Driving Myself Insane (Original)

.:Driving Myself Insane:. Chapter Eight

He'd kept that note? The first time we'd ever said hello to each other? He cared about me even on that day? I have to admit, during the first few days, I thought Colby was okay. Until he showed his true-Wait, no. I guess fake-side of him and ruined it all. 

Then the tree house...It had nothing to do with me, but it was pretty impressive. I mean, from a bunch of 10 to 12 year olds, you\'ve expect a faulty, old, crappy little house that they'd managed to put in a tree, but this was better than that. It was weird, being alone with him, without trying to go for each others throats. 

We'd been in that tree house for at least two hours, talking about a bunch of random stuff. He told me about things he'd done when he was younger than I hadn\'t know. Like, for instance, he'd burned down a house. He got in trouble for it, of course, but he said it was worth it. He told me that he was pretty sure he had a picture of it somewhere around his house and that he'd find it for me later.

I told him about how my parents barely talked to each other anymore, that my mom had less time for me because of her 'perfect' husband, and that I sometimes dreamt of them getting back together, even though it was a long shot.

"If I were your mom, which would be insanely creepy by the way, I wouldn't ignore you for some dude." Colby had told me. I almost found it sweet. Then I reminded myself of the past years. 

It was weird how many times I had to remind myself of that. Whenever I felt myself slipping into that little black hole that so many other girls had fallen for, I had to remember the diary, the milkshake, anything else he\'d ever done to me. But, whenever I did that, a little annoying, nagging little voice would say He never knew how to express his feelings. It\'s not entirely his fault. I hated that. I hated having to remind myself that we weren't good for each other, even though I'd only started to get to know the 'real him' extremely recently.

The weirdest part was that I was enjoying myelf. 

Scratch that. The weirdest part was whenever I caught my eyes trailing down to his lips. It scared me. 

Colby was telling me about a time he'd freaked the living hell out of his neighbor when my phone started ringing. I pulled it out, frowning when I noticed the caller ID. 

He asked, "Who is it? Riley? Julia?" 

I shook my head, "It's my mom. That's weird. She, like, never calls."

"Well, it\'s your birthday." 

I shrugged, guessing he was right. I answered the phone and pressed it to my ear, "Mom?"

From the other end of the line, I could hear Justin asked "Did she answer?" My mom either nodded or just ignored him because I didn\'t hear an answer. Instead, she asked, "Katherine?"

"Um, yeah. Who else would it be?" My voice sounded hesitant.

"Happy birthday. I want to talk to you. In person. Alina's on her way with Tina. They said you were with your boyfriend." She made the last comment sound more like a question than a statement.