The Stroud Family and I

Chapter: 8

Chapter 8: I'm a hectic emotional rollercoaster ride

These past few weeks have gone by pretty slow. School is hard, everyone is getting into completing their finals, and we're all cramming in late night study sessions in order to get the best possible grade in that particular class. I had just gotten dismissed from my history class and was walking out the door when I felt an arm sling right over the top of my shoulders. Immediately knowing who it is, I looked up at him and smiled brightly, happy he was in my presence. Kale smiled warmly back at me and pulled me a little closer to him as we walked towards the main dinning hall for lunch.

"You look stressed."

I frowned at him as I shoved an overly fried french fry into my mouth. Blowing some hair out of my face, I replied

"And you aren't? These finals are definitely doing the best they can to make sure I get absolutely no sleep whatsoever."

"I think you're overthinking it all. You're an A+ student Cleo! you know you can do it! you know every bit of information possible about what you have learned this semester! You just overthink what you do know."

"That didn't make me feel any better Kale, but thanks for trying."

I dipped another french fry into the ketchup and right when I was about to place it into my mouth, it was suddenly ripped away from me and plopped right into Kales mouth!

"Hey! Those are my fries!"

Kale stood up, grabbed my hand and began dragging me away from the table.

"Come on Cleo, we're going somewhere, let's go."

I kept protesting, begging him to turn back and at least let me take my plate full of fries with me, but the only response I got was a short

"I'll just buy you another plate."

I guess that's better then not getting any at all, right? Anyways, we arrived in the parking lot and climbed into his truck, in which he of course opened my door for me. I don't think there has ever been a time where Kale has never not opened up my door for me. I guess you could say that for a while now, Kale and I have definitely gotten really close. There have actually been a couple times where I thought we were going to kiss, but something always happened and got in the way, therefor intervening with what was possibly going to happen. I guess it's safe to say that I like him, in fact, I really like him. He's sweet, never rude to me, and we get along really well. He always walks me back to my room at night and I think it's the sweetest thing ever.

After the night where Colton suspected I was wearing a guys jacket, in which I admittedly confessed to him that it was Kales, Colton has been a bit...shall we say, distant? He will always remember to text me at night to say goodnight, and he'll ask how my day went, but he very rarely tries to Skype me anymore.

Kale flicked the radio on and the song Shake it Off by Taylor Swift came on. I whooped in happiness, I actually love this song, even though I am not the biggest Taylor Swift fan, this one just so happens to be a favorite song of mine, and a second later, we were both belting out the lyrics. The windows were down and my hair was blowing everywhere, but I didn't really care because I felt so good, and so happy. After the song ended, Kale lowered the volume and said

"Aren't you going to ask me where I'm taking you?"

"I gave up on doing that a while ago."

I really have. The majority of times Kale has taken me somewhere, he never told me where, and after a while of questioning him, I just gave up trying, so that's why I didn't ask him this time. Plus, normally, the places he takes me are fun, so I know I can trust him.