Leap of Faith

Day Thirty-Five

*~*~* Cate *~*~*

“You know,” Landon Harries observed at break, pointing at my body. “This is the first Wednesday in weeks since you’ve turned up to school uninjured.”

I laugh good-naturedly, but it was hard to argue with Landon’s comment. Given that I’ve been excused from gym class and had been relegated to yoga instead, it would be next to impossible to injure myself. Although, I’m pretty sure that if there is a way of injuring yourself in yoga, I’ll be the one to find it.

“Yeah, Cate,” Colton Spiller chimed in. “It’s nice to have you in one piece for a change.”

TJ laughed from by my side and wrapped a protective arm around my waist, settling me at his side as I rest my head against his shoulder. I hated to admit that I had grown fond of TJ’s friends, because despite their pleasantries towards me, they were still TJ’s friends at the end of the day. If TJ and I were to go our separate ways, the guys would surely go with TJ, and I knew I would miss their presence in my life.

I hadn’t spoken to Georgie in days and it was the longest we had ever gone without speaking. I don’t think we’re going to talk anytime soon either. When Georgie passed me in the hallway between classes this morning, instead of smiling and waving as usual, my best friend scowled and turned her face away from me. I wondered if I should take the initiative and apologize to her, but from where I stood she was the one in the wrong, not me.

The more I thought about the situation, the more I started to think about what type of person I am. I had always been a different person around different people, and I’ve lost sight of who I really am. I had always been grateful to Georgie for befriending me, even though I was a freak, and I would have done anything to keep our friendship. I had allowed Georgie to mold me into her puppet, never really minding that she hardly knew anything about me. Because Georgie likes to listen to anything and everything in the Billboard 100, I pretended to like that type of music myself. Georgie was obsessed with romantic comedies and couldn’t get enough of anything with Cameron Diaz in it. I hated Cameron Diaz, and rom-coms were my idea of a nightmare, but I made out like they were my favorite because they were her favorites.

Georgie and I had been to Hell and back throughout our friendship, especially the death of her mother, and it had created this bond that I had always thought was unbreakable. I get that friendships have to be tested, but I’d hoped that ours would be one to survive all the odds.

Had I been wrong?

“What are you thinking?”  TJ nudges my side as he walks me to class.

“Georgie,” I sigh out her name. I wipe my eyes wearily, too tired to even think straight anymore when it comes to fighting for my friendship. “I don’t like fighting with her, but I don’t think I should be the one to apologize.”

TJ looks away awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck before he frowns down on me. “I spoke to Grey about you and Georgie,” he announces with a wince. That didn’t sound good. “For the most part, we’re trying to keep out of it, but we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or at least, Grey is. He says that Georgie is too stubborn to apologize.”

I nod. “Yeah, that sounds like her.”

I reach up onto my tiptoes and give TJ a quick kiss goodbye before entering my class. I couldn’t concentrate all that much on what was being taught, and my mind drifted away every few minutes only to come back to reality in a daze.  It went this way through third and fourth period, and carried on through to lunch.

I stabbed at my salad continuously, but never brought any of it to my mouth to eat. The guys watched me with amusement in their eyes. I’m not sure what was so funny about my irritation, but they laughed every now and then and shook their heads at me.