Between Us

Chapter 31

A/N: a not so surprise chapter for two beautiful readers! I feel like I spoil you guys too much hehe (JK I love it x)

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I promised I'd text you, I sent to Leo. So here it is :)

He didn't respond, so I figured he was at work or something. I went to the grocery store with my mom, for the first time in a while. She studied me before humming under her breath. "How was the party?"

Awful. "Great! I experienced a lot of things."

Like how my throat felt like it was going to burst into flames because of the alcohol searing down it or the way we all had to yell over the music. Oh, not to mention the new girl that showed up. Something told me that things were going to go downhill from here.

"That's nice," she hummed.

We moved along the aisles, mom searching for whatever she had written on her yellow post-it and me grabbing whatever looked yummy. I made a look out for Paris, as well, but I didn't see her. She drank a lot so I was guessing she had a hangover and didn't end up making it to work.

Hopefully, she was ok.

Then I thought to Caden and that girl, Leilani, again, and what Leo had told me. Caden had a thing for Leilani — who had a real-life love triangle going on — but she didn't choose him. Is that why he guarded his heart against love? There were so many burning questions, all of which could only be answered by none other than Caden.

I was half-expecting to see Leo or Caden pop up but they never did. I guess this place wasn't that small which was kinda hard to believe considering my circumstances.

"Oh, hey!" It was Trixie. She was in sweatpants and a black hoodie. "Was not expecting to see you here."

"Neither was I," I said, genuinely surprised. Maybe I should take back what I thought before. Don't you live further away?"

"Ouch, trying to get rid of me already huh?" At the way I shook my head vigorously, she chuckled. "Nah, I'm pulling your strings. Band practice, remember? My dad's got some mates over so we thought we'd have it at Harry's place instead."

Over her shoulder, I saw mom peeking sly glances over at us, wanting to keep her distance but wanting to rush up here and introduce herself. "Speaking of your band," I began, hesitating a little. Trixie probably wouldn't know but..."Is Caden at home?"

"Uh, yeah he should be? Why, is something wrong?"

"No, just asking." For good measure, like I was asking about everyone, I casually said, "What about Jordan?"

"Who? The dude that visited the bar for our show?" When I nodded, she shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I haven't seen him since."

Neither had I but she didn't need to know that.

I needed to stop my obsession with wondering what Caden was up to. We had shared a brief few days where I thought we were getting to know each other, but that wasn't the case. My problem was that I expected and read too much into things.

Before I dove headfirst into situations I wouldn't be able to pull myself out of, I needed to cut it out.

Now.

After Trixie left, my mom said to me, "Was that a friend?"

"A friend's friend."

"Oh. Well, isn't it time for you to walk the dogs, now?"

I pulled out my phone to check the time and lo and behold, she was right. I placed the basket on the ground next to her and ran out of the store before I could say goodbye.