Just Friends

Chapter 15

Maria woke up but kept her eyes closed. She was leaning against something warm. She opened her eyes in shock...crap she had fallen asleep on Colms shoulder. She moved slowly then felt him move. Crap, he was awake. 

"Umm sorry, hope I didn't drool on you" 

She looked at where her head had been but didn't see any evidence of drool. Phew

Colm smiled at her and looked at his shoulder

"Nope, no drool. You didn't make a show of yourself....well unless you consider talking in your sleep embarrassing?"

Maria's eyes widened "Noooo, what did I say?"

He was laughing now "Oh nothing much really...just about how much you're going to miss me when you go to college" 

Maria rolled her eyes and slapped his arm

"Ok now I know you're joking. You almost had me" 

A look flashed over Colms face but it was gone nearly as quickly as it came. Maria stood up and stretched. She looked at her watch to check the time 11:37pm. She wondered if it was too late to put one of those pizza's on. She was getting kind of hungry now. 

"Do you think it's too late to stick on a pizza?" 

Colm patted his stomach "You must have read my mind, I was just thinking the same thing." 

They went into the kitchen together and picked the BBQ chicken and bacon pizza. Maria put it onto the pizza tray and into the oven. Colm put two cans of coke into the freezer for them to cool quickly while they were waiting for the food. 

"Thanks again for today...and tonight. I'm glad you were here when Keith came. I don't know how I would have handled it if I had been here alone." 

He smiled and pulled her towards him into a hug

"No problem Brat, always here if you need me" 

Maria felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw a notification for 23 messages. One of them was from her Mam asking if she was ok and apologising for not getting to spend more time with her on her birthday. The other 22 were from Keith. Her eyes widened and Colm asked if she was ok. 

"Yeah all good. Just got a message from my Ma and saw there's 22 other messages from Keith"

"Twenty two? How did you not feel the vibration of that?" 

Maria laughed "I have him muted, I still get the messages but they don't pop up on the screen" 

She scrolled through the messages, she was half way through when another came through. 

Thank you for finally reading my messages. Please please please can we just talk? I know it's too late now your parents are probably sleeping but tomorrow sometime? Please Maria.

She rolled her eyes, he must have seen that she had opened the messages and was reading them. She missed him but she didn't want to see him. How can she feel so differently about the same person. 

The timer on the oven dinged making them both jump. Maria laughed 

"Lets eat"

They sliced up the pizza and went back into the front room. Maria scrolled through Netflix before settling on an episode of i-Zombie. Half way through the episode her phone rang. It was unknown number, she wondered who would ring this late. 

"Do you think it's him?" Colm was looking at her, he looked annoyed.

"I'm not sure, it could be but what if it's my Ma? she might be ringing from the hospital. They don't always have their number on show."

She decided to answer it

"Hello?" 

"Maria please, don't hang up. I just want to talk" 

She rolled her eyes but relaxed slightly. She didn't want to talk to him but she had been afraid it was her Ma calling from work to say something was wrong. 

"Keith...why do you have your number blocked?" 

Colm moved closer to her at the mention of Keiths name. He looked concerned and annoyed at the same time. Maria smiled at him reassuringly as she listened to Keith.

"I knew you wouldn't answer if you saw my number. I just want to explain, please give me a few minutes."

Maria sighed "I'm not interested Keith. I don't want an explanation, I just want you to please, leave me alone."

"Please Maria, just 10 minutes" 

She put her hand over the speaker 

"He wants to meet tomorrow to explain....if I say yes will you come with me please? You can stay in the car but I just...I'd like if you were near. Please."

Colm nodded his head "Of course" 

"Ok Keith, 10 minutes tomorrow in the rose garden at the park....I've asked Colm to come with me, he'll wait in the car but he'll be there" 

"How did you ask him so quickly....wait is he still there with you?"

"I'm going now, I'll see you tomorrow at the bench, 10 am"

She pressed end call and put the phone face down on the coffee table. She knew Colm was dying to know what was happening so she told him from the beginning. He smiled when he heard Keith had asked about him still being in the house. 

"He probably thinks there's something going on between us" Maria laughed 

Colm let out a breath "He's not the only one, your parents think it too" 

They watched the rest of their show and finished the pizza before Maria decided she was going to bed. Colm went upstairs to use the bathroom. As he finished and walked out Maria walked past him into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She was wearing her pyjama's. Despite the cold weather outside, the house was warm so she wore short pyjamas. 

"Goodnight Colm" 

"Night Brat"

Colm's POV

He gulped as he walked to the spare room, Maria was definitely growing up. Her pyjama tank was filled out in all of the right places. Her shorts stretched across her backside and rode up the back of her legs. He sat down on the bed, head in hands and took a few deep breaths. He needed to get over this. She was 17....he had known her since she was 14...he needed to figure out how to stop finding her attractive.

He sighed heavily and lay down on the bed that Maria had pulled out for him while he was in the bathroom. He could get a faint smell of the soap she uses off the pillow, inhaling deeply as he lay down. He fell asleep after an hour or two, his last thoughts before he dozed off were of Maria laughing and smiling walking around with a balloon tied to her jeans.