Chapter 10

Wow, this one is really long. :P

Chapter 10:

After putting away the dishes, cleaning up the table and calling at some hotels so that everybody could get a room, we were all sitting around the living room.
Saria and Lyem were talking about how they first met. Landon and Riley got the chance do to do the same, but all Landon said was:
“We met at a bar. And we just hit it off.” Without any enthusiasm or compassion.
And it looked like Riley didn’t care either.
Then Dad started talking about Mom, and I already started to feel uncomfortable. How could I sit around and listen to them tell happy stories about Mom like she was resting in peace when she wasn’t? Did she go to anyone else besides me? Does Landon or Lyem know?
All those questions would always be left unanswered because I couldn’t just go up to them and say:
“Hey, so you do know Mom’s alive and shes living in Italy with her husband and daughter while she feeds on humans. Oh, I forgot. Shes also a vampire.”
Yeah, right, like that was just the way to bring that up with a mature Lyem and a broody Landon.
“I still miss her,” Lyem said, looking down at his hands as Saria scooted closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“She’ll always be in your heart, Lyem.” She tried comforting him, but everyone knew that nobody could comfort Lyem and make him feel better. But Saria was having a better chance with making him believe that than the rest of us.
I got up from the floor, dusting my pants off, trying to create an excuse off the top of my head so I could get out of the discomfort.
As if on cue, the phone rang its melodic ring. I mentally sighed with relief as I walked hurriedly over to it.
“Hello?” There was a feeling inside of me like I wanted the person on the other end to be Micah.
“Oh...Kati.” A familiar voice said on the other line.
“Mike?” I replied. I turned around and walked into my room. I could tell by the sudden silence in the living room that they were looking at me as I walked away.
“Surprised to hear from me?” I could her him chuckle a little under his breath. There was that same flirtatious tone in his voice that I actually found myself missing.
“Yeah, I am actually. We didn’t exactly end things well.” I said honestly.
There was a long pause. I wasn’t sure if he hung up or not.
“Mike?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
I closed my eyes, wanting to say exactly what was on my mind. And I started to. “Look, I feel like I’m the one that should be sorry here. But in a way, I’m not. Kissing Micah showed me how evil you can get. You can’t just hit someone and expect an apology.”
“You can’t kiss a guy and expect me to be calm about it, Katrina.” The way he said my full name struck me as odd because I was so used to him calling me Kati all the time.
“I guess we are both at fault here.” I tried to sound sympathetic, but I just couldn’t.
“I guess so.”
“Why exactly did you call, Mike?”
“I wanted to apologize. But I wanted you to tell me what I saw at your apartment. You told me that you could explain, and at that time, I didn’t give you the time. But I’m giving you the time now.”
I honestly wasn’t expecting him to say that. “I-” I sighed, calming down before I could speak my next words. “Micah’s different. I don’t know, I felt something when I was with him. I don’t expect you to know what I’m talking about. He kissed me, I didn’t kiss him. Just remember that.”
“You’re wrong, by the way.”
“Huh?” I asked, confused.
“You’re wrong about how you said ‘I don’t expect you to know what I’m talking about.’ Because I do know. That's the way I felt when I was with you.”
I felt my heart suddenly stop. Then pick up again with rapid beating. I started chewing on my bottom lip, not knowing what I should say.
“I just thought you should know that.” He said after I didn’t respond.
“I do know that now. Thanks for telling me. But...Mike. I feel horrible now.”
“Maybe I should have shown you my feelings beforehand, hey?” He chuckled, and I could tell it was a nervous chuckle.
“Maybe.”
“You know what the hardest part is, though?”
“What?”
“Loving someone and they don’t love you back.”
This was all going to fast for me. Up until now, I never knew someone could feel that strongly about me, except my friends. Now I had two guys in my life, that I wasn’t sure who I loved more. They say that you would know when you’re in love with someone. But I just don’t know.
“Mike. I’m really sorry, seriously.” I said without any emotion in my voice to tell him that I was being serious.
“And I’m sorry for the way I hit you. I have a tendency to over react sometimes. I should learn how to control that. But Kati?”
“Yeah?”
“When I’m with you, you make me want to be a better person. I know that the way I hit you might make you think otherwise, but its true. I hope you know that.”
“I’m learning a lot of things tonight.” I sighed.
“Can I ask you a question?” He mumbled.
“Be my guest.”
“Are you with Micah?”
“With?” I wasn’t sure if he was asking if I was hanging out with Micah, or if I was dating him.
“Yeah, you know, dating.”

