The Way I Loved You

Chapter Five

THE DINNER had not taken long before we had all piled Lucas's car. Tammy was still acting nonchalant about the whole thing, and Lucas tried poking into her bubble but the thing about bubbles was that when you try jabbing them they tend to pour all over the place.

Fortunately, Tammy was stronger than that, but that didn't mean she was not a mess. Adam tried to lighten up the atmosphere, with silly jokes but that didn't help the situation. Rosie and I insisted he stopped because it only made things worse, even though words were not uttered, we could sense it.

Tammy was only going to play oblivious to her feelings while being mad at Lucas. Lucas was going to be all over his head trying to figure out how to make amends for the trouble that was perpetrated by Adam and not being conscious of what came out of his mouth. Numerous songs crooned from the speaker of the car, all sung by Sza, and nobody dared to switch the song the whole ride to her house, as we all knew Tammy only listened to music when she was at war with her feelings.

Tammy was the most sensitive out of all of us, even though she would scarcely admit to that, and most of the time she always made it look like things hardly affected her, when it was turning her insides upside down. As her friends, as much as we wanted her to stop playing this ruse of hers and wanted as much of her that she was hiding, we knew it was best to leave her be and be patient enough until she was ready to be candid about her feelings.

Tammy did not waste any minutes scurrying out of the car. Her excuse was that Larry needed her.

When the truth was that she needed him and would probably ugly cry at the idea of Lucas being involved with numerous girls. The thought would wreck her but she would not be able to restrain her thoughts or stop pondering about that cruel idea, as her mind was going to be her biggest hater and would make sure she self-destructed to that fictional idea.

After her departure, Lucas remained lip-shut. Rosie dashed to Tammy's seat. I made sure to glare as much as possible at Adam. Although I loved him, he kind of wrecked the mood.

He looked at me and sulked. I rolled my eyes at him and hated when a smile glided across his lips because now he knew I did not hate him. It was not his fault that this kind of occurred if we looked at it from a different angle. Tammy and Lucas just needed to be honest with their feelings and stop playing around. It only ended in ruins anyway.

It was my advice to them but I could never say it out loud when I also chose to make the same mistake as you. I gambled you, my precious boy, and lost you before I even had you. I shifted towards Adam and rested my head at the bow of his neck, and without having to say anything, his long fingers perused through my hair.

Through the window, the town spun into so many weird shapes that I barely could catch sight of a building without it making its way past my eyes.

It did not take quite a while when we dropped Rosie and Adam off at their house. Lucas's house was a bit far from mine, but I was the closest to his place so I became the last person he had to chauffeur.

I also took over the front seat, which was Tammy's designated seat, and the chair Rosie had not long ago forsaken. Lucas didn't say anything when I changed the song from Drake to Gracie Abrams.

I learned to watch the town behind the window, but I liked the sight watching. I loved looking at the stars and the way they glimmered in the blackened sky even though they were not as vast and luminous as they were before when I was younger.

It was nine o'clock in the night and so far my dad had called me multiple times throughout the times I was with my friends.

I get that because he was worried and he wasn't also familiar with my new friends. He had complained too many times about them, about how they weren't you, and I wish I hadn't experienced this feeling, but I always got mad.