Catch Me, I'm Falling in Love

Chapter 7

Cornelia raised her head. "Irma... I think I love him..."

Irma looked at one of her best friends with a skeptical, surprised, shocked look. She had never thought those words would come out of Cornelia's mouth. Not ever!

Cornelia looked deeply at Irma, why didn't she answer?

Irma crossed her arms. She looked through her friend to see what this was. "And you are sure about that?"

Cornelia felt the slightest hurt, "why would I lie about that?"

Irma was really feeling like she'd entered a parallel world. Cornelia never cared for others. Never!

"Well why are you telling me then? Shouldn't you be telling him this?" Irma looked up and met a pair of extremely shocked, happy, green eyes. A smile crept to her lips. "Because I think you'll get a positive response."

Cornelia sank down next to the front door. "You weren't here ten minutes ago... it was like all hell broke loose again." She brushed a tear away, just as the doors swept open.

Through the door came Hay Lin, Taranee and Will with their bags and big smiles that faded as soon as they saw Cornelia.

A door shut and all the girls' eyes went towards the sound. "What are you looking at?"

The girl turned and faced a confused Elyon. "Oh nothing really..." Taranee answered and Elyon raised her eyebrow at Cornelia, who started crying as she saw her best friend.

Will stood up, "I think we should let Elyon talk to Cornelia." She pushed the rest away and motioned for them to go into the kitchen.

"Will you excuse me, I'm gonna go... get something." Irma left the kitchen and went upstairs.

Elyon hugged Cornelia and wiped her tears away. "Cornelia... honey... what happened?"

With effort Cornelia sat up to look at Elyon. "He promised he would take care of me." Elyon's face lit up. "Then when I asked for something to drink, he just snapped."

Elyon scowled at the stairs. Nobody had the right to hurt Cornelia this way. Yeah she might be a cold ass drama queen, but for those she cared for, she had a big warm heart. And she had really believed that Caleb cared for her.

"I'm so sorry Corny... I wish there was something I could do..." Elyon stroked Cornelia's hair and kissed her friend on the top of her head. "But he's a guy, Cornelia. Guys are stupid. And they do stupid things."

Cornelia slowly started calming down, but her eyes were still streaming with tears. "I don't know what to do anymore Elyon. I tried hating him, but I just started loving him instead." She brushed her tears away. "I thought he felt the same way but apparently not."

***

Irma slowly opened the door to Cornelia's room, and entered it while carefully closing the door behind her.

Caleb was sitting on his bed with his face buried in his hands. He looked up shortly, sighed heavily and returned to the same position as before. "I don't know what to do Irma."

A snort came from the petite brunette and Irma crossed her arms. "Well for starters you should grow up." She leaned her back against the door and looked at Caleb across the room. "And then secondly you should explain yourself."

He looked up with a sad look upon his face. "What is there to explain, Irma? I'm in love with her. Have been for a long time now. Probably longer than I want to admit."

Irma rose up and approached him. "Well then get off of that bed and go down and tell her!" "Be a man for once Caleb, she needs that."

"I can't!"

"What?" Irma stopped up confused.

Caleb looked up again, this time with pain written all over his face. "I can't... we can't... it just can't happen."

"Alright now you've got me all confused boy."

"Irma we can't love each other. I can't love her. It's wrong. We're supposed to live like siblings. Then it would all work out better."

Irma sighed in frustration. "What are you talking about!?"

"You don't understand. It could go wrong in so many ways. And I don't want that to happen. I'd rather be friends with her than enemies. And it seems like the passion that turned into love, came from all our fights." "It's messed up."

"Well you know what?" Irma said irritated. "Life is messed up. Get over yourself. Besides I think you've gone way over friends."

"What do you want me to say Irma? That it will all be perfect if I go down and fix it now? Because it won't. Her and I are better off hating each other. At least it won't affect anything when I have to leave one day."

Irma turned on her heel and walked towards the door. She stopped briefly and looked at Caleb. "You know what? You don't even deserve her." Irma turned and slammed the door shut.

Behind it Caleb mumbled; "I don't."

***

The girls looked up at the stairs to see Irma run down them.

"Cornelia I love you and I feel so sorry for you, but the only thing I can tell you to do is get the hell over him. He's a toad who doesn't deserve you, and he's so not worth your tears. And to make you happy, I declare this evening to be girl's night!"

Cornelia looked at her friend, whatever she and Caleb had talked about had made her angry, which meant it couldn't be good. She looked sad. It could never be then. She'd just have to face it.

"You're right." She said. "He was easier to hate anyways." As Cornelia looked up, it was as if she had never shed a tear. Her face was clear and dry, she had a plastered smile on her face, but it was such a good fake that anyone who wasn't her best friend couldn't have told the difference. "Let's get this party started then!"

Will looked at Elyon with a "what now?" look, but Elyon just shook her shoulders.

"Play along," Hay Lin whispered to them both and the three girls joined the others around the TV with bowls of popcorn and potato chips.