Three's Company

3.22 | Three Strange Occurrences

Three Strange Occurrences

acquaintance: [uh-kweyn-tns]; noun; a person known to one, but usually not a close friend.

"Who keeps texting you?" Sasha asked as she and Caleb sat down on the couch on a Friday night towards the end of junior year, "Your phone's been buzzing non-stop since I got here."

Caleb shook his head, his face turning red.

"I don't want to say."

Sasha raised her eyebrows; that response wasn't something that made her feel very confident in what her boyfriend was doing. She nudged him in the side until he looked over.

"What's going on, Caleb?"

Caleb pulled his phone out and handed it to his girlfriend, shaking his head as he did so.

"Just don't tell Ethan."

Sasha nodded before turning the phone on and seeing that he had _____ new text messages, every single one of them from Scarlet Levings--his best friend's girlfriend.

"And you're sure you want me to read these?"

"Well, I haven't replied to any of them, so I have nothing to hide." Caleb replied, shrugging. "It's just embarrassing and I don't know what to do about Ethan."

Sasha opened the Messages app and scrolled through the messages, reading a few before feeling like she was going to be sick.

Ethan's at the gym and I'm bored, do you want to come over?

Caleb, answer me. You know that we're friends!

I'm so bored. Can we please hang out?

Did I see on Instagram that you're with Sasha right now? Do you guys really have to do everything together?

Caleb, it's not cheating just to hang out. I'm so bored!

Sasha gave the phone back and shook her head.

"Just ignore her, babe. Clearly she and Ethan are going through something right now and she's trying to make him jealous. I'm sorry."

Caleb nodded.

"You know that you're the best girlfriend a guy could ever have, right?"

Sasha laughed, leaning over and kissing his cheek.

"As long as I'm better than Scarlet Levings."

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"Scarlet Levings, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You sound like my father, Caleb." Scarlet rolled her eyes as she sat down next to the basketball player, "I would prefer it if you didn't."

Caleb unconsciously moved a few inches away from her as she sat down next to him on the benches outside of the school building--he wasn't quite sure how comfortable he was with talking to his best friend's ex-girlfriend. It was a Sunday morning and he had taken a break during his morning run to sit outside the school and relax by himself.

"What's up?" Caleb tried a different greeting, this time seeming to gain Scarlet's favor.

"Not much." She replied, "I guess I'm just a bit more broken up about the break up than I thought I was on Friday."