Only One I Call Home

Chapter 18 - "A guy and a girl can just be friends, but at one point..."

Chapter 18

“A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other…Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever.”

-       Dave Matthews Band

It had been a whole week since I’d spoken one word to Trey. I hadn’t gone to school, Tully had been feeding me homework and I had swamped myself with it, making it the only thing I could concentrate on. Work was dull. I had Tully and Adrian around but they didn’t make me laugh as much as they used to. To be honest, nothing did.

Tully had kept trying to tell me that maybe our timing was just off; that we were so deep in love that we didn’t care about any of the consequences. I just think that it was off. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our relationship had run its course and there was no regaining everything we had now. It was too late.

The fact was I was lonely again. I had no one to hold me at night and no one to comfort me when I was down. It was weird sleeping alone again to say the least.

Tully hadn’t tried to get any information out of me and I was thankful. She hadn’t even asked me to explain what was going on with Trey and why he seemed to think I was a completely different person. Thinking of him hurt, I missed him like hell and there was absolutely nothing I could do to get him back. I didn’t know how to reach out to him and deep down I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. He was right though, I couldn’t tell him how I felt. And it wasn’t because I didn’t feel anything for him; it was because my head was a mess. I couldn’t trust my emotions, there were so many of them and I didn’t know which ones I could trust.

“Why don’t we go shopping?” Tully asked me excitedly one Friday night after she got home from school. “I know you’ve been feeling like shit lately, maybe it’ll cheer you up a little.”

I smiled small and shrugged. “Sure, sounds good.”

She sighed heavily. “I know you’re lying but thanks.”

I shook my head. “No really, we’ll go shopping.”

She smiled happily and jumped onto the couch beside me. “Awesome. So talk to me, how are you going?”

I groaned. “Not very well.”

“I get the feeling this is more than Trey though, what’s going on?” She asked me seriously. “And just so you know, I’m not pushing. I just think it would help you to do some venting.”

For some reason I swallowed my pride and nodded once. “Okay, it’s a long story though. Are you ready?”

She nodded once.

“You have to promise me that you won’t think any less of me. Promise me right now that you’ll do your best to understand.” I practically begged. My voice sounded so desperate, even to me. She probably thought I was a hopeless nutcase.

She smiled small. “Of course.”

I sucked in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Well, you already know half the story. I ran away from home because I could be there anymore. But that’s not it. I haven’t told you everything.”

“Go.” She whispered. “I want to know.”

I nodded once. “Okay. I never met my parents. I’ve been in foster care ever since I was born. I’ve moved from shit family to shit family and none of them have ever liked me. I mean I guess I was always a little shit but it was only because I didn’t have a family to be proud of me. But none of that really matters. What matters are the recent events? That’s what’s been playing on my mind the most. My name isn’t Madison, it’s Laurel and I didn’t meet Trey at an old school or whatever, I met him inside a Juvenile Detention Centre.”