Stand By Me

Chapter 7

The next morning, I woke up with a massive headache. I definitely was not feeling school today.

I texted phoebe good morning, and headed downstairs. Leah was sitting at the counter eating a bowl of cereal and flax.

"Hey can I talk to you for a sec?" I asked.

Leah and I are best friends. She's a freshman and I'm a senior, but this year we've become really close. If I was going to talk to anyone about this Ryan thing it might as well be Leah.

"Sure what's up?" She pulled out a stool for me to sit on.

"Okay so this weekend I was at a party at Carah's." I began.

"Oh god Carah is bad news. I thought you guys weren't friends anymore?"

Carah and I were really close a couple of years ago, but we drifted apart because she went to Europe part of one year and when she came back she totally changed.

I missed the old her, but I new that this was a phase. I hoped.

"Well we kinda aren't but were okay yanno? Anyways, the party was pretty crazy. Like I don't really remember anything that happened. And you know Ryan?"

"Yeah.." Leah responded and took another bite of cereal.

"Well we kissed. And I didn't even know I really liked him but I do, and he likes me too. As far as I can tell. But he's hiding something from me that happened at the party and he won't tell me what. He said it's to protect me, but I know there's more. I just want to trust him but I don't know if I can."

My hands started to shake and my heart felt heavy. I wanted to trust Ryan. I wanted this to be over with. But what if something bad was happening? I hate these kind of things; things that I don't know completely because it makes me stressed.

Leah nodded and I was so grateful to be able to talk to her.

"So, you don't know anything else?" She asked.

"Well it has to do with Catie-"

I was cut off when my mom came downstairs.

"Girls! You're gonna be late if you don't head to school right now. It's past 7!"

Leah and I groaned and headed out the door.

~~~

The whole day at school I couldn't keep from thinking about my coffee with Ryan this afternoon. He doesn't go to my school, so I was kind of relieved I didn't have to see him there. It would of been super awkward.

During sixth period, Phoebe texted me.

"You free today after school? I need help studying."

I responded telling her I was having coffee but I could later. It was killing me not to be able to talk to her about this whole Ryan thing.

~~~

When I drove to Starbucks, my heart was speeding up. It was that cheesy girly feeling that you get when you see the guy you like. But it was mixed with darkness and worry. I didn't know the truth and that killed me. But in the back of my mind I knew I could trust Ryan.

I parked the car, and saw Ryan through the window sitting at a table.

He smiled at me and I walked inside.

I ordered a light caramel frappe, and sat down at the table. Ryan seemed to be even more nervous than I was.

We made awkward starting conversation about school and stuff before I asked the question that I needed to know.

"What did you need to talk about?"

"Well," he started. "I just need to tell you what's really going on."

"Okay tell me. Please." His hand reached across the table and grabbed mine.

His thumb rubbed across my hand as he spoke.

"Catie is trouble. She has something on you that is bad. And you might not want to know."

"What could she have on me that's bad?" I tried to remember all of the stuff that I've done that's "bad".

"Okay remember freshman year during spring break?"

I thought back a while.

"Yeah what about it?"

Then it hit me. My stomach lurched.

The memories of that week came back to me and instantly sick.

This was worse than I thought.