Chasing You

47

LACEY

"Carter, can you just pick a song?" Tori asks in an annoyed tone. Carter turns around in the passenger seat to shoot Rae a glare.

"Do not snap at me," she says. She turns back around and stops her music on a SZA song. Tori, Julie, Carter, and I are on the way to Virginia to see the boys play in March Madness. This is the first round and if they lose, they are out. We wanted to go because if they do lose, this will be the last time Asher, Trey, and Robbie play in college. Also the last time the boys will play on the same team.

So, this game means a lot to them.

"Carter, what are we doing for your birthday again? Q is asking," Julie asks from the backseat. Carter sighs.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about my birthday," she admits from beside me. Carter's birthday is next week and she hasn't exactly told us what she wants just yet.

"Hm, we can have people over our place? I feel like that could be fun," she suggests. I nod my head in agreement.

"Yeah I like that idea, any theme?" I ask her. I take the exit as I follow the directions to the arena. This time we got our own seats because we are surprising the boys. They have no idea we are even coming.

Braden and I are good. I haven't forgiven him yet. I'm afraid that when something bad happens or we hit a bump in the road he's going to just push me aside again. I don't want him to do that.

It's actually really fucking annoying.

Luckily we haven't had any type of bumps in the road, yet.

After we went out with everyone that night, we respectfully acted like friends. It wasn't like we were dating or anything, it was like we were friends. It was fun being able to hang out with everyone again. I had missed it a lot. More than I had realized. Now, we finally can get back to some sort of normalcy. Even if that means Braden and I aren't together at the end of this year.

"What about tequila cowboy?" Carter asks, wiggling her eyebrows. I nearly gag as Tori and Julie both groan in protest. Rae will be ecstatic about this theme because she loves tequila.

"Is the requirement drinking tequila?" Julie asks.

"No," Carter responds. I glance over at her and she has a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Maybe just one."

I grimace at the thought of a tequila shot. Tequila makes your clothes fall off. That's always what my mom told me whenever she saw a bottle of tequila. It really does though and I feel like that's really not what this friend group needs right now.

"No. I don't even want to do one," Tori protests from the backseat. I nod my head in agreement.

Tequila and our apartment never mesh well.

The red brake lights in front of us mean that there is traffic. I sigh in frustration as we roll to a stop. I have always hated traffic. Just sitting here and waiting. The song changes to a One Direction song and that perks up Carter, Julie, and I. Tori wasn't much of a Directioner in her day. As for Carter and I, we were all for One Direction.

Harry Styles will be mine one day, sorry Braden.

We sit in traffic and sing our hearts out to One Direction while Tori miserably sits beside Julie in the backseat. Once the song is over we relax. A nice silence settles over the car as we all get lost in our own thoughts. My thoughts are about everyone else's thoughts. Everyone is thinking about how much the boys leaving is going to suck. While we still have Braden and Jeremy, things won't be the same. I am thankful I get a whole other year with Braden to figure everything out rather than having to rush through everything.