All Along

chapter 22

"Hey Kayla?" Aaron said snapping his fingers in front of my face, breaking me out of my trance.
"Hmm? Sorry," I said quickly recovering myself.
"You kind of zoned out. So as I was saying, she is Jamie," He said giving Jamie a side hug. I looked at them both and managed a smile.
"Hi. I'm Kayla."
"Hi. I know." I raised my eyebrows. "I mean Arry..." 'So
she calls her 'Arry', ' I said to myself. "...called you three times."
"Oh." I blushed a little. She chuckled.
"Anyways, it's nice to finally meet you."
"Finally?"
"Yeah. I've heard a lot about you. Aaron talks a lot about you." I looked at Aaron.
"Yeah I've told her about ALL of my friends. Right Jamie?" He widened his eyes warningly. She smirked and nodded her head.
"Well it's nice to meet you too. We have all been waiting for your arrival, especially him." I said looking at Aaron and he smiled.
"I knew he would be waiting." She hugged him again.
What was with the hugs? I definitely didn't like to see that. We stood there in awkward silence.
"Umm... I should be leaving. You guys have fun."
"Why are you leaving? Stay with us," Aaron said. I looked at him and smiled. I wanted to stay with him but first I needed to think clearly about my feelings and more importantly, I couldn't bear to be there any longer and see them together. My jealousy was flaring up.
"No, it's okay. I've to talk to Sam and you guys should get some time alone. Bye."
Aaron nodded. "Okay. Bye."
Jamie waved at me.
"She is beautiful." I heard Jamie say when I was just outside the door.

