Seven

After school, Ashlyn, Tomas, and I took the bus to the apartments, we went to the playground. I climbed onto the monkey bars, Ashlyn stood at one side of them and Tomas at the other. Ashlyn asked "So what's going on with you guys." My hands slipped and I landed on my feet; I pulled my shirt down and turned to her "Nothing." Tomas started climbing the bars "Nope. Everything is fine." Then she said "Okay then. What's going on with Ryan?" Tomas fell down beside me "Yeah what's going on?" I glared at him when he smirked, knowing he told Ashlyn about Ryan. I stood on my toes and grabbed the bars again "Nothing." I flipped myself and put my shoes on the bars hanging upside down "I was only his guide for that day." Tomas chuckled "You were nearly holding his hand in gym." One of my feet slipped but I caught myself before I fell "No. You assumed that."

Suddenly we both forgot Ashlyn was standing there, he scoffed "You may as well be. You were protective over him thinking I wanted to fight him." I climbed down "No. You and Jake both started circling him like he was your prey." Before Tomas said anything, Ashlyn cut off our argument "Guys!" Our glares stayed glued on each other then I started laughing. He looked at me confused "What?" I caught my breath "You were kissing Amanda but became jealous because my hand was inches from Ryan's but that's worse?" Ashlyn spoke again "Can we stop fighting? You guys need to talk about it without fighting."

It was getting dark, so Ashlyn had to go home; Tomas and I sat on the grass but didn't talk. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed "I shouldn't have said that. Just wanted to make you jealous." I shrugged my shoulder and pulled at the grass "I don't care. I don't own you, so it didn't work; not much we can do about it." He looked at me "We were fine until my dad said something." I grabbed a dandelion "I'll always be your friend so you haven't lost me for good, we need to learn how to talk to each other." He looked down but looked back at me "If he makes you happy then I won't ruin that for you." I looked at his brown eyes that shimmered from the reflection of the moon "I hardly know him." He looked away "You hardly knew me."

I sighed "True. I hope she makes you happy. Amanda is nice underneath the mean girl act." He looked up at the sky "I just said yes to make you jealous." I looked up and sighed "Shouldn't be with someone you don't like." He looked back at me "She's friends with Kylie and she's needy." I smirked glancing down at him "And I'm not? I had a nightmare and ran to you like a scared little kid." We both chuckled, and he licked his bottom lip "That's not needy, I mean she drags me along like an accessory and it's annoying, you were more cute than needy."

I tried to avoid talking about myself "I could've told you that." He moved closer "What if you and I gave it another try." I sat quietly and looked at the stars, he looked away "Take that as a no." I laid back on the grass "You have a girlfriend, just see how that goes." He looked at me "I can't be with her Casey, she is nuts and too attached to me. I don't like her."

I sat up "You're just getting to know her, you haven't been dating her for even a day now. Give it time." He started getting upset "I don't need to give it time. I know who I want and who I like." I didn't say anything, just sat quietly. He stood up "We should go home, my dad will be home soon and we don't want to get in trouble." I stood up. He grabbed my hand and dragged me along. He started running through the grass and dragged me behind him; I planted my feet in the grass "Babe! Stop!"

He stopped "So I'm babe now?" I blushed "It was an accident." He smiled "I don't mind it." He swung his arm, making my arm swing with it "Let's go home, dork." We walked through the field to the street holding hands. We walked up to his driveway, his dad wasn't home yet; I went to my room and he went to his room to change. I was sitting on the bed on my laptop when he came in and sat down "He's still not home, he might be working late again."

I closed my laptop "Maybe." He stood beside me "Are you hungry? We can cook something?" I moved my laptop over to the dresser, and he grabbed my laptop from me "I won't be mad at you if you choose to be with him. You should be happy and if he does that for you then go for it." I brushed my hair back "Ryan is nothing important, he's cool to be around but he's not..." I paused. I looked up and caught eyes with him.

He climbed on the bed, gently wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, and pulled me to his face, he stopped kissing me for a few seconds "I know I've only known you a few months, but those few months feel like years, I don't care what anyone says because I can feel how strong my feelings are for you." I bit my lip "Really?" He smiled and nodded his head "I love you, Casey." He laid me back onto the bed and continued kissing me leading things to become more but we didn't care. I'd already chosen him for this moment.

We lie in my bed kissing until we heard the garage door open, he jumped up, threw his shorts on, and sat at the end of the bed with my math book open right before his dad came in. He looked in the door "Sorry guys I'm late, there's pizza on the counter." Tomas looked up "Thanks Dad, we were just studying for math." Rob went to his room, Tomas looked at me "Want pizza?" I kept my head down avoiding eye contact after what happened "Yeah." He chuckled "That was close. I'll get you a piece, we can talk about this later."

He got up and went downstairs, I got up and went to the bathroom to shower before he came back. I sat on the bed and brushed my wet hair, he came in with two paper plates; he sat next to me "Want some red pepper?" I dried my hair with the towel "Sure." He handed me a handful of them "Just grabbed a handful." Rob stood in the doorway "Hey Casey, so I talked to your mom and she said you could stay here next year if you don't want to move. I'm fine with that if you don't want to give up that captain's position."

Tomas looked at me "Captain position? You got captain for next year?" I frowned "I don't want it; I wouldn't be a good captain." Rob came in "I don't believe that, you were a good leader at the tryouts." I smiled "Thank you, Rob." He returned a smile "Don't stay up too late." He went to his room, Tomas got up "I'm going to go to take a shower and go to bed, goodnight." I yawned "Goodnight." I laid my head on the pillow and closed my eyes, thinking about what had happened. Part of me felt guilty and the other was in shock. I made things worse by not stopping him.