Here and Now

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I stared at my computer for 2 hours. Contemplating just googling her name and seeing if something pops up. But then I said what if it was just some guy she was dating and he broke her heart. What if she killed a man? Just kidding. But, I did think of everything. For two hours I stared at my computer. I battled with myself on wether to respect her privacy or to do this and not tell her. I was torn. Just when I thought I was finally going to do it, I got a call.

"Hey man. What's up?" I answered the phone to Casey.

"Hey. Um I wanted to apologize." I heard him take a deep breath. "I've been a sucky friend. I- I haven't been here for you or understood whatever is going on with you and CJ. And I'm sorry for Gemma. I'm just sorry, man."

I felt the side of my lips twitch. Casey had always been the bigger man of our friendship. "Well, nothing is going on between me and CJ right now. We got into a huge fight." I sighed and my mind went back to the fight that we had just hours ago. "She drives me crazy."

"What happened? I thought you guys were cool." He sounded confused on the other end of the line, well so was I. She was as confusing at rocket science to a toddler.

"Yeah, well, so did I." I let out a deep breath and pushed my hand through my hair. "I like her a lot, more than any other girl I have ever met and here she is; pushing me away and avoiding getting close to me like I have the plague or something." I was just ranting now. I felt myself get frustrated at the situation, and at her. "You know, any other girl would kill to have Roman Reynolds like them enough to keep their name." I rolled my eyes and leaned back in the rolling chair I had at my desk.

"Yeah, but that's why you like her... and not them." Casey always knew just what to say. I felt myself nod in agreement. He was right. I wrapped up the phone call pretty quickly after that and decided my next few steps carefully. If I wanted to get close to Caitlin, I was going to have to take a different way than I had planned.

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I was the very first one to church. I sat in the parking lot with donuts, and a chocolate milk because I know how much she hates coffee. I didn't want to be the one to apologize because I know it isn't my fault but I also know that she would never apologize, so if I wanted this friendship to work, then I had to be the bigger man. Bigger than a girl who hated me, yet at the same time didn't hate me.

"What the heck are doing here?" Her voice came from the opposite side of my car. I was too consumed with my thoughts to see that her and another car pulled up. She was dressed in a pale pink baby doll dress that rested just an inch or two above her knees. She looked too good for church. Oh, yes. Church.

"I'm here for church." I said in a duh tone. Her eyebrows scrunched together for a moment, eyeing my goodie bad that I held in my hands. I saw the side of her lips twitch upwards and I couldn't hold back the giant grin that overcame my face. She finally looked back up towards my face and I saw a small smile in her eyes.

"I was afraid you were going to miss church today." She said after a little bit. I began walking up to her slowly, treading softy.

"Miss church? What kind of heathen do you take me for?" I held out the bag of donuts and the bottle of chocolate milk to her. "One glazed donut, one blueberry donut, and a chocolate milk." I knew her order and what she liked because donuts were a big deal to her so she brought it up more than she thought she did. She grabbed the bag and looked to check on the donuts. After 10 seconds or so of carefully inspecting the donuts she looked back at me with a smile she was trying to contain but couldn't.