The Choice (a Painful Past)

45

I slid my palm into his and followed him back inside the house. He led me to the couch, then dropped my hand.

"Okay, be right back." He said, then winked.

I watched, as he walked down the hallway, towards our bedroom. I leaned my head back and sighed.

"God, please make this pain go away." I whispered to the heavens.

I really wanted to just forget everything that had happened, so that I could feel normal with him again.

My phone buzzed, startling me. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw Colby's name again. Along with a few texts that he had sent.

"Shit." I muttered.

I answered the call, keeping my voice low.

"Hello?" I whispered.

"Callie? Are you okay?" He asked, sounding frantic.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just busy. Sorry that I missed your calls and texts." I replied.

"I was worried." He replied, sounding a little annoyed.

I let out a small, quiet laugh.

"You have got to chill. Maybe you should be smoking a little weed to help you calm down."

"Or, you could just answer me, when I try to get in touch with you and I would be fine." He retorted.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to do that next time." I replied. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing. I was wanting to know if you wanted to hang out today. We could go to the lake, or maybe walk around the mall. Of course, they might not want me there right now." He said, amused.

"Oh, God, Colby, what did you and Sam do this time?" I asked, exasperated.

He and his best friend, Sam Golbach, had started doing the craziest things, just so they could film it and post it on the social media site, Vine. I knew that they had wore costumes and demolished entire end caps at the grocery stores around town. I knew that they had completely destroyed snowmen, just to record it.

That was kind of fucked up, in my opinion, because I knew that kids had to be upset about their snowmen being destroyed.

"Um," He started, still laughing a little. "We kind of took a couch to the mall and put it on the escalator, so that we could lay on it, while it went up to the next floor. They didn't like that too much."

I sighed, and laughed. "You guys are literally going to be arrested one day for this stupid shit." I replied.

I could almost see him shrugging when he answered me.

"Hey, you gotta do what the people like to get the views." He replied, nonchalantly.

I shook my head and laughed again, just as Will walked back into the room.

"Hey, I gotta go, but I'll call you soon." I told Colby.

"What? We were having a great conversation! You didn't even answer me about going to the lake or something. Did you wanna go?"

"Who are you talking to?" Will asked me.

I held my finger up, so that I could answer Colby first.

"Not today, but maybe tomorrow, okay? I promise." I replied.

"Wait, was that Will that I heard? What's he doing there? Callie, please tell me that you did not take that dude back!" He exclaimed.

"I have to go!" I replied. "I'll call you later. Bye, Colby." I hung up before he could reply.

"Colby?" Will asked, raising his eyebrow.

I nodded.

"Yeah, he had texted me earlier and I didn't answer, so he was just checking to make sure that I was okay. I was really messed up yesterday...after what happened with us." I said.

He sat down in the recliner across from me, and pulled the rolling tray from under the little table that sat in between the recliners. I watched as he pinched a bud off of the little bag that he had, and dropped it onto the tray. His fingers started working it, breaking apart the weed, so that he could remove the few seeds that were in it.

"You know he's in love with you, right? I still don't understand why you're hanging out with that kid anyway. It doesn't make sense." He said, shaking his head, as he looked up and met my gaze.

I shrugged.

"Because he's my friend...and he's not in love with me. He just cares about me, like I care about him. He's like my little brother." I replied.

He shook his head.

"No, he's in love with you. I can see it in the way he looks at you. He was probably thanking God, when he found out that we broke up. Have you hung out with him since...since we broke up?"

I looked down and started pulling at the lint that was on my shirt. For some reason, I felt guilty. I wasn't sure why, because I didn't feel that way about Colby and I hadn't done anything wrong.

Well, I had kissed him, but I was drunk and Will and I were broken up. I mean, we are broken up.

"Yeah." I answered. "I was drinking and upset, so he kept me company and made sure that I didn't hurt myself or anything. He made sure that I stayed safe. That was it."

Why was I explaining myself? I wouldn't have been on the roof with another guy, if Will hadn't been making out with another girl. This was stupid.

"Besides, we were broken up. It doesn't matter if I did make out with him or something. I was only with him, because of what you did." I said, defensively.

"Why would you bring that up?" He exclaimed, looking down at the partially broken up bud on the tray. "We already talked about that. It's over. Why are you trying to turn this around on me?" He asked. "You must be feeling guilty about something, huh?"

"Oh my God, no!" I exclaimed. "You're talking like you don't want me to be friends with Colby, and that's not gonna happen. He's been there for me, when I needed a friend. Even Sherri wasn't around for me because she's up Shawn's ass. I needed someone to talk to, Will. That's it."

The guilt from the kiss was eating me alive. I felt so ashamed, with him questioning me like this. He was looking at me, like he knew that I was lying.

Did Colby tell anyone? If he told Luke, and Luke told Dana, then Dana would tell Dustin, and he would tell Will. God, I hated that high school bullshit.

Colby wouldn't do that though.

Would he? No, he wouldn't.

Right? Shit. I had to ask him the first chance I got.