I called Sam as soon as I was out of Aaron's house.
"Hey Sammy."
"Hey."
"What are you doing right now?"
"Nothing special. Why? Are you alright?" He asked in concern.
"I'm fine. Can you come over? I need to talk to you."
"Okay. Is everything alright?" He asked again, his tone full of worry.
"Yeah Sam. Just come over."
"Okay. I'll be there asap."
I was sitting on my front porch waiting for Sam to arrive. I looked towards Aaron's window with longing and sighed heavily. I tried watching cars pass by to distract myself from thinking about Aaron. I don't know how or when I started liking him but one thing was clear, I was too deep
into it now. I had reached the place of no return.
I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of Sam's footsteps on my path. I looked up and saw him walking quickly towards me.
"Hey."
I greeted him with a smile. "Hello."
"How are you?" He asked looking at me with worried face.
"Good and before you ask again, I'm fine." He smiled a little.
"Let's go to my room." He nodded and followed me into the house and to my room.
He sat on my bed and patted the spot next to him. I sat there and smiled at him.
"So tell me."
"Umm... I don't know where to start."
"May be you should try from the beginning. Take your time and I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on." I sighed and stood up, my back facing Sam.
"I... I like Aaron."
"Whoa. What?" I turned and saw him staring wide-eyedly at me. "You like Aaron?"
"Yeah. Actually no. I don't like him." He looked confused. "I LOVE him, Sam. I love him very much. I didn't realise it sooner but I've been in love with him and I don't know for how long. Seeing Jamie and Aaron together today, made me feel extremely jealous." Sam had a smile plastered on
his face.
"Why are you smiling? I'm freaking out here."
"Why are you freaking out?" He said calmly. "You two are very good friends, already know everything about each other and he is a real good guy, already cares about you. You
should tell him." He said the last line as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What? No! Tell him? Are you crazy? I can't tell him, not yet and promise me you won't either." I said before he could say otherwise.
"But why? Don't make me promise that." He whined. "You have no idea what you are doing."
"I know exactly what I'm doing and he can't know it yet and if he is to know this then I want to be the one to tell him."
"Fine. Be the one to tell him but why can't he know now?"
"I don't know. What if he likes someone already?"
"Jamie?" He asked and I nodded my head in agreement.
"Now you are crazy. They are just friends."
"May be. But I want to be sure first. What if she is his first love that he told me about?"
"You and your logic Kayla. For once do something you want to, that makes you happy. Remember what happened with Chaz?" I looked up at him. I knew where he was going with this.
"I know Sam. May be if I had told Chaz how I felt, we could have been together but look at it this way, Sam.
Chaz said he liked me too but didn't make the move. So it was destiny, Sammy. If we had been together, he wouldn't have been with Irelene and if he somehow ended up with her, it definitely means we would have broken up and may be we wouldn't have been friends today. Everything
happens for a reason."
"Whatever, Kayla. If it was destiny or not? I don't know but it is all about opportunities. Grab it when you see it. Not everyone gets a second chance. I know this time it is different. You liked Chaz but you LOVE Aaron, Kayla, you LOVE him."
"I know and that is the problem. What if I tell him and he rejects me? I won't be able to bear that, Sam. What if it ruins our friendship? And I DON'T want that."
"Believe me, that is not going to happen. You should tell him." He said with a reassuring smile.
"Okay. Give me some days to gather courage and then MAY BE I'll tell him."
"You better gather that courage. I'll lend you some of mine if that helps." He said with a smile.
"I'll let you know." I smiled back.
"So are you telling anyone else?"
"Not yet. I want to tell Jen though but I know she will take my hand and drag me to him. She always thought he liked me." Sam chuckled.
"Her assumptions are usually right, though." He said.
"Hopefully this time they are as well." I said with a wink and a blush.
"I want you to be happy Kayla, I really do."
"I know Sammy."
"By the way I got the invitation. Thanks." He said with a wicked smile. He knew very well how much I hated parties.
"Huh?"
"Your mom, she invited us all and we sent out the invitations to almost everybody."
"My mom's really doing it? Urg. I hate parties."
"Yeah she is and you don't have any choice but to be there tomorrow."
"I know." I whined. "What about the preparations? I don't see any going in here. I thought mom finally had let go of this crazy idea." He chuckled.
"You know your mom. Once she has her mind set on something she won't stop at any cost. By the way, party is not happening here."
"Then?"
"At your lake house."
"What? That is like two hours drive from here."
"No. Only one. Don't exaggerate."
I sighed. "I'll worry about that tomorrow."
My phone started ringing. It was Aaron.
"Hello."
"You at home?"
"Yeah. Sam is also here."
"Cool. We are coming over."
"Okay."
Sam raised his eyebrow once I was off the phone.
"It was Aaron. He is coming over with Jamie."
"Okay.'
Aaron and Jamie entered my room. Aaron sat beside Sam on my bed. Jamie looked around.
"You've a nice room, Kayla."
"Thanks." She smiled and sat on one of the chairs opposite Aaron and Sam.
"Sam this is Jamie and Jamie this is Sam." Aaron said pointing to the two.
"Hi." Sam said.
"Hi. It's good to meet you guys. When am I going to meet others Aaron?"
"Later."
"So you are childhood friends?" Sam asked.
"Yeah and real close to each other." Jamie said with a smile.
"How come we never met you?"
"Because we used to visit them every year and the last two years she was at our home almost everyday." Aaron was the first one to answer.
"Yeah and this year I decided to meet Arry here."
"And I'm glad you came." He said smiling at her and jealousy again started to poke its head out.
"Will you like something to eat?"
"No. I just ate. Can I have something to drink though?"
Jamie answered.
"Sure and what about you two?" I asked looking at Aaron and Sam.
"Have I ever said no to the food?" Sam said and Aaron chuckled.
"Get me anythinh you like."
"Okay."
I walked down to kitchen. I took out lasagna from fridge and put it in the microwave to heat it and grabbed four diet cokes from fridge. I closed the door and turned around and almost had a heart attack.
"Jeez Aaron. You scared me."
He laughed.
"Why are you down here?"
"I came to help you."
"With what?" I rolled my eyes playfully.
"Don't you want me here? Should I go?" He pouted like a little kid and began to turn around to leave and I held his arm.
"Stay."
"I wasn't going anywhere anyway." He winked at me.
"Lasagna?"
"Yeah."
"Kayla, are you okay?"
"Hmm? Yeah, why would you ask that?" I asked jumping to sit on the counter. Aaron came and stood beside me.
"You left immediately after Jamie came and then I saw you waiting for Sam at the porch. You could have waited in my room."
I was speechless.
"You saw me sitting there?"
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"So are you going to tell me what happened?"
"Nothing happened. I thought you two might have some catching up to do and I..."
"You what?" Aaron took a step towards me. My heart started racing.
"I..."
"You what?" He took another step and my heart started going crazy from the close proximity.
"I thought me being there would be unwelcome." I whispered.
He placed both his hands on the counter on either side of me. "Don't ever think that again. I don't care whoever I'm with, I would always love to have you there with me." I
looked up at his face and it was serious. My heart jumped with joy. I smiled a little. He stroked my hair away from my face and I froze at the touch. He smiled and stood straight up. The microwave beeped and he took the lasagna out. I grabbed the coke and went upstairs with Aaron behind me. Sam and Jamie were talking when we entered.
"What took you so long?" Jamie asked.
I showed her lasagna in Aaron's hand and Aaron said, "We were waiting for it to heat up."
We ate and drank and talked for some time. Jamie turned out to be friendly and had good sense of humor. I liked her and was jealous of her at the same time.
"I want to meet others." Jamie said.
"Fine. Let's go. They are at the lake house." Aaron said.
"Lake house?"
"Preparing for tomorrow's party. It's Kayla's birthday tomorrow." Sam answered.
"Cool. Then I came at the right time. Let's go."
I stood up to go with them.
"Whoa Lady. You aren't allowed to be there." Sam said stopping me.
"But-"
"No but. You are staying here." I pouted.
"Bye Kayla." Jamie said moving out of the door. Sam also bade me goodbye.
Aaron looked at me and I pouted. "Are you leaving me too?"
He chuckled. "That act is not going to work on me but don't worry," He came towards me and whispered in my ear, "I'll send you the pics." His hot breath sent shivers down my spine.
He winked at me from the door and left.