Way Forward (GirlxGirl) [E-book available on MEB]

Are you asking me out?

"Are you alright?"

Travis finally asks when his hike with Nicole is occupied by too much silence. The sound of the chirping birds and the blowing leaves becomes so loud and clear that it almost hurts his ears. He looks at the girl who is covered in sweats and troubles before pausing his steps. The hike, that once was an activity they did to enjoy nature and get fresh air to cure their long week at school, turns to be an activity they do to unload their heavy minds and finds paths to get out of the maze they are in.

Nicole turns and places her hand on her forehead in order to lift her troubling mind. "I was at Shawn's sister's apartment last night and there was... this... hmm... the baseball cap at her place."

Travis lifts up his tiring leg after quite a distance of hiking and rests it on a rock nearby. He starts stretching while furrowing his eyebrows. "The baseball cap?"

"It's Charlie's cap." Nicole whispers. She knows she sounds ridiculous right now but it is not something that she can let it fly through her mind very easily.

"It's Charlie's cap?" Travis repeats and changes it into a question again. It is not that he didn't hear it the first time. He just wants to repeat it to make sure that Nicole hears how strange she sounds right now. The entire story might not be something he knows but the assumption is something he knows Nicole is leading.

"You know." Nicole takes a sit on that rock Travis has turned into his foot rest and tries to make herself sound a bit saner about the whole thing. "The little league cap she likes to wear."

Travis chuckles and crosses his arms. "Which Charlie is the only person who owns it."

"Oh." Nicole whines in frustration and slaps Travis' leg hard enough to take it fall from the rock. "It is hers. They practically kissed right in front of you. And. And now her thing popped up at her place."

"They slept together? That's what you're saying?"

"I don't know." Nicole sighs. She doesn't want to jump into any conclusion but every piece of information in her hand suggest so. She knows that Charlie will have to move on like she has but when it does happen, somehow it is rather hard to swallow. "Yes. I guess."

Travis sits on the tiny space that is left on the rock and stretches his long legs out. Then, he offers his friend a drink from a bottle he carries with him; to chill her mind and calm her soul. When the drink is denied, he sips a bit before laying out this argument. "Why are you even bothered? She is moving on like you did."

"I'm not bothered." Nicole lies with the voice that barely leaves her vocal cord. She is bothered too much and she can't just accept it. It hasn't been long enough but she knows enough that the younger Stefanelli is as broken as Charlie if not more. Two broken souls sometimes find one another to heal one another. "It's just..."

"It's just she is your boyfriend's sister?"

"He is not my boyfriend." Nicole denies so vigorously as she becomes so tired of hearing it.

Travis chuckles. "One among other things that you and Charlie are not on the same page. She seems to think that he is."

"Charlie is..." Nicole struggles for words to describe both her feelings and Charlie. It becomes so frustrating that she could scream to just release some out of her system. "She is different."

Travis nods slowly as he decides to keep the rest of his opinion to himself. He has nothing against Charlie but he is not afraid to share his brutal comments on her. He can do it over and over again but the problem is Nicole is too stubborn when it comes to Charlie. She refuses to believe that Charlie hasn't changed. She refuses to believe that there is no way they will go back to the friendship path they left behind.