“I’m not sure, Mike. But when I do find out, you’ll be the first one I’d tell. Even though we might not be together anymore, and God knows that I wish things had ended differently, I still think of you as my friend.”

For some reason, it was like I could feel him smile. Or at least know he was smiling. “As do I, Kati.”
There wasn’t anything else to say. I still wondered if Mike had anything else to say. But the silence on the other end of the line made me realize he was at loss for words also. “Listen, I’m going to go now. But, you know, if you feel up to it, you can stop by the apartment tomorrow sometime.”
“I’m not so sure that's a good idea.” He said after a couple seconds. I knew he was debating whether or not to say yes.
“Why not?”
“I don’t think you actually want me to.”
“Oh, Mike, I do. Caleb does too. We miss hanging out altogether.”
“Maybe tomorrow. If I do decide to come, what time?”
“During the afternoon sometime? Or we could do something during the evening, if you’d prefer. I have family over, but I’ll make time.”
“Okay. I’ll think about it.”
“Good. Talk to you later, or maybe, see you soon.”
“Bye.”
I was left listening to the dial tone until I clicked ‘end’.
I walked back into the living room to put the phone back on the base to see that Landon, Riley, Lyem and Dad were gone. So the only people in the living room were Saria and Caleb who were laughing and talking to each other.
“Uh, hey. Where did everyone go?”
“Oh! Katrina!  Landon and Riley wanted to go back to the hotel they were goin’ to stay at. Riley had a bit of a headache, and she was starting to get a little bit drunk. Might I say, so was Landon. So Lyem wanted to chat with Landon for a couple minutes, so he went with Dad to drop them off. I wanted to stay so we could figure out what we’re goin’ to do tomorrow.”
Lyem wanted to talk to Landon? But they didn’t exchange one word with each other the whole night. Maybe he just needed to talk to his brother one on one. But you never know these kinds of things until you ask them.
“Before we start talking. I have to say something. You’ve got yourself a wicked best friend here, Katrina.” She said cheerfully, looking over at Caleb.
“I couldn’t agree more.” I beamed with a smile.
Saria got up, fixing her shirt. “Why don’t we say we go for a walk and talk a wee’ bit?”
I nodded, looking at Caleb who was looking down at his hands. “Caleb, I just got off the phone with Mike. You could call him. I think he wanted to talk to you, but I never gave him the chance.”
“I think I’ll do that. You two have fun. If they come back while you both are out, I’ll tell them that you went out with Saria.” He was already getting up, striding over to the phone with what looked like no effort.
“Thanks, Caleb.” I turned toward the door to get my jacket and shoes on.
“I just remembered somethin’. At the airport, I had a little time. I went to one of the gift shops and bought you the cutest jacket that I think would look adorable on you.” She started rummaging around in her over sized pink and black Gucci bag that looked like it cost a million dollars.
She pulled out a really long red jacket that looked like it would fit a model. It had big black buttons going down the middle, about six or seven buttons. From here, it looked really soft.
I blushed. I never really knew how to except a gift without putting up a fight. “Oh my gosh, that is so adorable. Thank you so much! I don’t know what to say.”
She walked over to me, unbuttoning the buttons on the jacket so she could put it around me. After about a minute, I was putting on the jacket. It fit perfectly. Except that the length of the arm of the jacket was a bit too long. As I grew taller, this would still fit me. Heck, it probably would still fit me years from now. It wasn’t too small, it was actually a little too big.
“It looks absolutely beautiful on you darlin’.” She told me honestly with a smile on her face, looking as cheerful as ever.
She went into the closet to pull out her black jacket that almost looked like mine, but had a different type of pattern and was made with different material.
“Shall we go, then?” She said, holding out her arm so I could loop my arm through hers.
I did as she indicated, and walked out the door, closing it with one hand behind me.
As we made our way down the hallway towards the doors in silence, I couldn’t help but think of Micah. I hadn’t received a call nor text from him all day. But maybe he was busy.
“I think you would look elegant in a baby blue dress, don’t ya think?” She asked me suddenly.
“Maybe. I wouldn’t want to look as gorgeous as you will during your wedding.” I joked.
She laughed, she clearly got the joke.
“Thank you for everything, Saria. I truly mean it. For making my brother happy. For buying me this...beautiful jacket. And for making me your maid of honor.” I smiled and looked down at my feet while we walked. My arm moved up and down as we both walked with our arms looped.
She looked over at me, but then straight ahead again. “I would do anything for you. I know we just met, but I seem to know everything about you. Just the way Lyem talks about you, it makes me think that he would step in front of a bullet for you.”
I open the apartment glass door and was instantly hit with a cold breeze that made me shiver. Not as much as I would of in my other jacket though. This one was surprisingly warm.
“I never knew that. We haven’t been in contact for the last couple of years. But I do love him.” I told her, feeling my nose grow colder.
“He wished that things would have been different, too. But the past is in the past.” She nodded her head as if she was agreeing with herself. But I couldn’t help but wonder if she was trying to convince  herself too, for reasons I was oblivious to.
