The New Separation (Book 2)

Chapter 8

Colton

"What the hell happened last night?" I demanded from Alec as soon as I was in his room, not ten minutes after leaving Aleena's.

"Dude, lower your voice," he groaned. "And I don't know. You tell me. We were having fun, then you disappeared. I'm surprised you even made it back here all right."

"What do you mean? Wait." I thought for a second. "Was there a girl there? You know, Aleena? You do know her, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, of course I know her, dude. And no, I didn't see her. Why? What's up with you today?"

I was pacing back and forth across his small room, not sure what thoughts were even flying around my head anymore. Eventually, the words just fell out of my mouth. "I think I had sex with her last night."

Alec's mouth dropped open and he suddenly looked very awake. "Do you think you had sex with her, or do you know?"

I hesitated before answering. Sure, I don't actually remember last night, but the evidence was stacked pretty high against me. So I started running through what I did remember, hoping something might come back to me.

And it did, slowly. I remember getting to the party with Alec. One of the seniors on the team immediately made sure we had drinks in our hands. There was a lot of loud music, a lot of dancing, and a lot of drinking. I think I had at least three or four drinks, and I've never drank more than the occasional sip from my dad's glass every now and then, so yeah, I got drunk. At some point, I lost track of Alec. I have no idea where he went, but I was having fun talking to one of the girl soccer players. She eventually offered to give me a ride back to campus, since she - I guess - was sober and was going back anyway and I obviously needed a little help walking. I get back to campus, she drops me off outside my building. Not sure how I got upstairs... oh wait. Aleena was downstairs in the lobby. I told her she was pretty, because in the moonlight, she was. She asked something along the lines of me having a girlfriend. I said something like 'I don't have a girlfriend'. Then I was remembering details I never want to remember ever again.

I sighed. "We definitely had sex."

"Dude," Alec said, shaking his head. "What about your boyfriend?"

"I know. And I'm freaking out. How do I even tell him? I'm not a cheater!"

"Obviously," he mumbled, although I was still able to hear it. Louder, he said, "I don't know, man. Just do whatever feels right to you. You tell him, don't tell him. Whatever. You'll figure it out."

Tell him? Now that sounded like an awful idea. It would totally break him, but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep this from him. I couldn't lie to begin with, but with him it was so much more difficult to keep secrets. Unless I just didn't talk to him over the phone until I figured out how to tell him... That might work.

I shook my head at Alec. "I don't know. Thanks for helping."

I think he said something along the lines of 'what help?' but I wasn't listening as I walked out the door.

Elliot

The phone rang and rang before finally clicking over to his voicemail. I sighed, hearing his voice telling me to leave a message. I wished it was actually him that answered, not this recording, but I guess it was enough for now.

"Hey Colton," I said as soon as I heard the beep. "It's me. Just wanted to talk to you. I just got home from my first day of work. Of course Jared and Emily had to show up to embarrass me." I chuckled dryly. This wasn't as fun as actually talking to him. "Call me back when you can. I love you."

I hung up and just looked at my phone for a moment. I haven't talked to him since Thursday night, besides a couple texts yesterday morning. I hope he's alright. I hope nothing bad happened to him.

Who am I kidding? Of course he's fine. He just has stuff going on and doesn't have time to answer his phone, that's all. I'm sure he'll call me later today, apologizing like crazy, just like the last time this happened. I shouldn't be worried.

I still hadn't heard anything from Colton by the time Mama and I got back from school supply shopping. I had even sent him a couple pictures of me when we got to the clothes part of the night, just to get his opinion of how I looked. I knew he liked getting those pictures (and they were often great for my self-esteem because he always liked how I looked), so I expected at least some comment, even a negative don't-get-that-outfit-it-doesn't-look-right kind of comment, just so I knew he wasn't ignoring me.

Could he be ignoring me? Why would he though? What did I do to him?

My mothers' words came back to mind. What if he realized he liked college people better than me? What if it wasn't cool to still be dating a high schooler? What if he is going to break up with me?

My breath caught in my throat at the thought and I grabbed the kitchen counter for support. He couldn't do that. He wouldn't. He loved me. We loved each other.

No. I was being ridiculous. Just because I haven't heard from him all day doesn't mean I can just assume he's moved on from me. Our relationship was a whole lot stronger than that. It would be two years in... I gasped out loud. Our anniversary was this week.

Quickly getting to the other side of the kitchen where there was a calendar hanging on the wall, I double checked. Yup. This Friday would be the exact day. Wow. That came up fast.

I wish I could see him on Friday, but, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure he has a game, if not Friday night than sometime on Saturday, so it's not like he's coming home.

But what if I went to him?

Sure, school starts this week, but I'm not doing football, which means my Friday nights are cleared, especially because I wasn't put on the schedule at work for this Friday or Saturday morning. I could definitely go visit him, if only I was allowed to borrow a car and drive out there by myself. But I'm sure moms would let me. I'm a pretty good driver, I think.

I nodded. Yeah, this could work. I would be able to see him this weekend, spend time with him again. We haven't done that in weeks. We'll be fine. Our relationship will be fine. I'm sure it will be.