~*~ Chapter 31: Almost There... ~*~
“[…] And after everything that he told me and everything that happened today, I’m now just staring down at him. I can’t believe Colin is actually here. I mean… we talked over the phone a few days ago, and now he’s here, in my Californian house, sleeping on the floor right next to me. And I can’t believe I’ve put him through everything that happened today.
And man, what a day! I can’t quite believe it’s over, because it never really seemed like a real day. More like a dream or something. But I’m really glad it’s over now. It couldn’t go on. Everything that could go wrong in one day, did today. Oh, Gosh.”
Brandi lay on her bed, with only a bedside light illuminating the room. Colin was sound asleep on a mattress lying next to her bed. Brandi took another look at him, smiled and kept writing.
“Now, about Seth, I really don’t know what to do. I know that I fell for him the minute I lay eyes on him, but… I’m still not so sure about his feelings for me. I don’t care what Colin says or even what Ryan says. I will only believe that he has some sort of feeling for me when he tells me so. Because… Seth is just messed up! I know I don’t know him that well, but I can honestly say that he is just confusing. I can never tell what he’s feeling and what he wants to do or say. Urgh, I hate that!
I’m just so afraid of going to school tomorrow. What if he and Summer kissed tonight, after I came home with Colin, and they are now together and all happy lovey dovey tomorrow? Oh, Gosh, I swear I’ll kill myself! I really don’t know if I can handle seeing the two of them together right about now. But I guess that if it does happen, and there’s a great possibility of it happening, I’m just gonna have to live with that… Oh, Lord, help me…”
Brandi yawned. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and it read 1:12 a.m.
“Shit.” she whispered, closed her diary, placed it on her nightstand and tucked herself under the bed sheets. She took a deep breath, turned the lights off and was soon fast asleep.
“No! Let me sleep!” Brandi whined.
“Spring, you’re late. You have to go to school.”
“No, Col, please, let me sleep.”
“Yeah…” Colin let out a little laugh “Like I control that.”
“Please, Col, talk to my mum. She loves you. I’m sure if you ask her really nicely, she’ll let me stay home today.”
“Come on, Spring, you’re not even sleeping anymore!”
“Oh, I am. Look!” Brandi pretended to be sleeping, which just worked to make Colin laugh.
“Yeah, ok. Get up.”
“No!”
“Ok, then. I’m gonna do something you really hate, but don’t tell me I didn’t ask you gently to get up, because I did.” Colin took Brandi on his arms.
“No!” Brandi squeezed herself out of Colin’s grip, collapsing onto her bed again.
“Told you you wouldn’t like it.” Brandi hated being lifted up.
“Ok, I’m up!”
“Good.”
“I’m up, but it’s not just because I’m up that I have to go to school.”
“Oh, you do have to go to school, missy.”
“No, I don’t.”
“B, stop it. Stop being silly. I know why you don’t wanna go and you can’t delay it any more.” Colin got closer to Brandi and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Colin…” Brandi didn’t know why she was so afraid of going to school “He’s gonna break my heart.” she hugged Colin gently and placed her head on his chest.
“Don’t be stupid.” it was killing Colin to be Brandi’s best friend at that particular moment. He had to be her friend, support her, tell her not to worry because Seth would never break her heart.
But the truth was that Colin didn’t know if Seth would or would not break Brandi’s heart. What he did know was that he himself would never hurt Brandi, that he would love her and take care of her if she’d pick him, but he couldn’t say that. Not after last night, when Brandi made it clear for him that she was in love with Seth. He had to act like the friend now, not like the guy that was trying to have the girl of his dreams.
“I know he is going to, Col.”
“Sh. Don’t say what you don’t know. Now…” he gently pushed her away from their hug “let’s go downstairs and have breakfast, shall we?”
“What are you doing, man?” Ryan came into Seth’s room and saw him still lying in bed.
“I can’t. I can’t tell her I love her. I can’t tell her how I feel, Ryan. I’m just gonna stay in bed today.” Seth covered his head with his sheets.
“Oh, no.” Ryan took the sheets out of Seth’s hands “You’re not gonna bail after everything. After waking me up in the middle of the night last night. Actually, after waking me up practically every day since you met Brandi and talking, and talking, and talking about her. You are gonna tell her how you feel, man.”
“Why, Ryan, why?” Seth was now being pulled out of bed by Ryan.
“Because, Seth.” everyone knows Ryan is way stronger that Seth, but he was having a difficult time getting Seth out of bed “You can’t keep it inside you anymore. It’s not good for you, man. Just get up, have something to eat and you’ll feel instantly better about telling her how you feel.”
“Ryan, she’s probably with that Colin guy from New York.”
“What?” Ryan stopped pulling Seth and looked straight at him “What guy? New York guy? What New York guy?”
“That guy. That friend of hers from New York. I told you about him last night, Ryan.”
“No, you didn’t! I didn’t know there was a New York guy in the game!”
“Well, there is.” Seth got out of bed and head for the dresser “And, hey, thanks for referring to my life as a game.”
“What guy? Spit it out.” Ryan chose not to pay attention to Seth’s last comment.
“They are best friends. He’s from New York and he showed up out of nowhere yesterday after school and we hung out for a while. He knows everything about her. They were neighbors or something. And they didn’t tell me, but I have the strong feeling that they were together for a while.”
“Seth, how didn’t you tell me that last night? How could you have forgotten that? That’s actually pretty important.”
“Why?” Seth didn’t sound too worried about Colin until he noticed Ryan was worried about him “Do you… Oh, man, of course! He was going to stay at her house! Of course they made out last night. And this morning. I bet they are doing it right now! Oh, man! How come it never crossed my mind until this very moment? I was so worried about me telling her how I feel that I totally forgot it.” Seth hit his forehead.
“Seth, maybe… Maybe nothing really happened.”
“Oh, come on, Ryan! With my luck, he is probably proposing to her right now. And he’s so perfect, Colin from New York, that he must have planned everything out. He must have placed the ring on her bagel or something and when…” Seth was babbling and pacing around the room.
“Seth, don’t be stupid! Calm down!” Ryan asked his friend.
“I can’t, now can I?”
“Seth, chances are we are just imagining these things. Maybe the two of them didn’t get together.”
“Ok. What are the chances for that, huh, Ryan?” Ryan didn’t know how to answer that “See? I’m telling you, Brandi is now picking out her wedding dress. I can feel it.”
“Ok, stop it! Take a deep breath.”
“Ok. It’s working…” Seth said.
“See? Good. Now. Nothing happened. And if it did happen, you’re gonna know soon enough. And if something did happen…” Ryan stopped pacing around the room and looked at Seth “You give her some space, do you understand me, Seth?” Seth nodded “You do not tell her how you feel if she’s with the New York guy, ok? You can’t ruin her life like that. Understood?” Seth kept nodding “Good.”
“Ok. Ok.”
“Now, let’s have some breakfast and we’ll talk more about it on the way to school.”
~*~ Chapter 30 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 32 ~*~
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