Keeping Secrets (Book I)✔️

Chapter Twenty-Five

Eric:

I saw her standing there; her eyes were in the shape of big circles. She rustled her messy hair with one hand, holding a cup in the other. She didn't know what to do; I could tell by the way she was fidgeting and looking around.

I spent some time deciding whether to go over to her that night. At the time I was really unsure, my feet took me there before I had enough time to rethink it and looking back, I was glad. Once I was there, I was nervous to talk to her so I just dove right in.

"Hey Florence." I waved and as soon as I had moved my hands, I cursed myself for doing so. I looked so stupid right now!

"Hey." Was all she said, quietly at that too. She took a double take at me and then asked me a question I was asked a lot recently. I knew she was going to ask me soon enough. "What happened to your face?" I looked away from her, not wanting to answer. I had done a lot of stupid shit in my years of high school. One of those was getting into fights, it wasn't something that happened a lot but she helped me sort of well, overcome it when I met her. I learned to talk to her instead; I remember back to the first few months we had met, I just thought she was so amazing. I still did. I wished we hadn't become what we were now. I had pushed her away, didn't talk to her or open up as much in the last few months and I realised that only a little while ago, it was one of those days when all I could think about was Flo. I had those days a lot lately. I had finally got the words to speak.

"I was in a fight." I said, breathing in and out once before I added another crucial detail. "With Mick." She looked kind of shocked and I wasn't surprised. I hadn't told her much lately, which meant I hadn't talked to her about how I had grown to dislike one of my best friends since I was younger.

"What? Why?"

"He's a dumbass that's why." I tried not to sound angry but I had failed and I knew it. "And a liar."

"I don't understand?" she said, and why would she? Florence might of thought she knew a lot, but she had no idea what was going on in my head or in my life recently. It wasn't her fault either, but it was too late to start opening up and telling the truth now so I decided to let her think what she wanted to think.

"He got involved in something that wasn't his business, I mean, telling you I was with Chloe? He didn't even know what he was talking about."

"So you bet him up because he told me something I already kind of knew?" she narrowed her eyes at me and I knew she was starting to get annoyed.

"You don't even know what happened Florence? God, I'm not with Chloe, in any shape or form." I breathed out.

"I don't care, whether you are or not isn't any of my business. It never was either." She snapped. Her words made me think, made me finally push myself to say something else I had been keeping locked inside after a lot of time reflecting on our situation.

"You know, I'm sorry Florence. We shouldn't have kept us a secret. I know it was unfair of me to expect you to keep us from everyone." As soon as the words left my mouth, I was glad I said it. I was something that needed to be said, I needed her to just know that I was sorry.

"No." She looked up at me with her big round eyes and continued. "I'm sorry, it was unfair of me to not say what I wanted to say to you. I was being cowardly not telling you how I felt about some things." What the hell was she apologizing for? I felt even worse now than before. I was the coward. I was the one that didn't want to tell her or anyone else about my true feelings for her. I was crazy about her, and keeping it to myself was my way of dealing with it. But liking someone with such intensity isn't something bad, it wasn't the type of thing that needed to be dealt with either, even though I did think it was. I knew that now.