We walked in silence for a couple minutes. We could hear the wind blowing around us as if to protect us. It was dark, really dark in fact. It was probably around 10 or 11PM, but I wasn’t tired.
“So did we agree on baby blue for my dress?” I asked her, putting my other hand, that wasn’t looped through Saria’s arm, in my jacket pocket. It warmed up instantly.
“I’m not so sure if we should go a baby blue or a really light peach color.” Even though it was cold outside, Saria was still her usual cheery self.
I could see why Lyem loved her.
“Anything you want. I’m not so sure that peach is my color though.” I advised her.
She stopped walking and turned to me, looking at my face. I could see that she was trying to imagine me in the color peach, or maybe even the dress. “Oh! I think a light violet would look absolutely elegant on you.”
“I don’t even own anything purple.” I pointed out.
“We’ll go dress shoppin’ maybe tomorrow or the next day.”
When I looked up to see where we were going, I could see a tall outline of a person walking towards us. The full moon cast a gleam on the stranger and I realized that it was Micah.
“Micah?” I asked, unsure if it was him or not. But as he got closer, I knew that it had to be Micah and nobody else.
“Katrina?” As he stepped out of the shadows and under the street light I could see that his eyebrow was raised.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked him.
“I could ask you the same thing.” He looked from me to Saria who was standing there dumbfounded as much as I was.
“Who’s this young man?” She whispered to me.
“Oh,” I said then stood up a little straight. “Saria, this is Micah. My...well, I’m not too sure what we are.” I looked at him curiously, wondering if he even knew what we were either.
“I’m Katrina’s boyfriend.” He said, holding out his hand to Saria, smiling.
My eyes went a little wide, but good thing nobody was looking at me to notice.
“Katrina never mentioned she had a boyfriend! Hi Micah, I’m Lyem’s fiance.” She was all smiles at this moment.
I wanted to say ‘I never knew I had a boyfriend either,’ but I decided against it. Micah pretty much made everything a whole lot clearer. Now I wasn’t going to be embarrassed the next time when I ask him what was going on between us.
But instead, I just smiled, watching Micah out of the corner of my eye while I looked at Saria.
“Nice to meet you.” He nodded, taking his hand back and wiping it nervously on his pants.
“Micah, what are you doing here?” I whispered, even though it was pointless.
“I was going to visit my cousin just a couple blocks down from your place.” He looked over top of me, probably seeing if he was anywhere close. But there was something about the way he looked. He was sweating and shaking a little bit. I wonder if he was cold or if he was sick.
“I’ll leave you two be. I’ll be at the apartment Katrina if you need me. Micah, make sure you walk this little gal back to her place. You don’t know how many creeps there are out here.” She unlooped her hand out of mine gently and waved before turning around to walk back.
I watched her go for about a minute and turned back to Micah who was shaking even more rapidly than before. “Micah? Are you cold?” I asked in a worried tone.
“No. I’m just. I’m fine.”
I put my hand against his arm and saw that he was completely warm. Touching his skin with my fingers instantly warmed up my whole body. “Holy crap, you’re warm.” I snatched my hand back. I felt like any moment I would’ve burned.
He moaned a little bit in pain, and looked up the moon and bit down on his lip. I wondered what was the matter with him, and I desperately wanted to know.
“Micah you aren’t okay. Do you need to sit down?” I looked around me so I could find somewhere that we could sit. There was a bench behind the bushes that sealed off all humanity, well so it looked like.
He nodded and we walked towards the bench. I reached my hand down and touched his hand, squeezing it a little. His hands were even warm, even though it was freezing outside.
When we sat down, I scooted closer to him.
He cried out in pain again as he detached his hand from mine and put his put his hands on his knees and his head slowly making his way between his knees to calm down.
“Micah you’re scaring me, whats going on?” I said again, wanting him to just tell me what was going on.
I put my hand on his lower back, stroking it softly to ease the pain. But it didn’t look like it was helping.
All of a sudden I felt something twitch in his lower back, like his muscles contracting or something. But then again, I’m no doctor. I snapped my hand back, not knowing what that was.
“As much. As I want you here. You...” He tried catching his breath before he could speak again. “You have. To leave. Right...now.”
I wanted a couple moments to see if he was going to say anything else, but he didn’t.
“I’m not leaving you. Micah, please tell me whats wrong.” I urged him.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes Katrina. But you were never one of them. I don’t want to hurt you, please...go.” He looked up with me, I could see tears welling up in his eyes.
Then I suddenly remembered what Marsala told me about him. How he was a werewolf. All evidence was beginning to point a finger there. But I didn’t want to make any assumptions.
“Micah, you have to answer me honestly when I ask you this.” I paused to wait to see if he agreed, but all he did was nod his head in impatience.
“Are you a werewolf?” I waited for him to laugh, but he didn’t. I saw his knuckles form into fists like he was angry with me.
He didn’t respond.
“Micah. Be honest with me,” I pleaded.

