Morning Coffee | ✓

nine • iced coffee

☂ nine: iced coffee

After the disappointing date with Nate and strange incident with Carter, I was certain that things in my life couldn't get more complicated. My certainty proved to be quite wrong, however, because things ended up taking a turn for the worse.

I originally thought that Nate would have acted strangely around me temporarily and then gotten back to normal. However, he didn't even seem to want to see me anymore. Whenever we saw each other in the hallways, he would avert his eyes not too subtly. I still felt terrible about our date, but every time I tried to confront him to apologize, he'd always be busy or rush away somewhere. One time, after I called his name out in the hallway, he immediately tensed and took a sharp right into the boys' restroom.

His actions started to frustrate me a little. It wasn't that I was still really into him, no, because I realized that he wasn't the one for me on our date. I just wanted to make amends and get back on friendly speaking terms. I hated awkwardness.

If there's anything I hate more than awkwardness, it's being ignored. For some strange reason, Carter seemed to be avoiding me. We still had our pancake breakfasts, but instead of making and eating them together, I would go downstairs in the morning to find a plate of pancakes on the table without Carter anywhere in sight. Another thing missing was Lola from the driveway. Guess we were back to our separate schedules again.

Whenever I happened to run into Carter in class or at home, the only replies he would give me were grunts or one-word replies. It made me want to rip my hair out. At least with Nate I knew why he was acting so strangely. I had no idea what brought on this cold behavior of Carter's. It was almost like we were strangers again.

So basically I spent around two weeks being shunned by two boys who were both quite close to me before that one Saturday night.

"I'm sure that they both just need some time," Emily told me from the couch.

"The question is, though, why would Carter?" I replied exasperatedly. "I didn't do anything to him!"

"Well what happened that night before he left your room?" Emily asked.

"Wait a minute - he was in your room?" Cameron exclaimed. He sat up abruptly in the armchair he was sprawled across.

"Not like that," Emily and I snapped simultaneously.

"Well, basically, I was just helping him clean up a wound and we were just talking."

"That's it? You need to tell us more if we're going to help you figure this out."

"Well...when we were talking we may have almost had a moment? I don't really know but we both snapped out of it anyways. And then I started talking about my date with Nate and -"

"You guys had a moment?" Emily and Cam sounded equally shocked and thrilled at the same time.

"Sort of...not really...I don't really know."

"Well, do you want me to talk to him about it?" Cam suggested.

"No! Are you crazy?" I exclaimed. "It probably meant nothing to him and it wasn't even anything. Talking to him about it could make things worse!"

"I was just trying to help," Cam muttered.

I sighed. "I'm sorry Cam. It's just all been so frustrating with these situations going on - Nate, Carter, my mom's job, not to mention the one year mark coming up soon..."

"Look, don't worry about it so much Kennedy," Em said. "Just relax and take life one step at a time. And remember that we're always here if you need to talk."