Just Good Friends (18+)

Ch. 16: If I could high-five the stars

Amelia looked like she wanted to run up to me and slap my face, but she didn't. By the look in her eyes, I could tell she'd figured out I was the one who kissed her, but I wasn't sure what to make of her reaction. If she asked me why, I didn't have any answer to why I did that. It had been a sudden and uncontrollable rush of jealousy when she called his name in search of comfort and not mine. She was scared and alone, and that bastard didn't give a shit. So when he came out without her, I suppressed the urge to rearrange his face and ran back inside.

It was purely coincidental that I found her in one of the paintball rooms. I had no idea how she got there because it wasn't a part of the Halloween arrangement, and I barely heard her above the loud music and noises from adjacent rooms. And when I stepped into the darkness to find her, my first intention was to talk to her and make her understand what a piece of shit her so-called boyfriend was. How he managed to keep his fingers off her wearing those tight leather pants was something I'd never understand. Seeing her doing so much to get his attention without succeeding was honestly painful. She even dyed her hair blue, for crying out loud! If I didn't know any better, I'd believe the man was gay.

"Amelia!" I shouted when she ran off, and my sudden outburst made the small crowd she and Axel had gathered turn to look at me. I ignored them. I could see Kaitlyn was about to run after her, but she hesitated just long enough to give me time to run first. "Amelia! Stop!"

But she didn't. I wasn't even sure if she heard me when I called for her, and after running down the dimly lit road, she took a hard right and disappeared into the darkness. And when I caught up to where she'd left the road, I saw a narrow path that led to God knows where. I'd never been down here before, and I doubted she had either. Then there was the million-dollar question, why she ran off into somewhere dark when she normally feared the darkness. She clearly wasn't thinking straight.

"Amelia! Dammit!"

I ran after her as fast as I could and tripped on a branch that was lying on the ground and almost crashed into a small tree. I stumbled through the vegetation and tried to keep up with her, and it actually impressed me how well she managed, despite being blinded by what probably was one of her panic attacks. I could hear her footsteps against the gravel, quick and uneven, until they disappeared for a few seconds when she stepped onto grass or moss. What the hell was she thinking, running off into the bushes in the middle of the night?

"Oh, for fuck's sake! Just stop!" I yelled, and to my surprise, she did. Either that or she'd run off to a place with only moss on the ground so I couldn't hear her footsteps. Now, I only heard my heart pounding in my ears while I held my breath and tried to locate her.

"Amelia!"

There it was. A little sniffle and a choked sob. I took a few deep breaths so I wouldn't pass out from the lack of oxygen, then held my breath again to make sure I was walking in the right direction. And since it seemed like she'd stopped running away from me, I picked up my phone and turned on the flashlight so I could see.

She wasn't far from the path. Sitting on the ground under a bush, she tried to make herself as small as she could by hugging her knees and hiding her face between them. And she was crying.

"Hey..." I said, because I honestly didn't know what else to say.

"You ruined everything," she mumbled into her knees in between sobs. I felt like shit. Then I got annoyed because I was done feeling like a piece of shit.

"Can we please talk?"

I'd had this conversation so many times in my head and thought about a billion ways to tell her how I truly felt about her, but standing here right now I found that not a single one of those fit. So, to buy me some time, I decided to help her up from the ground. But of course, Amelia was too stubborn to take my hand and refused to get up.