Dear Diary, it wasn't love

24

Dear Diary,

It has been a few days since the Halloween Hall, and let me tell you. It's been fucking awkward.

Ryder hasn't even spent one night with me since, and his replies are vague, if at all.

I tried to ask him if I did something to upset him that morning after the camp, but he told me that everything was fine. Then, he jumped into Jasper's Jeep and left without even a hug. Leaving me and Perri to drive away in my car, very fucking confused.

"Still nothing?" Perri asks me quietly so that our professor won't overhear.

We're in Psychology, and my shitty mood has been on display for all to see.

"He's acting really strange, P." I frown.

"Maybe he's going through some family stuff? Isn't his brother back this week?"

I almost forgot about Reese's return to Portland, but she is right. He is due to land sometime this week, so maybe that's what has Ryder all moody.

"I guess."

"Hey, don't start thinking shit in that gorgeous head of yours, okay? He's crazy about you." She tries to reassure me before the professor gives us both a knowing stare, making us shut up for the remainder of the class.

Once class is finished, Perri and I make our way towards the coffee house before our next class.

"Do you have time to sit?" she asks me once we grab our drinks from the barista.

"You're the one with a demanding lab at this time, you tell me." I smile for the first time today.

"Please, I am so ahead of that shit. I have my professor eating out of the palm of my hand, babe. I can afford to be late." She takes an empty seat and I follow suit.

"How are classes going?" she asks when I don't say anything.

"I'm doing great. I'm not even worried." I tell her honestly.

Although dating Ryder and enjoying a bunch of sorority events has been distracting – to say the least, – my grades have not suffered for it. In fact, I'm doing as well as I could hope for.

"Any news from the rents?"

"Last I checked, they were in Bangkok. Something about a fish and foot remedy? I swear, my mother is going to bring back the weirdest shit from all of these places." I laugh.

"I know the one! You place your feet in a tub of tiny fish, and they eat away at the dead skin. It's quite painful, actually. Mom tried it last year." She tells me.

I laugh. Of course, mom wants it because Hattie had it.

"Incoming. Incoming." Perri's face falls dramatically and she chokes on her iced-coffee.

Knowing that there could only be two people who she's worried about me seeing right now, I sit up straight and pray that it's my boyfriend and not his step-sister.

"Baby Salinger. You look flushed." Cassie's annoying-as-hell voice bounces off the walls in the small space.

"Cassie," I say without turning to look at her.

Instead, I stay focused on Perri's reactions, and get the feeling that it isn't just Cassie standing behind me.

"Charlize," the voice I haven't heard in a couple of days speaks up, causing my heart to stir, and my body to turn.