It took a couple minutes for him to gather up his temper and strength

"There's some things that you don't need to know, Katrina." Was all he said after endless minutes of silence.

"Anything that I want to know, I’ll eventually find out. We can do this the hard way, or you can just tell me. Don't play games with me." I warned him a little too sternly than I should have.

"I don't know what game you're playing, because I'm not playing anything. You don't need to know everything. Some things are better left unsaid. If you want to find out, well good luck trying." to me it sounded like he was flirting instead of stating his case.

"Micah, enough. Just answer the question." I bent down a little so I could see his face a little more clearly.

"You want an answer? Well I'm pretty sure you won't like it."

"I don't care. As long as I know the truth."

"The answer to your question is yes. I am a werewolf." He sat back up and I did the same, trying to see into his eyes. But he wouldn't make eye contact with me. He cried out in pain again and I saw his jaw twitch as well as a muscle in his forearm.

"What's the matter, then?" I asked curiously.

"Look up at the moon and tell me what you notice."

I gazed up a the moon, taken by it's beauty an realized what he wanted me to see. "It's a full moon." I wasn't sure if werewolves change during a full moon or if it was a cliche assumption.

"Do werewolves usually change at a full moon?"

"Every time. But this is my first change and I don't really know what to do." He told me honestly. I could see perspiration start to form on his forehead. His face was getting more rubicund and his eyes looked like he couldn't handle the pain anymore.

"Are you scared?" I put on soft hand in his forearm that started twitching and rippling again.

Then suddenly it started to all make sense. The reason why he was so much faster and stronger than Mike. The reason why he started healing in a matter of seconds. The reason why he growled at the most unusual times.

“I’m not sure if its possible to be even more scared than I am right now,” he said in brutal honesty. I could tell he didn’t like admitting he was scared, especially in front of me.

I wish there was something I could have said in that moment. Something that had the wisdom to cure all of his pain and misery. Instead I just sat there, wincing every time he screamed out in pain and pleased for it to just end.

He started sweating even more as the minutes passed by. Instead of him sitting on the bench beside me, holding my hand, he was on the ground on his back, clenching his stomach.

