7. Lola

"Troy came why?" I ask her over the phone.

"He wanted to see if I was okay after what happened." She says and I can here the excitement in her voice.

"Brie what did happen?"

"Nothing."

Good thing I know when she's lying. "Gabby."

"Riley Tried to rape me."

"WHAT!" I shriek, I guess a bit too loud. "Are you okay?"

"I guess."

"I'm gonna make that stupid jerk's life a living hell!"

"Please no. Don't do that Lol."

"Why not? He deserves that after what he did to you. Have you convicted him?"

"No." she almost whispers.

"You have to Brie, what if he does this to someone else as well!"

"No one would believe me!"

"I would." I assure her.

"Thanks, but it's no big deal, Troy came in before anything happened."

"Troy was there?"

"Yeah. He was the one who saved me."

"Uuhh how romantic." I teas.

"Stop it."

"Well if he's just half as good in bed as his brother, I'd say you are one lucky girl."

"Eww stop it. I don't want to know anything about you and Kyle's sex life."

"Is she talking about me?" Kyle asks Troy and I can't help but laugh.

"Where are you?" Gabby asks me.

"Kyle's. He's talking to Troy."

"What are they hearing our conversation!" She screams.

"No only my part."

"Lol. If they know you are talking to me, then they will know I like Troy!"

"How?" I sure was confused.

"They know you were referring to Kyle when you talked about being good in bed. His brother is Troy and you called me a lucky girl!"

"They are guys they won't figure that out!" I try to assure her. "I mean I didn't even."

"Hopefully you are right, else I'm going to kill myself."

"Don't be overdramatic Gabs. You do like him right?" I ask all excited.

"I guess. But he's Dani's friend, and he's a senior, he's gonna graduate. And he's 18. He doesn't see anything in me."

"You might be wrong about that."

"What are you going to do?" She asks me.

"I'll work some magic." I hung up and looked at Kyle and Troy with a huge grin on my face.

"What just happened?" Troy asks, but I think the question is for Kyle and not me.

"I'm not sure." Kyle gives both of us a weird look.

"Why didn't you tell us that Gabby almost got rapped?" I scream.

"Gabs almost got rapped?" Kyle asks confused.

"She told me not to tell anyone." Troy defends himself.

"So that's why you punched Riley." Kyle asks.

Troy nods and looks at both of us. "You have to promise not to tell."

"Why you afraid of what Gabby think of you?" I teas Troy.

"Well yes. She got mad at me earlier, and I would hate for that to happen again."

"But you like her?" I ask.

He doesn't answer because we are interrupted by Chad their 10 year-old little brother. "Troy will you play ball with me." He asks with big puppy eyes. And I can't help but laugh, because I've seen that look in both Kyle and Troy also.

"I'd love to." Troy says and walks outside with Chad.

"What just happened?" Kyle asks aloud, but I think it's more a question for himself than for me.

I wrap my arms around his neck. "I think your brother has fallen for Gabby."

"What? No I don't think so. I think he's more in for Dani than Gabby."

"You do?" He's got it all wrong. There's no way Troy and Dani is more than friends. I like the fact that it's everybody else who has to deal with his or her feelings and not me. I'm happy and completely in love with Kyle. I wouldn't change that. I smile at him.

He gives me a weird look. "What?"

"I love you." I say and he kisses my lips. But I can't help but notice that he doesn't say it back. I fake a smile and kiss him again, then I come up with an excuse and leave. Great I thought to myself, I have to deal with my feelings too just because I couldn't shut up. I shouldn't have said anything. Why did love have to be so hard? When a girl loves a boy he should love her back, and vice versa. It really should be that simple. I think about Gabby, and somehow I feel better. At least I'm not the one who almost got rapped, and whom everybody thinks is a whore. Life is complicated. If everybody got homeschooled everything would be much better.

I call Jeremy. "Hey Lol what's up?"

"How do you know if a guy loves you?"

"Well if he tells you he does, mostly it's true."

"That's the problem he didn't."

"You're talking about Kyle?"

"Yes. He didn't say it back."

"Maybe he's just afraid."

"Of what?" I'm getting frustrated.

"Committing himself."

"I thought he had already done that by being my boyfriend."

"Just give him some time, I'm sure you just took him off guard."

"And what if I didn't? What if he doesn't love me?"

"Lol relax. Just wait, I'm sure he'll say it back sooner than later. Besides don't you want him to mean it when he says it, instead of just saying it to make you happy."

"Of course, but I just always pictured him saying it back. Btw how's Emily, how's she taking everything?"

"You know?" He asks surprised.

"Yes. Kyle told me, I assume he knows from Troy who probably knows from Em."

"She's okay I guess. She's a bit mad."

"Why wouldn't she be, her whole life has been a lie."

"But still it's not like she isn't loved."

"Jere that's easy for you to say. Put yourself in her shoes. Your whole life you thought you knew whom your parents were and where you came from, now it turns out that you don't. And even though she knows you love her, I'm sure a part of her would like to know where she came from. I think she's confused, and lost. Because she didn't expect any of it, and what if she meets her biological parents and it turns out they didn't want her, or that they died. I think she's going through a lot right now. So you better be there for her and help her in every kind of way."

He sighs. "You really thought this through huh?"

"Well I just pictured it being me. What if it turned out that Matt wasn't my biological brother, and my parents weren't really my parents after all? I would feel so confused, betrayed, lost and I think a part of me would want to know who I am, but what if I never got the chance to figure that out, because I couldn't find my biological parents. Then I would feel even more lost, because then 'who am I'. Am I like my mother or father, who do I look like. I think Em has a lot of questions that she needs to be answered probably a lot that your parents can't help her with, and I think she'll need those questions answered before she can move on."

"Thanks Lol. You just helped a lot." He hangs up and all I can think about is that maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I ruined my whole relationship with Kyle. At least I helped Jer with his problems though he didn't really help me. I was really afraid that I was going to lose Kyle that I already had.