothing." I told Logan in response and took my arm from his grasp.
"Lauren? Hold on a sec, will you?" Faith followed after me.
I spun around and tilted my head to the side. "What's up?"
She furrowed her eyebrows and slowly shook her head. "What's up with you?"
"I'm perfectly fine," I shrugged. "Just going to class."
"Are you su—"
"I have this test I'm not really prepared for, so I'll catch y'all later." I gave them one last look before turning around and walking towards my next class.
❧
I couldn't focus on anything for the rest of the day. I was so distracted by my own thoughts, so lost in my mind, that it felt like I wasn't even on earth anymore.
I refused to talk to anyone about anything, especially Faith and Logan. Faith caught on to the fact that obviously something was wrong and attempted calling and texting. Logan also tried calling, but I let them all go to voicemail – I had had enough drama for one day.
I called the one person I felt I could trust at the moment: Thomas. I asked him to come over, which he agreed to once he realized something had happened after I came back to lunch with tears in my eyes.
I told him everything: I explained how I felt and admitted that I liked Logan, which was extremely embarrassing, especially when he smirked and claimed that he had called it from the very beginning. I told him how I didn't know what was happening, but that what I saw gave me a bad gut feeling and also like a slap to the face.
"Well," he said once I finished, raising his eyebrows, "I wasn't expecting that."
"Yeah," I pursed my lips and nodded slowly. "I wasn't either."
"And, you're sure they like each other?" He asked, glancing over to me.
"What else do you think that was?" I threw my hands up in the air. "Please, tell me if you have a better guess."
"I just.." he started.
"What?" I said, my voice laced with annoyance. "You don't believe me?" I crossed my arms across my chest and looked away angrily. It upsetted me mostly because he was taking their side when I thought he would take mine.
"No, no, I do." He assured. "It's just.." He paused to examine me cautiously before continuing slowly. "I just think you took it the wrong way."
I opened my mouth to argue, but he beat me to it.
"Look, I know it might have seemed like they liked each other to you, but, I mean, think about it." He said. "They were just hugging. And besides, we all know that Faith and Tyler like each other. We all know they're going to make it official soon."
I opened my mouth to object, but I knew Thomas had a point, even if I didn't want to admit it. I sighed, letting the silence around us grow louder. We sat there for a few minutes until I finally spoke.
"So, you're saying that I overreacted?" I asked, glancing up at him. On the inside, I was completely aware I overreacted. It was the admitting that I didn't want to face.
"Just a little." He said, smiling at me.
I grabbed a pillow from beside me and smacked his arm with it playfully, to which he laughed.
"So, what should I do?"
He shrugged. "Talk to Faith about it. I'm sure she can explain everything to you."
As we talked more about it, I realized how much I had blown this whole situation out of proportion. I hadn't even given Faith the chance to explain, I simply jumped to conclusions. I might not know why they were hugging or why they were acting odd, but really, I didn't need to know.
Thomas left after an hour, after talking over a solution to this complicated problem. I was lying in my bed, working on homework when the beep of my laptop brought me out of my concentration. I glanced up from the words that were starting to blur to look at the laptop screen right in front of me. Emmie wanted to skype.
I clicked the accept button, turning my full attention to the screen. I soon saw Emmie appear on the screen, and she wore an excited grin that stretched from ear to ear.
"My favorite niece! How are you, honey?" Emmie said, overly excited about seeing me.
I eyed her suspiciously, wondering why she was acting so strange. "Hi," I said slowly. "Is there a reason why you're so.. excited?"
"Why would you think that?" She asked, her smile growing wider, if that was even possible.
"Emmie—" I started but was soon interrupted.
"I have some news," she said immediately, almost as if her patience was quickly slipping away, as if she couldn't seem to wait any longer.
"What is it?" I asked. I felt the corners of my lips beginning to turn upwards into a smile; hers was so contagious.
She reached down beside her bed and pulled up her suitcase.
"I'm coming home!"
My hand went up to my mouth, and I felt my eyes prickle with tears of joy. I couldn't seem to get any words out of my mouth; I simply sat there, staring at Emmie's excitement bubble over, while happy tears soaked my cheeks.
It had been two months, and she was finally coming home.