Along Came Andrew

Chapter 18

I was lounging around, thinking about my dream, clutching my chest, breathing, being alive, staring emptily at the ceiling like I did in the hotel, when suddenly:

Buzz Buzz

Bella Thompson (Ringing)

I felt a little relieved, I hadn't spoken to her since before vacation.

She was my best friend, though. She was a cheerleader for our highschool football team, but personally we met during the first tryout in kindergarten. I guess she was kind of preppy, and I was too. We had to be, but she had a quirky side too. That's why I loved her. I mean, platonically of course. I guess I loved her enough to not be weirded out when she asked me to homecoming last year, and took me on double dates. I knew that she obviously had a crush on me; I could see that from day one when the cute little girl in the cheerleader outfit ran up to me. But every gay boy needs his beard, right?

I slid over the green phone icon.

"Hey, Bella..." I said groggily.

"Marcus!" She snapped, " It's been too long! You were supposed to call me every night, boy."

"...I'm sorry, I didn't think about it."

"What were you thinking about - some fresh young meat?"

All I could say was, "Stop." She just laughed. "I'm not a manslut, I-" now I was laughing too.

"Sure, you keep telling yourself that. How much can I get for...?"  She joked.

"Sorry Ma'am, you must be this male to ride." 

"Speaking of riding males-"

"That is not what I said."

"Meet anyone worth talking about over vacation?"

"Well, there was this one boy, but.. We don't have to talk about that."

"Marcus, c'mon, any other day you'd never stop talking about that."

"But it's different, I..I think I loved him." At that, I heard one of those miniscule inhales, like all the air in the world just disappeared, like you can physically feel your chest collapsing and you get choked up. I'm sorry...Bella...

And I knew I shouldn't have said anything. Stupid.

"Oh, I see." Is all she could say. It sounded like she was crying, but I knew better than to point it out. And I knew then that it was better to stop. I cared for her too much to hurt her.

So I changed the topic, "So, how did you ever survive two weeks without me?" I said to lighten the mood.

"I mostly just hung out with Natalie and Layla,"

"Layla, though..." The name tasted dirty on my tongue.

"Shush, she's not all that bad."

"She didn't used to be! Ever since she dropped from the squad and joined band, she's been acting weird."

I waited for a moment.

"Plus, she dyed her hair bright blue and black, Bella. She's gone off the deep end."

She laughed. "I guess you're right. You judge people too much based on little things, though."

"You know it."

"Maybe you should work on that. It might help you with that boy of yours." I was not about to take dating advice from my fake girlfriend..

All I said was, "We'll see.."