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Chapter 3

I'm outside. My phone vibrated on the wooden tabletop. After taking a second to realize what I had gotten myself into, I got up and started towards the front door. Walking out onto the brick porch I saw her waiting at the end of the sidewalk. I walked down the brick steps and met her as she remained in the same position. We stood in silence for what seemed too long. It was obvious we both did not know what to say. She uncrossed her arms and hugged me. I couldn't help but cry. She tiptoed to try and get her arms around my neck to comfort me.

"Lets sit down?" I asked unsure of her willingness to stay. We walked into the backyard and sat in the lawn chairs sitting along the house. As the awkwardness between us grew, I began to think that calling her was a mistake. "Alyssa, I'm sorry for how I've been treating you."

"You don't have to apologize right now." She stated.

"I do. You didn't have to come. I just really missed my best friend."

"Listen, I know that we both did some things that we shouldn't have, but I will be here for you no matter what."

"How have you been?" I asked trying to ease the feeling of awkwardness that surrounded us.

"Since graduation I have gotten a job and gotten fired from a job. No worries! I got another one now though." We both laughed slightly. "How about you?"

"I've just been working." I said low trying to not think about the whole reason she was here.

"You don't have to tell me if you aren't ready, but what happened?" She sounded cautious, unsure how I would react to her question.

"He told me that he couldn't see a future with me and that I was the one who wanted to take him away from his family." I could only shake my head at how stupid I sounded.

"Wow, what a cult leader. Seriously, that was all his idea. He wanted to take you away to another state where you didn't know anybody so he could have you all to himself."

"I was livid! How dare he be the one to say it was me that wanted to uproot everything we had here and move to another state? I gave up everything for him!"

"You should have listened to me." The arguments between Alyssa and I had originated from the ideas she had of Luis being controlling and too demanding. I was beginning to see where she was coming from, but I was still blinded in love with a boy that had just ripped my heart out and left it for the birds to eat. I wanted to reply to her statement, but I knew that I needed to have someone to talk to right now and getting into another argument was the last thing I wanted to do. Besides, why would I defend a boy who wants nothing to do with me?

She looked down at her phone. "Ben wants to know how you're doing."

"How does Ben know what's going on?" I questioned.

"When I told him I was coming over to your house he asked if Luis had done something. I told him that Luis had just broken up with you. He said that Luis had talked to him about it earlier today. He didn't think that he was actually going to do it." That stung. I guess Luis had talked to everyone about this besides bringing his selfish problems to me.

Not before long Ben's ugly looking sports car was sitting in my driveway. He worked on cars in his free time and apparently hadn't had much free time lately. The paint on the car was scrapped off to a blue color to hide any scratches that had been in the body work. Leaving his car with a hard swing of the door, he jumped into the front seat of Alyssa's car. I got into the back and laid down. I did not know Ben as well as Alyssa, and I was in no mood to be making friends. I put my arm over my eyes as Ben began to ask the inevitable questions.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"I'll be fine." The only times that I was ever around Ben was when he was over Luis' house. Ben and Luis were best friends. That made this situation worse.

Alyssa's senior year of high school she had broken up with her boyfriend, Mitchel. Luis and I were rooting for Ben and Alyssa to end up together. The times that the four of us were all together, Ben and Alyssa got along great! There were no arguments and when there were, it was only playing around. Alyssa seemed genuinely happy, something you never saw when she was with Mitchel. When Alyssa and I began to have those arguments the four of us began to break apart. Ben and Alyssa would hangout and obviously had grown closer. However, at graduation Alyssa had made her choice to stay with Mitchel and give him a second chance to be a better boyfriend. Ben was devastated but knew that having her as a friend was better than never having her. Ben would talk to Luis and I about how he still liked her. His love for her was radiant, but Mitchel held a special place in her heart. Luis saw how Alyssa's decision had affected Ben and he wanted me to have nothing to do with her which was easy because I would take my boyfriend's side. As the summer grew on Alyssa had the relationship she had always wanted with Mitchel and for once he actually seemed to be paying her the attention she deserved. Ben would be the kind person and listen to her talk about her relationship with Mitchel.

"You are taking this pretty well." He disturbed my train of thought.

"She really is." Alyssa jumped in. "Ben how are you doing?" It was obvious that Alyssa cared deeply for Ben.

"Good! I just got out from the gym."

"Smells like it!" She insisted wavingher hand in front of her nose. Ben reached across the console and made surethat his sweaty t-shirt hit her face. They began to play around like I rememberthem doing. I just sat in the back sprawled out along the seat with my headpressed against the cold window. I wanted to sleep, but this was a moment thatI missed deeply.

After about an hour of sitting in Alyssa's car it had gottendark and we began to say goodbye. I hugged Alyssa and turned to say bye to Benwhen he took me into his arms and gave me the most warming hug I had in a longtime. The hug took me by surprise, but I embraced it. With that he got into hiscar and drove down the road. Alyssa pulled out after him and headed in theopposite direction down the street. I felt better and more complete than I hadonly four hours ago, but once again I was alone.