Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Chapter Sixteen

The celebrations for the boys winning the grand final continued for another good few hours. I kept trying to figure out a way to leave. A way to be alone and gather my thoughts. But everyone else had other ideas.

The team kept blocking my exit of the rooms. Their post-game adrenaline making it hard to breathe. The locker room is fairly large, enough space for the players, coaches, and the family of the players and coaches to fit comfortably. But with body odour of the players, perfume of the women, and the lack of airflow, I was getting hotter and hotter. The longer I was trapped in the room, the smaller the space became. The air was getting thinner, the walls slowly closing in. I needed to find Sky and get out of here.

As if on cue, she appeared by my side and half drags me outside. The moment the cold air hits my face I take a deep breath. Once the haziness that surrounds my vision clears I blink a few times and come face to face with Sky, Carter, Kenzie, Isaac, and Lucas.

Once I got my breathing under control, I look to Sky for some answers on why everyone was out here.

"What's going on?"

"We thought we could do one more photo scavenger hunt before we all go our separate ways after valedictory." Carter explains.

I look to Lucas and Kenzie apprehensively.

"If you don't want us here, we can go." Kenzie offers, already backing away.

"No, it's fine. I mean we started this together, we might as well finish it together." I shake my head. I knew it was the right thing to do, let them be apart of this last hunt. But at the same time, I didn't want to be anywhere near either of them. Kenzie and I were back to being civil, but that didn't mean that I didn't still feel betrayed by her.

"What are the teams going to be?" Some one asks.

"How about Sky, Luke, and Greenie as one group, and Charlie, Kenzie, and I the other?" Isaac proposes.

"Let's go with Sky, Kenz, and Zac as one. Myself, Carter, and Lucas as the other." Everyone looks at me, eyes wide, as if they had realised I have gone completely crazy.

"Char," Sky starts.

I hold up my hand, knowing what she was going to say.

"It's fine. I'm fine, really. These are the only groups that haven't been done anyway." Sky shares a look with Isaac. "It's only going to be a couple of hours, and I'll have Carter with me." Carter nods, showing he has my back. "Let's just get this over with."

Since this was a last minute decision no one had a list prepared, so for the next twenty minutes or so we came up with one. Most of them not as bad as ones we have had on the lists previously.

I didn't want what I had overheard in the locker rooms to affect me, or how I saw Isaac but I couldn't help it. He said he loved me, but he also said he wouldn't act on it. Which I did appreciate, but at the same time, I had no idea how to think or feel. I wasn't supposed to hear that conversation. I could only hope that this hunt could distract me enough to forget about it for now.

While we were making the lists, I couldn't help by notice that Kenzie stayed on the outer. I had thought that since everything that went down between Lucas and I, that she would have clung to him like glue to paper. But that isn't the case.

"Hey, Kenzie. Do you have any ideas?" She looks up startled, unsure if she has a right to answer or not. Nodding my head, I give her the courage to answer.

"Um, what about a photo of everyone looking lost?"

"Sounds good. Let's add it to the list." I say to Sky while typing the suggestion on my phone for my group's list.

Once the list was made and we had decided on a meetup point and time frame, we split off. Carter stuck close to me the whole time we were out. My hands were clamming up. No matter how many times I would wipe them on my pants, every time I locked eyes with Lucas, they would clam up again.

We have a history. Not only as a couple but as best friends, before we took it that step further. I know we needed to talk, alone. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. At least not if I was the one to initiate it.

"Greenie!" Carter stops, spins on his heel and glares are Lucas.

"Dude, you don't have the right to call me that anymore. Only my friends can call me that."

Lucas' face falls after hearing that his best friend, is no longer his best friend. I was a little taken aback by Carter's statement. Lucas cheated on me, not him. I know that Carter thinks of me like another sister but Lucas and Carter are best friends, were best friends. I would have thought, that after a little time Carter would have calmed down. I mean I have with Kenzie.

"Carter, all I was going to say was that we need to find Gloria Jeans and was going to suggest splitting up to find one. Provided you two still have my number."

Carter looks at me to see if I was okay with this plan, I slightly nod my head. He glares at Lucas one more time before he slowly makes his way to go find the coffee shop.

I away from Lucas to go in my own direction to find the shop when Lucas stops me.

"Charlie, please can we talk?" He takes a step closer, only for me to take three back. He stops, hurt flashing through his eyes.

"No, we can't." I take a deep breath, this is why I chose to be in a group with Lucas. I need him to listen to me. "You hurt me, Lucas. I thought you loved me, I thought that I could trust you."

"I do love you."

"Just shut up. That can't be true if you thought it was okay to cheat on me. And don't think that me wanting to be in a group with you that I wanted to get back with you. No, I wanted to be in the same group so we could talk."

"Charlie, you went to walk away."

"That's beside the point. Lucas what you did was wrong, that fact that you risked the twins finding out shows just how out of your mind you are. I mean Sky is ready to kill you, and if Carters looks he is sending you today says anything, I think he is the same. If I wasn't good enough if I wasn't what you wanted anymore, why couldn't you tell me."

"I-I, I don't know. I love you, Charlie, I don't know what I was thinking."

"Either do I Lucas. But I am not going to let you hurt me anymore. As soon as this hunt is done, I am going to have nothing to do with you. You already knew it was over, but I am here to tell you that as of now, you mean nothing to me. You are just another random person I went to highschool with."

I turn on my heel and walk as fast as I can away from this situation. Tears spilled over, flowing down my face. I wanted, no, needed to break all ties with Lucas but that doesn't mean that it hurts any less.

After all, your first love always is the hardest to let go of.