Bet Me

Chapter 23

2 chapters in one day, wow, i'm on a roll. Don't expect this to happen a lot though. I also wanted to mention that this book is going to be coming to an end soon. I'm excited to wrap up my first book and begin my second one. 

“I’ll pick you up in like 20 minutes, and we’ll go to the nail salon.” I told the girls as I headed towards my car. After the senior awards today, we decided to cut school and go home. I dropped off the girls at Beth’s house and now I was heading home to go change before we went to the salon. I don’t want my nice shirt to get ruined. I usually had back up clothes in my trunk, but I’ve been getting lazy recently. The end of the year is so close that it’s become painful.  

It’s been 3 weeks since we came back from Catalina Island and it’s been quite a boring 3 weeks for me. Tomorrow was prom and I was dreading going. When we had gotten back from the Island, everything changed for all of us.

On the day we left the Island, I had convinced Megan into sitting in the passenger seat next to James while I rode in the back seat of his car with Sierra and Beth. Clark and Zach rode with Luke and we made it home without any troubles. As soon as we reached James’ house, I quickly grabbed mine and Megan’s bags and Megan and I left without saying anything to James or Luke.

By the time I dropped Megan off at her house and headed home, it was only 2 in the afternoon. When I got home, I saw that my parent’s had gone to Apple Valley for the weekend, so I had the house to myself. I went into my room and flopped onto my bed. I might have dozed off because next thing I knew, I was startled by my phone ringing. Without looking at the caller ID, I answered it. “Hello?” I said, my voice sounding groggy. “Hey, were you sleeping?” I heard the caller ask. “Yeah,” I answered. “Oh, sorry, I’ll call back later then.” The caller said. “No, no, it’s fine. I’m awake now.” I said, moving the phone from my ear to make sure that the caller was James.

“Are you sure?” He asked. “Yeah.” I said, sitting up on my bed. “Okay. Well, I called because you left so quickly that I didn’t get to talk to you.” He said. “Oh, yeah. Sorry. I had to get home quickly before my parents left.” I lied. “Oh,” he said, sounding as if he didn’t believe me. “Yeah.” I said awkwardly. There was an awkward pause and just as I began to speak, James also started talking. “Oh, sorry, you first.” He said. “No, it’s fine. You go, I insist.” I tell him.

“Okay,” he started, sounding a bit nervous, “I know things have been a little edgy this past week and I want to apologize for everything. I was hoping that we could meet up tonight and talk?” he asked me. “Um, sure.” I said, not really sounding convincing. “Oh, I mean, if you want to. We don’t have to.” He said, sounding a bit disappointed. I took a second and realized that I should probably get it over with. I needed to tell him that we can’t ever be the same. He needed to know that what happened over break changes everything.

“No, James. We can meet up tonight, actually, we need to meet up tonight.” I say. “Oh, okay.” He said, sounding a bit hopeful. I felt bad that he thought this conversation was going to be good. “How about I pick you up and we go to a restaurant?” he asks me. “Um, actually, how about we just meet up at the park, around 6?” I suggest. “Um, okay. If that’s what you want.” He says, sounding a bit confused. “Okay. I’ll see you in a little bit. Bye.” I say. “Bye.” He says, hanging up. I sighed deeply and looked at the time. It was 4:30. I had about an hour and a half to figure out what I was going to say to him.