"Fuck."
I push away from Caitlyn, and lean against a tree trunk. Oh my god. I wasn't even thinking. Chris! I can't believe I forgot about her!
Caitlyn giggles, and takes a blind step towards me. " Why'd you stop?" She teases. " We were just getting started."
Her seducing, sexy tone, makes me want to dive right back in, but now that I remember Chris, I can't get her out of my head.
" I...I can't."
Caitlyn cocks her head, and her eyebrow raises in a questioning look. " Haley..."
C'mon Haley, tell her, get it out,I tell myself. But.. Get what out? What am I trying to say.
" I love you." I blurt out.
Caitlyn blushes, and says " I love you too."
Shit, that wasn't what I meant to say.
" I mean, well... Caitlyn, I love you, but, I love... Someone else..."
The silence is unbearably tangible. I could practically feel it wrapping around my neck. Finally, she speaks up. " What do... What do you mean?"
" I met someone, okay? I met someone and I love her. I can't do this to her."
Caitlyn blindly stares at me. I feel my heart break all over again, with each word that she doesn't say. She just stands there.
" it's Christina... Isn't it?"
Caitlyn says her name with a detached, far off voice.
" How do you know that?" I whisper, taken off guard.
Caitlyn completely ignores me, and rubs her arm, mumbling to herself.
" But, Sean said you were just friends.... And you LOVE her. Why would he... Why would he lie?"
Sean?
" Sean?!"
I give Caitlyn an incredulous look, and take a step away from her.
" How do you know Sean? Why did you just say..."
The memories flood into my head, the dark looming figure in my dreams, the yellow eyes, and Chris being pinned underneath a lumbering, terrifying black wolf. The thought of Chris brings another blow to my heart. Oh god, I really feel terrible.
" Sean... He said he knew you, Haley. He's, he's my best friend..."
She says it more like a question, as if she wasn't sure that he was her friend at all.
" He said that he was an old friend of Christina's, and he wanted to find her so that they could hang out. That's where he is right now... With her."