Only Oscar (Wattys 2022 Shortlist!)

Chapter Sixteen

Oscar led her off the boardwalk and onto the sand, the grip he had on her hand and the way he marched them with determination towards the water creating a rising sense of impending doom. 

When Callie struggled to keep up with his long stride, she got irritated and yanked on his arm.

"Wait."

He stopped and looked at her. "Cal -"

"Shoes," she snapped, tugging her hand free and resting it on his upper arm while she removed them.

"I was going to tell you."

"When you quit your job would have been good." 

With her shoes dangling from her fingers, she reclaimed his hand and continued walking. If they were going to have an argument, she wanted it to be as far away from their mothers as possible.

"I know you're mad..."

She laughed humorlessly at his statement. "I'm not mad. Mad would be simple. I could yell at you if I was mad. But there's no point being mad when I don't know what's going on. If I'm anything right now, it's confused."

"You are kinda yelling a little bit," he pointed out.

Callie spun on him and swallowed the baseball-sized lump in her throat. Could he seriously not see how hurtful it was that he hadn't wanted to talk to her? It wasn't so much the secret as the fact he'd kept one from her. She didn't think they had any secrets. She hadn't kept any from him.

"Shit." There was a moment of hesitation, a grimace crossed his face, then he stepped closer. "Let's just get one thing straight here. I didn't do any of this to hurt you."

If it was meant to reassure her, it had the opposite effect. "What else haven't you told me?"

"A lot," he confessed. "But I'm sure there must be things you haven't told me."

"Not anything major," she countered. "And nothing which involves a preface of 'I didn't do this to hurt you'."

He released her hand. "This isn't the way I wanted to tell you. I was gonna work my way up to it."

When he didn't elaborate, Callie concluded it wasn't easy to say, which meant he knew she wasn't going to like it. She took a deep breath. She figured a good friend would be patient, listen to what he said and think it through, calmly and sensibly. So, she wasn't going to make it more difficult for him by getting upset. 

With considerable effort, she suppressed the impulse to get angry and lash out the way a less mature Callie would. He hadn't meant to hurt her. She had to believe that.

"Tell me what's going on," she softly prompted.

He started pacing up and down on the sand in front of her, something she would normally mention because it bugged her so much.

"A few years ago..." he began.

Callie pressed her lips together. Years?

"I had an idea for an app..."

"The things on people's phones and tablets?" she inquired. What was so bad about that?

"Yes," he replied. "It was a game."

"Of course, it was."

She remembered how much time he'd spent gaming with Jasper and Harry in college. Locked in a darkened room, they ordered fast food and indulged in marathons that could last for days.

"I floated it past the guys and we decided to try and develop it," he continued.

Meaning they hadn't just been playing games. Some of the times she found it difficult to drag him into daylight, he was working. Why hadn't he just said so?