“Micah, what can I do? Please tell me there’s something I can do to make this all stop,” tears shot down my face as I tried to get every word out.

“Just be here for me. All I need right now is you. And when you’re here with me, I feel safe. Even though I’m in pain, I’m happy that I can see your beautiful face while I go through this.” It took him awhile to say all of that. But in between cries and moans, he managed.

“Micah, I love you. I never knew how fast I could fall for someone until I met you. When I’m not with you, I want to be. And when I see you, the butterflies in my stomach never go away. I’ll always be here for you, please know that.”

He smiled. Something bout that told me that I ought to keep talking so it would distract the both of us.

“Tell me a story. A happy one so I can focus on the sound of your voice  instead of this unbearable pain.”

“A story?” I thought back to a memory that made me happy.

“When I was around 7 years old I used to swing on the swing set in my schools playground after school. Lyem and my mom were both there, taking turns pushing me. Right then and there, while I kept swinging higher and higher, I felt truly happy. Because I didn’t  have to worry about anything. I felt as if I could do anything, be anything. The sunlight was hitting my face, warming up my whole body. I never lost that feeling.” As I finished my story, I could see that it was working. He was focusing on my words rather than the pain.

“Another one,” he pleased, crying out in pain once again. His voice cracked this time, he must of been screaming loud.

I tried thinking of another story as quickly as I could. “Me and my family went away for Christmas 6 years ago. We went to Mexico, and it was just our luck because it was always sunny. I remember packing my bags the night before we left, I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited. To visit an exotic place I’ve never been before. When we got there it was everything I imagined but better. The first day I was wearing my swim suit that my mom and I picked out. The sun was so bright that I didn’t want it to ever go dark. It casted a shine on the water, making it gleam with life. I loved it there because all my worried and problems back here didn’t matter in Mexico. Nobody cared, everybody was just happy. That was one of the best times of my life.” I concluded.

“What was your first?” He wondered, his forearm rippling with more intensity than before.

“Meeting you,” I smiled.

He smiled too, no matter how much pain he was in. The smile that could win any girls heart. The smile that made my heart race and my stomach do weird things.

“You better be careful,” he told me. I could tell he was holding back a weep of pain.

“Why?” I raised my right eyebrow, wondering what on earth he was talking about.

“I could fall so hard for you,” he rolled onto his back and arched it, screaming out as quietly as he could. I was surprised that nobody saw of, or heard him. The streets were always so busy, especially at night. But today, there was hardly anyone. “If I haven’t already.”

“Is that a bad thing?” To lighten up the mood, I added a bit of flirting into my tone.

“For now it isn’t.”

I wonder what he meant by that, but now wasn’t the time to ask. I sat down on the ground beside him, and held his hand.

“If you cry out again, squeeze my hand as hard as you can.” After a couple minutes, he squeezed it with a tremendous grip. An awful noise came from the back of his throat but he didn’t scream. It was probably helping a little bit. My hand started to burn because of how hard he was squeezing, but it didn’t matter to me.

“How can you be so perfect?” He looked over at me when the pain finally stopped. He didn’t change all the way, and I was glad. But we layed next to each other. I felt the rapid breathing of Micah for the next 20 minutes as he tried to catch his breath still.

“I’m not,” I turned my head so I could see him clearly. But he was looking up at the stars. He looked like he was deep in though, and knowing Micah, he probably was.

“But you are, to me.” He looked over at me again, his eyes filled with innocence and love. “I wish you could see what I see when I look at you.”

“That's just the way it is I guess.”

Suddenly I heard my name being called. My eyes grew wide and I forgot about the time.

“Crap, I forgot it was late.” I said to Micah. Getting up and brushing the grass off of my pants.

“Katrina? Darlin’ where are you?” I instantly recognized that the sweet, humble voice belonged to Saria. I could tell in her voice that she was worried.

“I’ll see you later Micah,” I looked at him once more and saw a flicker of disappointment, but it quickly disappeared with a nod of  his head.

“I’ll call you tomorrow?” He said before I was about to turn to leave.

