Gotta Get Out (a five seconds of summer story)

Chapter 34

I pour myself a cup of diet coke and Grace walks over to me. “Hey I lost you for a second.” She says as she grabs herself a cup. “Yeah I want to talk to Ashton for a second. I met your cousin Ryan.” I say pointing over to the sweaty kid. She looks over at him too and we both laugh. “He is my mother’s younger brother’s kid.” She says poring herself some coke. “So I haven’t seen you with any of your girls lately whatever happened to them?” I say suddenly thinking of how she has been sitting at our lunch table for a while now. “Well they had too much drama and I think they only liked me for my money to be honest.” She says shrugging. “That sucks” I say plainly. “Yeah I guess. I mean we still consider ourselves friends but we rarely hang out or anything.” She explains. “Hey girls how are you?” Grace’s mother asks us. “Great mum” Grace says with a bit of excitement. “Are you ready for the games?” She asks us. “Are they starting soon?” I ask looking around. “Just about so you might want to get together with the whole family for a team meeting.” She suggests before heading off towards her husband. Grace and I walk over towards her family’s blanket and sit crisscross applesauce. They announce that the games are beginning and Grace’s parents come over to join us. We do the classic potato sack and wheelbarrow races and of course the egg tosses. I ended up with egg all in my hair. “Hey Grace where are the bathrooms? I kind of have an egg problem here.” I say as egg drips down my head and all over my face. “Yeah right over there” she says pointing me in the right direction. I walk into the bathroom and clean the egg out of my hair, well all that I could. As I open the door to leave I hear voices. “You know you still love me.” I hear a girl say. “You know I do” I hear Ashton say. Ashton? I peek out the door only to see Ashton and Violet making out. He said he broke up with her. Why in the world would he lie to me? Was he trying to get sympathy? Was he trying to look good? I walk off quickly and make my way over to the food table.

          “KAYLEE!” Grace yells at me. “What!” I yell back. “I was talking to you. Are you okay?” she asks taking a good look at me. “Yeah I’m fine. Just people confuse me. Guys to be more specific.” I say poking at the food on my plate. “Well I would love to help you Kay, but you know I’m a fish out of water when it comes to boys.” She says trying to get me to laugh. I laugh a little for her sake and continue to play around with my food. “Hey the party is almost over so do you want to go back to my house or I can drop you off at your house?” Grace offers. “I’d love to go over to your house, but I’m just not in the mood today. Maybe another time?” I say finally giving up and throwing my plate away. “Okay sounds good. Let me know if there is anything I can do.” She says before we make a beeline for her car. One thing I always loved about Grace is that she knows that I need my space sometimes and is always willing to back away when I need her to. I thank Grace and return to my bedroom. I decide to open the note that I found this morning.