Cassie's Tale on Life, Love and Loss

Chapter 5

I got tired of thinking of Axel, mainly because the thoughts started getting to'What if we break up?' and quite frankly I couldn't deal with the possibility of that happening. He is possibly the best thing to have happened to me since my life fell apart.

I headed for the door and remembered how I rushed in here after smearing ice cream on Mark's face and that being the reason I was locked in here, but there was no way he was still camping outside my door, its been almost an hour.

I crack open the door and peep out, ninja-style, and saw no one. Okay so the coast was clear. I decided to be more social with the boys, since I will be staying with them for a while and going to school with them.

Once I stepped out the door I saw Mark posted at the top of the stairs with a water gun. There was nothing I could do. My brain took too long to process this, and by the time I realized what was happening my hair was dripping. Curse my slow reaction time!

I made a suckish attempt to run back into my room, but tripped over my own foot.

"Oh your face was so worth sitting out here for an hour" Mark said holding his stomach as he folded over with his laugh. Jerk, I guess this is how it feels being the only girl in a house with four boys. Who knew guys could be this determined to do anything, I mean I had never seen a guy put that much effort into accomplishing anything.

I went back in to my room and changed out of the wet clothes and went out to the backyard where the boys were playing basketball.

"Hey, lemme get that ball" I shouted from the back door.

"Ha, the girl wants to shoot." snickered Max

"Just give me the damn ball" I said. I hate when guys assume that because I'm a girl I can't do what they do.

I caught the ball and dribbled up on to the court and shot a perfect 3-point. "Oh and here I was thinking I was rusty" I tossed the ball back to Mike.

They all stood there with their jaws on the ground. "How about a quick two on two? Me and Cass against you butt heads" Max suggested.

Half an hour later I was sweaty and out of breathe. "Good game Cass, but work on your foul shots" Matt said ruffling my hair.

"I'm not a dog, and you know I could take you down one on one any day dont get cocky because you had Mike helping you out" I regretted it as soon as I said it because I know that I there is no way I would be able to beat Matt one on one.

"Oh really. If you weren't so out of breathe right now, I would take you up on that, but another day short stack" he winked. I'm really not that short I hate being called short just because my parents genes skipped me.

We all went in and they decided to play Call of Duty, I started feeling icky and I'm more of a GTA type of girl, so I went to take a shower.

When I came out, the three of them were still playing Call of Duty. "Hey, where's Mark?" I asked them. They simply grunted, how can they be so in to that game.

I went to Mark's room, looking for him but he wasn't in there or the living room, so I called him, but he didn't answer. I guess he's out with his friends or something.

I sauntered out to the porch to call Axel, I missed him. I sat on the steps and dialed his number when I saw Mark walking up the driveway.

"Hey Montgomery" he said jabbing me in the shoulder and going in though the door.

I talked with Axel for hours about nothing and everything at the same time. Towards the end of the conversation, he got silent and I knew from movies and books what that meant. But a part of me kept saying that movies and books lie, maybe he's going to ask me to be with him forever.

"I know how I said I'm going to go to college in Detroit to be with you, but until then I think we should just be friends. The long distance is so hard and I don't want to stop you from dating others and getting the experience of a real relationship. And I can't stand knowing that I can't be there for you" He stuttered a bit. I could tell this was hard for him.

I had no words for this so I simply said "Kay" and hung up. He doesn't understand that he is the only guy I want to date, the only guy I've ever wanted to be with this badly.

He texted me right after that and said: I still love you babygirl, nothing will ever change that. You made me feel things I had never thought were possible, things that only happened in chick-flicks. Thank you for giving me that. It was a very cute and sweet text and it seemed like he really does care, but in the moment I don't care. I love him too but this hurts, it's like he barely gave this long distance thing any chance; like he just gave up on any possibility of us.

I sat there on the steps for a little longer with tears in my eyes.

I ran up to my room, ignoring the guys asking me what's wrong. I flopped onto the bed and sobbed into my pillow. When I was tired of crying I picked up my phone and looked and our pictures together, thinking of how alive he made me feel. How could he do this to me? Then again, a part of me knew this was going to happen

There was a knock on my door and I told whoever it was they could come in. I heard the door open and close then felt someone sit on the bed.

"I don't know what happened on the phone, but I'm here if you want to talk", I couldn't tell who's voice that was but I knew it wasn't Teresa. I sat up to look at the person and saw it was Michael.

"Thanks Mike" I said hugging him. He hugs like Axel. And with that thought the tears started coming again, and he just held me, not bothered my the tear stains I was leaving on his hoodie.

The door creaked open and I saw Matthew in The doorway. "Oh sorry um, dinner's ready" he said backing out of the room.

I pulled away from Mike and said "we should go eat"

He nodded and asked me, "are you going to be okay?" This was the first time in the last couple of days that someone asked me that and it didn't irritate me. I didn't respond but I thought about it and realized that for the first time I think I will be just fine, after a while.