Chapter 14: Support

I already knew it had to be either Castiel or Lysander before I even looked at the phone.

This time, it was Castiel. "Lys and I have been waiting for twenty minutes. What's up?"

Crap!

I had completely forgotten about my promise to meet them at the movies. I had actually been looking forward to it, before my run-in with Nathaniel...

I frantically texted back. "I'm sorry guys, but I can't make it. Have fun without me, okay?"

Castiel knew something had to be awry for me to decline an invitation to the movies - which was easily my third favorite activity in the whole world, just below breathing and eating. I cleared my throat and answered his incoming call, trying my best at a nonchalant "hey."

"We're coming over there," he asserted, without even bothering to return my hello.

"It's nothing, Cas, really. I'm sorry for making you guys wait."

It was no use. He knew I was lying. "We're coming over." I heard Lysander comment nearby, but he was too far away for Castiel's phone to pick it up. "Lys says he hopes you guys have an aluminum bat we can borrow. You know, for his face."

I couldn't help but laugh feebly. Castiel had advised against me going to talk with Nathaniel that afternoon, but I had insisted. The way I had treated Nathaniel on the beach that one summer day weighed heavily on my conscience, and I wanted to at least offer him an apology so that I wouldn't have to hide from him anymore.

You should have listened to Castiel and left it alone, I reminded myself with a tinge of regret.

Just then, Auntie opened my bedroom door and walked in with a bowl of sherbet. She was relieved to see I had finally stopped crying and allowed herself to smile. She gave my cheek an affectionate pinch and turned to leave me alone.

I held the phone to my chest and asked her over my shoulder, "Auntie, is it alright if Lysander and Castiel come over?"

She raised an eyebrow. I knew what she was thinking. Two boys? This late?

"They're being very insistent," I added. They're pretty much coming over whether it's okay with you or not.

"Oh, okay." She was reluctant, but she knew that Lysander and Castiel were my only friends, and I was in need of their support.

Amber and her underlings had done such a good job ruining my reputation over the summer that by the time school started in August, no one wanted to associate themselves with me - not even shy Violette or kind Iris. Their betrayal stung, but not as much as the guilt I carried with me because of how I had disgraced Nathaniel - which was why Amber was telling tales in the first place. Iris and Violette knew that Amber was a liar, but nonetheless, the rumors served their intended purpose.

My swift exile from every social circle in Sweet Amoris High School only solidified the friendship I had formed with Castiel. Lysander, his even less approachable best friend, wasn't exactly eager to include me at first, but he was starting to warm up to me. It helped that we were in the same German class; although I didn't share his eye for highly stylized Victorian fashion or his ear for indie music, we both had a knack for foreign language.

Within minutes, just as I was finishing my last bite of cool, citrusy sherbet, I heard the murmur of masculine voices just outside the apartment and the ring of the doorbell.

Wow, Castiel - that was fast.

It occurred to me that I still looked a mess - and I couldn't pull off the 'hot mess' look. I was a legitimately gross-looking mess, streams of dried tears turning cold on my cheeks and sticking my eyelashes together. I rushed into the bathroom to wash my face and brush the unsightly tangles out of my hair.

Meanwhile, Auntie received Castiel and Lysander at the door. I heard Castiel introduce Lysander since he had never met my aunt before. I already knew that she thought Castiel was strange - Castiel, with his bright red hair, his piercing stare, and his conspicuous all-black wardrobe. I could only imagine what her first impression of Lysander would be - Lysander, whose eyes were naturally two different colors and who dressed like he'd walked through a time warp from 1887.

I emerged from the bathroom feeling refreshed, but it was obvious that I had been crying. My puffy red eyes gave me away.

"Hey! There she is," said Castiel to no one in particular. He greeted me with an earnest hug, enveloping me in his distinctive cigarette-smoke-and-body-spray smell.

Lysander, surprisingly, held out his arms for a hug, too - perhaps acting on an innate need to comfort a damsel in distress.

I was lucky to have friends as devoted as these two, who would drop what they were doing if they even suspected I was troubled.

As the three of us made our way down the hallway towards my room, Auntie shot me a serious look that I knew meant keep the door open. I rolled my eyes, but obeyed without further protest.

Castiel had been in my bedroom at least a dozen times before, but Lysander had never seen it. The former sauntered in and jumped face-first onto my bed, as comfortable in my room as he was his own, while the latter examined his surroundings carefully with heterochromatic eyes. I wondered what he thought of the Pepto-Bismol pink walls, the dozens of stuffed animals perched atop the curtain rods, and the butterfly decals covering the closet door. I was starting to feel ashamed of my childish room until he found my overfull bookshelf. My collection had a little bit of everything, from The Neverending Story and The Princess Bride to Catch-22 and A Clockwork Orange, all alphabetized. Every title Lysander read made his smile wider. He took out my well-worn copy of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and opened it to a random page, which was highlighted an annotated.

"Nice," he whispered, nodding approvingly.

Castiel nodded back, as if to say, I know, right? My heart swelled with pride.

Castiel propped himself up on his arm, his sneakered feet hanging over the edge of my bed. "Tell us what happened, Candy."

Lysander looked up from his speed-reading, remembering the reason for their visit.

I took a deep breath. "Well, I wanted to talk to Nathaniel on his own, so I waited until after school and went to find him in the library..."