Selfishly Possessive

Chapter Twenty-Seven

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: OCTOBER 16TH, 2016

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

            After a few days of searching for Griffyn to tell him how I feel, finding him, then chickening out and basically running away, I decided that I'd just get it all over with on Thursday.

            That way if things went bad, I could skip school Friday and have a longer weekend to recover from the extreme embarrassment rejection will have caused me. 

            Nonetheless, the walk into school on Thursday was a nerve-racking one. 

            "You're okay," Parker is saying as we walk into the school. "Just calm down. Griff is your best friend. You should be able to tell him anything, even if it is to tell him about your undying love for hi-- Okay, I can't do this, it's just too weird to pep talk you into telling my brother that you like him." Parker shudders and points to Carolina who walks on the other side of me. 

            "Your turn for the pep talk, Queen C," Park uses her new nickname for Carolina. "I'll be by my locker, trying not to hurl while wondering how things are going with Carson and my brother."

             "Oh, just stop babbling, you drama queen and go." Carolina shoves Parker away and rolls her eyes with a laugh. 

            She then turns to me and puts her hands on my shoulders, halting us both in mid-step. "Okay, Cara. You got this. You've only been lusting over him for months now. You've just got to get this all out of your system and you'll feel better. Whatever happens from there is all fate."

            "Wow, you're really improving at this pep talk and advice thing." I say, giving her an impressed look. 

            "Thanks." She flips her hair and gives me a grin. "I've been taking notes. But don't mistake this for selflessness or anything. I'm still selfish. And to remind you of that, I'm stealing this lipstick that you wore yesterday and let me borrow because it makes me look hot!"

            I laugh and shake my head at her, not really bothering because I know she'll give it back when I ask for it. "Whatever."

            "Now, go get him, Tiger!" She gives me a weird meow and saunters off towards Parker, probably to wait with her for me to get talking with Griff over with. 

            I turn away from my two friends and focus my gaze on my best friend standing on the other end of the hall near his locker. I take a deep breath to try to calm my nerves. 

            I can do this. No big deal.

            Before I know it, my feet are moving towards him and I'm standing in front of him. "Um, hi." I squeak out, hoping that this time he'll actually respond to me.

            Griff looks up at me and closes his locker slowly. But he doesn't walk away, which I see as a good sign. "Hi."

            "So, I have something to tell you..."

            He raises his eyebrow, but doesn't say anything. I take this as my cue to start talking. I tell him about going to the lake this summer, I tell him about my dad leaving, about my becoming friends with Carolina, and about Carolina's schemes to get revenge on him. 

            And after a bit of hesitation, I finally gather up the courage to tell him about when I realized I had fallen for him and about why I pushed him away. 

            "I kind of like you, a little. Okay, a lot. But I was scared because I didn't want to ruin our friendship for silly feelings that didn't even work out for my own parents. But I may have ended up ruining our friendship anyway."