Love Me | Series Book #1

TWENTY TWO

Monday came around, and I was back to my everyday routine, despite the one thing...person, that was no longer in the picture. As I walked the halls with my two best friends at my side, it seemed like I was missing an extra limb. Although I hadn't told anyone besides Rachel, mostly everyone knew at this point that we'd broken up. I assumed Mason made that clear since Rachel swore to secrecy.

I'd ended up recapping the story to Aly when I visited her after I left Chase's house. She didn't question me when I told her that we broke up for personal reasons. In fact she sided with me, and told me not to fret about it. It was his loss. I didn't tell her that I was the one that ended things with him. As far as she knew it was a mutual understanding. If I'd gone into too many details she'd have surely caught on and demanded a full explanation. And once I started explaining things there was no stopping until the whole truth came out.

As difficult as it was to come to terms with the end of a two-year relationship, I put on a good front. It was necessary in order to keep up with my story. I couldn't talk about missing him, I couldn't reminisce about the good times we had. I could barely bring his name up at all.

It was probably better for me in the long run. Maybe keeping all of the leftover feelings bottled inside would help them fade away sooner.

Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

I followed Aly and Rachel through  the cafeteria to my old lunch table. It was strange being on this side of the room again. If I looked to the right my eyes would land directly on Mason's table. I made sure to take a seat facing the opposite direction.

"So, since none of us got to hang out over break, what's the big plan for your birthday?" Aly asked, wasting no time.

I'd been so caught up with the past lately that I hadn't given thought to my eighteenth birthday which was exactly a week from now. I've never been one to make it a top priority to throw the biggest most talked about raving parties. I actually wasn't really expecting to do much. Just a simple night out with my group would be more than enough.

But by the hopeful looks on Aly and Rachel's faces, I knew that answer wasn't the one that they were looking for.

Before I could open my mouth, Aly had opened hers again.

"Don't tell me you don't have any plans..." She said, using her best friend ability to read my mind.

"You didn't even give me a chance to answer," I said, popping a fry into my mouth.

"Didn't have to! The fact that you hesitated said it all. We are so going to do something about that."

Rachel nodded her head in agreement. I felt cornered.

"Guys, it's not a big deal. So, what. I'm turning eighteen. It's not like we're legal yet."

Rachel scoffed. "And? That hasn't stopped us before. Remember when Aly turned eighteen?," she said giving me a mental flashback of the night. Two months ago Aly had gone ahead and ordered the three of us fake ID's online and gotten us into a 21 and over club that coincidentally was having its grand opening on the same night as her birthday. The whole memory of that day was cloudy which was more than a hint to tell me that I didn't want to relive it. The next morning my head hurt so bad that pain killers couldn't get rid of the ache.

"No way," I said shaking my head, "Not doing that again."

"Oh come on!" Aly threw her hands on the table. "That was so fun. And as I recall, you had the best time out of all of us. Remember Colgate guy?"