Chapter 19

By the end of the shopping trip, I felt horrible. My stomach felt like it was turning into gellitin, and that feeling was beginning to run up my throat. I don't know why this is even happening to me, she hasn't been mean to me, or Peter. She doesn't even bring him up when she talks about going over Tyler's tomorrow, and goes through the list of people and names that will be there. I sit there in the front seat thinking about him. I just want to talk to him. Not about this. Anything, just to feel better. I don't know if I've been actually getting sick, but I couldn't make any sense of what I was going through.

"Gabriella's home," She said loudly, pulling in front of my house. "Je-sus. What the fuck- the one time I have to go to work, she's here. Well, tell her I said 'Hello' and that I miss her. I haven't seen her in forever, I'll stop by soon-" I open the door and get out onto the street. My knees are wobbley. "See you Kayla, this was fun today. You know, I miss this. If I have to hang out with Julia one more time, I'm going to kill myself. I'll text you tonight-" I nod smiling, and wave as I shut the door. She smiles back and waves and lets me make it to the lawn before she's off again.

I get to the porch and lower myself down onto the steps. I pick my phone out of my small bag and go through all the contacts to his name. I'm surprised he hasn't called me or texted me, but I have to talk to him. The rings are short and I feel myself perking up. Then he answers. "Hey," He says. I love his voice on the phone. I had heard it before we were together, but now it was different. He was happier when he talked to me, and his voice was more sure. "What's up?"

"Hi, nothing-"

"I'm sorry," He says suddenly; he'll never miss an oppurtunity to apologize. "I called you today but your phone was busy, so I hung up. I was going to text you, but my grandmother has this huge benefit tonight, and my mom's stressing out over it. My suit-coat wasn't fitting right, and it was this huge problem-" He sounds happy, and is laughing a little, expecting me to. I smile with him, because he's cute when he's like this, and I can just see him talking to me about all of this. I sit back and look out across my lawn.

"I didn't know you had this huge benefit," I said smiling. "Geez, I should have gotten a hold of you earlier to see where you could squeeze me into you're benefit-ridden life."

"I tried to call you," He says. "We could have met up this morning or something and gotten breakfast. I should have asked you last night, but I didn't think of it until I was up and realized my mom was hyperventilating in the kitchen over Nate's hair." I laughed, and he laughed with me. He was so happy. Then I waited for him to say what I has expected him to eventually. "What did you do today?"

I lean onto my elbows, tucking a hand behind my hair. iI had no reason to lie, but I had the initial need to. I swallowed and squeezed my neck. What if he reacted badly? He wouldn't, I had to trust him with this."I went to the mall," I said. "With Alyssa."

"Oh," He said. "Cool." His voice was sharper then, he was trying to sound happy and okay with it, but he feels the same way I do right now admitting it.

"She's terrible," I said softly. "And she kept me there so long, I didn't have a chance to call you today, and catch you before they fixed you suit-coat." I wait, but he doesn't let a pause take over. He jumps in and casually asks me about the afternoon, and I tell him she didn't say anything awful about us. "I'm sorry about all of this stuff with her." I said weakly. "I don't know why I'm so paranoid about it. I mean... she can't do anything about us being together."

"Yeah," He said.

"And we both like each other," I said. "Wait, are there going to be girls there tonight?"

He laughs quietly. "You know," He says, kidding. "A lot my my grand-mother's friends' granddaughters. A lot of them are models."

I smile, laughing sincerely at this, and he laughs with me. "Well, then," I said. "I guess Alyssa won't have to worry about us anymore."

He laughs. "I've met them all," He said. "They've got nothing on you."

I smile, and every bad thing inside of me is washed out. My heart is racing. I try to think of something to say, but then I hear someone talking to him in the background. I'm not sure who it is, but I had heard his brother talking a couple of times. I even talked to him once, when he stold Peter's phone. But it doesn't sound like Nathan, so I wait. Maybe it's his father. It's too mumbled and quiet for me to make anything out, so I wait. My my free hand slides down to my ankle. "Do you have to go?"

"Yeah," His voice has gone flat. "But I'll call you tonight. These things get over early, and I can probably get wicked early anyways. We could go driving around or something, whatever." I must have paused too long, because he jumps in getting nervous again. "I mean, if you want to."

"I'd like that," I say smiling.

"Okay then," He said. "I'll-"

"Wear your suit-coat when we go out."

"No," He said. "I look like a dork in it."

"Please,"

"No way," He says, and I can hear him softly laughing through the phone, just by the sound of short clous of air filling his reciever.

I laugh. "I'll talk to you later,"

"Cool, yeah," He says. "See you."

I hang up first, because usually he won't. Once I waited a little while, and noticed he was still there. We both laughed about it. It wasn't a creepy thing. He was just there, sitting on the phone until he knew I was gone. For a few seconds I sat there on the porch after shutting my phone. I was tired after today, and felt sluggish. Too sluggish to get up and go inside. It was hot out, and eventually the heat was too much so I had to go inside.

It was awkward, because I could hear them fighting. They were in her room, and the door was probably open. Her voice was fast and sharp, I couldn't hear anything she was saying but it made its way downstairs. Then he interrupted her. Answering her with a loud, irritated tone. I stood there at the door for a while, listening. I had heard them fighting before, but they always became aware of me and stopped or quieted down. Today they didn't. Gabriella kept going, and all I could do was go into the living room and lay there, trying to make out what was going on.