All Along

chapter 10

"Because I like you." My eyes widened in shock.
He was amused by my expression.
"W...What?" I stammered.
He laughed at me.
I raised my eyebrows.
"What I meant was that I like you because you are my friend and she is not."
I breathed a sigh of relief. Though I liked Aaron, like a friend, and any girl will be lucky to have him but I was not ready for that yet. I wasn't completely over Chaz yet. There were still some lingering feelings which I was trying my best to get rid of.
"You scared me stupid."
"What was so scary about it?" He was serious again. I didn't know what to say. Even I didn't know why I was
scared. May be because I was afraid of another heartbreak or whatever reason, I don't know why.
"I was scared what Stacy would do to me if what you said was true." I said with a wink trying to lighten the mood.
He laughed and we danced in silence.
After second song we decided to go meet our friends.
"Hey guys." I greeted them all. They were facing the other way and they all turned to face me. Jen was the closest to me so she hugged me first followed by Sam and Irelene.
Chaz hugged me slightly. It was still awkward between us.
"You look beautiful." Irelene commented.
"Thank you. You look great yourself."
"Thanks."
"You look smoking hot girl." Jen said while leaning on Sam.
"You look deadly hot." Jen laughed.
"Ladies, ladies and ladies, you all are looking extremely gorgeous and devastatingly hot. Now we are here as well. Praise us too." Sam said pointing towards our three male friends.
"There are no words to describe you all." I said and he hugged me.
We continued talking and laughing for a while.
"I am hungry." Sam said rubbing his belly.
"Let's go and eat."
I was walking towards the bar, though there were no drinks because first the ball was in school and second we
were still underage to drink.
"Kayla?" I stopped in my tracks. It was Chaz. I turned around.
"Can I talk to you?" I looked at him and then at Irelene who was standing with Sam and Jen. She looked at me and then smiled. Aaron was with Jake somewhere.
"Sure. Why are you asking my permission?"
He smiled.
"Can I walk you to the bar?"
"What is with the permissions?" I said raising eyebrows playfully.
"You look beautiful by the way."
"Thanks." I blushed. Everything really do change with time. Had he said this day before yesterday, I would have
been on cloud nine by now but today my heart aches at these words.
We walked the rest of the way in silence. I ordered apple juice so did Chaz. We sat on the opposite chairs facing each other.
Chaz took the first sip and looked at me. I smiled. I was curious about what he had to say to me and I was nervous.
"Kayla, I am sorry." I knew where it was going so I stayed silent and allowed him to talk.
"I know it is hard for you and I am sorry for making you go through it."
"You don't have to be sorry for anything Chaz. I said this to Irelene and I am saying this to you too. You don't have to be sorry for anything. It is your life and you both love each other. You two deserve to be together. Yes it is hard for me but not too hard and I am trying to get over it. So
you don't have to worry about me."
He nodded and then looked at me.
"You have a good heart you know. I had feelings for you sometime ago." On hearing these words my heart stopped. I didn't know what to say. Whether to be happy, for these
were the words that I always wanted to hear, or sad, because it was of no use now, or angry, because he shouldn't be saying them now.
"What do you mean?" I had to know.
"I knew you liked me and believe me I liked you too for a long time may be. I just waited too long to tell you. But
then Aaron left and I grew closer to Irelene and I don't know when I fell in love with her. Those feelings were
more stronger and for once I was glad I didn't tell you how I felt because I would never want to hurt you, not
intentionally."
Tears were forming in my eyes. I wanted to rip my heart open. I didn't want to feel this pain. Why was he telling me all this now?
"Why are you telling me now?"
"I don't know. But what I know is that I want us to be friends again like before without any awkwardness."
"Me too. I don't want to lose you as a friend too."
He smiled at me.
"Can I ask you one question?"
"Again?" I rolled my eyes. "Don't ask permission and shoot the question."
"Is something going on between you and Aaron?"
I was taken aback by this question.
"What? No. Why would you ask that?"
"Nothing I just thought so."
"Liar. Speak the truth."
"Fine. I don't know but he looks differently at you and you two look great together. The way you two were dancing, you were looking the most adorable couple. Almost everyone was saying so and not to mention every guy was staring at you."
I blushed at the last part.
"Nothing is going between us. He is a very, very, very good friend. That is it."
"My mistake."
We were talking about some random stuff when Irelene came.
"Hey guys." We waved at her.
She sat besides Chaz and kissed him. I looked away.
"What were you guys talking about?" Irelene asked.
"I was telling her how great she and Aaron looked."
"Yeah you guys were adorable." Irelene chimed in.
"And I was telling Chaz that Aaron is just a good friend." I said hitting Chaz's arm playfully. They laughed.
They really were perfect for each other.
"Was someone talking about me?" It was Aaron. He was walking towards us from behind the tree.
"Kayla was." Chaz said and Irelene nodded in agreement.
Aaron grinned.
"What was she saying?"
"That you are very, very and very good friend of hers."
Chaz said again.
"That is indeed true." He sat on my other side.
"Were are Sam and Jen?" I asked.
Aaron shrugged his shoulders. "I was with Jake."
"They are dancing." Irelene said.
"What are we doing here then? Lets go and capture them on our phone without them noticing." I suggested. They were all up in an instant.

"Show me the video." Jen demanded.
"Show US the video." Sam corrected her.
"Not going to happen." I singsonged.
We were outside the school and they chased me. I quickly got in Aaron's car, who was waiting for me, and we left.
"The party was great. Right?" I asked Aaron.
He nodded.
"You are awfully silent. Are you alright?" I placed my hand on his shoulder. He looked at my hand and then at me.
"I am good. Just tired."
"Okay. There is something that happened earlier."
"What?"
"It is about Chaz."
"I am listening."
I told him the whole story except the part where he said that Aaron and I looked great together.
"There is something that you should know too."
"What?"
"That I already knew this?"
"What?" I widened my eyes.
"Yes. I saw you two sitting on the table and decided to join you when I heard you two talking. I didn't want to
eavesdrop but couldn't stop myself after I saw tears in your eyes. And you forgot the part where he said we
looked great together. But you have to admit, we do look great together." He said with a wink.
"Yes we are great."
He dropped me home and went across the lane to his house.
I had fun today.