Because of You, Well, Us

Chase

I had seen him go into her house. Mr. Jackson looked thrilled to have Andy back in his house. Or maybe he had just missed him. I'd known Kate for a long time, and had known them forever, but he had never looked at me the way he looked at Andy

The lights in her room stayed on for a long time. I'd kept my curtain, but hers had closed. I had no idea what happened. Maybe I didn't want to know. While I sat at my desk, staring at her window, I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Kate had a chance at happiness. Why should I have to stay back in dreamland? I could move on too. Maybe I should ask out Lucy so that Kate could know how it felt to see a friend date a former love interest.

In the midst of my plotting revenge, I saw Andy walking down the Jackson's driveway, head down, hands in his pockets. The light went out in Kate's room. That gross feeling came back. I had to make sure she felt okay. It felt like my duty as her rebound man. Her phone rang and rang. I had a feeling she wouldn't pick up. But she did.

"Hey, Chase can I call you back later? I'm not really in a talking mood right now, lots of studying." I knew she'd lied to me, but I didn't want to press it if she didn't want to talk about it, especially with me.

"No worries. I just called to see if you were all right. I saw Andy leave and he didn't look happy. I really only care about you, though."

Kate sighed into the phone. "Andy just came back asking if we could maybe get back together. I said no." I couldn't tell if she sounded disappointed or relieved that she and Andy had broken up.

"Does he think you still like me?" I didn't know why I had asked the question, but I couldn't do anything to stop it now

Kate stayed quiet for a minute. I knew I had crossed a line by going and asking a stupid question like that.

"Yes. And he turned down Princeton."

"Wow." I said. And I left it at that. I didn't want to pry. I took this as a chance to maybe repair our friendship, and I couldn't blow it. "Are you going to be okay? Do you need me to do anything for you?" I heard some sniffling. Maybe asking had ended up another idiot thing to do.

"No, it'll end up just fine. I'm just going to go now, okay? I do have a lot of studying to do" She hung up before I could respond.

Something compelled me to drop off her favorite flowers and soup off at her house later and leave them with her dad. Bet Andy had never done that.