I quickly bent down and kissed him on the lips. It wasn’t enough to feel the same emotion that I felt when I kissed him intimately, but I was in a rush.

I jogged out of the bushes which took about a minute and looked both ways down the street, looking for the voice that was calling my name.

I realized that Saria was farther down the road than I thought.

“Saria!” I called out.

She whipped around once she heard my name. Even from the distance, I could see a wave of relief flow through her.

She started running towards me and within seconds she was already in front of me. “Gosh Darnit! I thought somebody had kidnapped you, or you were off somewhere gettin’ friendly with that boy.” She shook her head in amusement.

“Did you know its after 12AM?” She said as we walked back towards the apartment.

“I’m sorry. The time slipped my mind, I was just taking a walk with Micah and we got lost in conversation.” I was always a terrible liar, and I think Saria picked up on that because she looked like she didn’t believe me one bit.

“Uh huh, of course you were.” She shook her head again and finally cracked a grin.

“Is Dad and Lyem back yet?” I asked out of curiosity, and to change the subject.

“Your father called me about 20 minutes ago and told me him and Lyem got a hotel room. I’ll be heading there shortly, but I had to find you first.”

I nodded.

I stood on the steps, right in front of the big thick glass apartment doors, looking around as if I’ve never seen it before, even though I have. The bushes that were around the apartment had no life form. The flowers were hiding under the soft blanket of new snow. There was a faint layer of ice on the sidewalk coming up to the apartment but there was salt scattered on it. The door to the apartment had so many fingerprints they hadn’t bothered to clean it everyday.

There was always that smell of fresh paint. It never went away or changed. I hadn’t thought of why before, but now I was curious.

“Now that you’re home safe, I’ll be goin’. Sweet dreams, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. But I might be studying all day, but who knows! Bye darlin’.” She waved and turned around walking carefully down the sidewalk to her car.

I turned around and opened the door with the key I had. Sometimes it got confusing. I always had 2 keys I needed to get inside my apartment. One for the main doors, and the other one for my apartment.

When I got up to my door, I opened it with my key and saw Caleb sitting on the couch laughing. It automatically stopped when he saw me.

“Well speak of the devil. Katrina’s home. I’ll talk to you later Mike, see’ya.” Once again I could hear his Australian accent that I always loved hearing.

He clicked end call and dropped his hand down. “Where have you been?” He asked me, even though it sounded like he wasn’t worried. I wondered how long the phone conversation between the two of them had been.

“I was with Micah.”

I slowly started unbuttoning my jacket, being careful with the over sized black buttons, not knowing if they were fragile.

He grunted with amusement, “of course you were.”

“Whats that suppose to mean?” I said, defensively.

“Oh, nothing.” He looked over at me and saw I was having difficulties with my jacket. “Let me help you.” He chuckled a couple times and got up from the couch, groaning a bit.

He walked over to me and in seconds he was standing in front of me. He reached his hands up and started unbuttoning my jacket with what looked like no effort at all.

“That’s not fair, how can that be so easy?” I frowned and Caleb continued to laugh.

Finally the jacket was off.

“Sometimes you need to ask someone for help,” he took my jacket and draped it on a hanger and hanged it in the closet.

“Maybe. So hey, what are we gonna do tonight?” I asked him while making my way to the sink to get a drink of water.

He looked at the grandfather clock he had a weird obsession with.

“Its like past midnight, you sure you’re still awake to do something?” He raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t think I could get to sleep.” I took a drink of water, well basically chugged it down, and put it back on the counter.

“Weird. Well, what do you wanna do?” He looked around with sarcasm as if to say there’s nothing to do.
“Lets watch a movie or something. We haven’t done that in a long time. I miss my Caleb,” I walked over to the couch and sat down, groaning at how comfortable it was. I sank down into it, bringing my legs up and putting my feet under me.

Caleb walked over to the movie shelf and searched through them, his mouth in a thin line. He picked one up and looked at the back of it.

“A Walk To Remember?” I raise my eyebrow and realized that be both haven’t watched that movie in years.

“Yeah! The guy that plays the lead role is totally cute,” Caleb commented as he put the disc into the DVD player.

“I can tell you’re in a romance kind of mood.” I examined my fingernails and started biting on them, thinking of Micah and what I just figured out tonight.

