Fighting First Love

What the heck?

This chapter is dedicated to all the fans who have shown their support for me in their kind messages and comments. 

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Arriving at this party felt much different from the one I entered about a month ago. At that time my heart was hurting and all I wanted to do was forget. 

Tonight my heart was excited and I was anxious to see Caleb. I needed to find out just what he heard and make him understand that whatever he was thinking, it was wrong. He was the one I loved and wanted to be with. Now I just needed to find him so I could do just that.

Although I dressed up for tonight, I kept it classy. Leah and Keri were sporting dresses. Keri’s was a tube style, no doubt inspired by Leroy’s attraction to them, where as Leah’s was an off the shoulder dress that stopped at her knees. I, on the other hand, went the skinny jeans route in a pale blue with my knee high black boots. I topped it with a cute black vest top and pink tank under it. I left my hair down and flowing while keeping my make up light. I planned on doing a lot of making out with Caleb tonight so a heavy application would be pointless. He’d end up wearing it at the close of the night if things went well.

That’s what had me nervous. Would tonight end in disaster like the first party, but instead of a fight, would I leave here having lost yet another love?

The answer was no. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

With determination I stalked into the house of one of our classmates ready to get my man. 

“Get him girl, I’m gonna go hunt down mine,” Keri said with a wink.

“I think I found mine and yours,” Leah pointed towards the back corner of what looked like the family room. Sure enough, there was Bryce and Caleb along with a few other guys. Koa, Lance, and Spencer were there too, knocking back a couple shots. By the way Caleb stumbled a little after his shot, it was evident that he’d been knocking them back for awhile.

We all joined the guys, saying a few congratulations to them as we did. Bryce immediately leaned in for a peck on Leah’s cheek, but as I sidled next to Caleb he barely glanced my way. I figured he was just enjoying himself, so I let it go sending a smile in Koa’s direction when he shot me a curious look.

“Has anyone seen Leroy?” Keri asked the group.

“He was here a minute ago, he just went for a refill. He should be back soon,” was Spencer’s response. Keri nodded, probably not wanting to search for him and risk missing him in the crowd.

Five minutes and a couple more shots later with no acknowledgement from Caleb had me seething. What the hell was his problem? Deciding it was way past time I found out and not caring whether I looked like a clingy girlfriend, I finally demanded his attention.

Gently tugging on his shirt sleeve, which I couldn’t help but notice hugged his biceps very well, I called to him, “Caleb. Do you think we could go outside for a minute? There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

He didn’t say anything at first, then sent Bryce a meaningful stare before nodding his head indicating I should follow him. I looked at Bryce and he gave me an almost apologetic look before turning to Leah. It was hard to mistake the stiltedness of the moment, something I was certain Keri picked up on as she gently squeezed my arm in encouragement before I followed Caleb.