I still couldn’t get over the fact that he was a werewolf. I mean, how did this stuff even exist? Sure, I read about it in books and watched it in movies, but I never thought they were actually real. How was I suppose to carry on looking at the same way I was suppose to before?

Was I suppose to be feeling a fair bit of cynicism because he didn’t tell me?

I retreated my thoughts back onto what was happening in front of me. I knew I would probably go insane if I kept thinking about Micah and everything that occurred tonight.

“You seem to do that a lot,” Caleb said, standing with the open movie case dangling in his hand.

“Do what?” I asked, confused.

“You zone out a lot, you must have lots to think about. Maybe we should just do this movie thing another time.” His shoulders slumped.

“No its alright, I have plenty of time to think about things later tomorrow. Come sit.” I patted the spot next to me on the couch. He hesitated before coming over and sitting down. He turned to me and fidgeted with his hands, clearly nervous.

“Whats up Caleb?” I peered over at him curiously.

He sat in trepidation and bit down on his lip softly. “What would you do if I told you I might have feelings for Mike...and he might have the same feelings back?”

I looked at him in complete and utter shock. My mouth hung open for a couple seconds before I realized what I was doing. It also took me a couple minutes to comprehend what he just told me.

“What the heck are you talking about?” My eyes still hung in giant O’s.

His face flushed red and I knew that I embarrassed him. “I know it might seem crazy or beyond unbelievable. One thing you didn’t know about Mike was that he was having trouble identifying his sexual orientation. And...I don’t know, I guess to him it cleared it up who he actually was when he was dating you.”

For some reason, my heart lurched. “I don’t know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment.”
“Katrina, for once this isn’t about you!” It surprised me how much he raised his voice. I flinched when he spat out the words to me.
I looked at the ground, not knowing what I was suppose to say.
“For once its actually about me. I’m telling you that I think Mike might be gay and finally I don’t have to live with the fact that I’m alone with all of this.”
When I didn’t say anything, he continued on. “I wasn’t even suppose to tell you because Mike begged me not to. But here I am, once again, telling you things that I shouldn’t be saying. You can’t even find it in your heart to be happy for me?”
“Its not like you’re actually dating, you know.” I automatically regretted the words once they flew out of my mouth.
He tilted his head back and sighed as if to release all the anger inside of him. I knew Caleb always had a tendency to try to take control of this situation rather than yell and fight. That’s one of many things I loved about him. “No, I’m not dating him yet. But if I was, wouldn’t you be happy for me?”
“Of course I would Caleb. But you know how incredibly weird that would be for me? My ex-boyfriend turning gay right after we broke up and he starts dating my best friend. Please tell me if you were in my situation that it would feel maybe just a little weird.”
He took what I said in for a moment and exhaled fiercely yet again. “I guess you’re probably right. But what am I suppose to do, Kat? Pretend that I don’t have feelings for Mike and just continue feeling alone and shut out from the world for the rest of my life? You know that if you were me you wouldn’t want to do that. You would do whatever you could do to be happy. So that’s what I’m doing. And if you don’t approve...well I’m sorry.” He started rubbing his eyes, clearly tired.
I ran my hand through my hair, trying to stall time so I could think of what to say.
“Just do whatever makes you happy. After all, its not like I can tell you what to do with your life. It’ll just take some time for it to actually sink in, you know? I am happy for you Caleb, its just...just forget about it. Do whatever it is that makes you happy, seriously. I’ll still love you all the same in the end.”
The edge of Caleb’s mouth quirked upward, eventually turning into a smile. He took me in his arms instantly.
I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly. I could smell the same cologne that didn’t suit him, but got used to it. His hair was getting longer, but it looked better long.
The hug seemed to last hours, but when we finally pulled away we started to watch the movie. I was laying down on him and we both eventually dosed off, the sound of the movie playing in the background.

Reviews

[P.M. Lenski]

“You’re wrong about how you said ‘I don’t expect you to know what I’m talking about.’ Because I do know. That's the way I felt when I was with you.”

awohmygod. is this your plan to make me like mike all over again? D; this is a really good chapter though.