Slowly Freaking Out

3- You Should Be Careful

“Okay, so I’ll probably know most of these people, right? Like, I might remember some of them from middle school,” I say to Mae as we’re getting ready for the bonfire on Saturday night. The past few days staying here with Mae and her family have been really great. It’s honestly so much better than being home with fighting every night, loud enough to keep me from sleeping. Mae’s parents get along fabulously though, and there’s nothing except for teasing banter between Miles and Mae. It’s wonderful. Not only am I in a no-fighting household but I’m reunited with my best friend ever and that just adds to the amazingness. We just sit around and watch movies every day and it’s great.

“Yeah, I guess so,” She agrees as she’s lining her eyes with eyeliner, which I’ve already done to my own eyes. I’m now busy tying my hair up in a fishtail braid down my back to keep it out of my face while we’re dancing at the party. “A lot of the people there are going to be graduates from this year, like my brother, but there will be a lot of people from our grade too.”

“Good,” I chirp. “I don’t want to be left completely in the dark.”

“You won’t be,” She assures me. “And you’ll love my friends, I promise. You might remember Audrey, she went to our middle school but I don’t think you’ll know Kacey or the others but you’ll love them, don’t worry.”

“Okay then,” I chuckle.

“Do you remember trying to sneak away to this bonfire when we were little?” Mae wonders with a small laugh.

I nod and let out a laugh of my own. “It would never work though because your mom would always catch us. Jeez, it’s embarrassing to think of how badly we wanted to be with the high schoolers.”

“It was pretty pathetic,” She laughs in agreement. This bonfire has always been a summer tradition for the high schoolers around here since I can remember. It’s on the beach and it goes all night and it’s something that all of the middle schoolers want to go to but obviously can’t because they aren’t in high school yet. There’s a few kids that sneak in because it’s so crowded and nobody notices but we were never that slick so we never got to go.

I feel my phone vibrate in my jean shorts pocket and pull it out as Mae is busy doing her makeup. The caller ID on the screen says that it’s Leo, which makes me frown and force back a groan.

“I have to go to the bathroom- I left something in mine,” I say quickly since Mae didn’t hear my phone go off and she didn’t see me check it so I quickly spin and hurry across the hall into the privacy of my own room and I shut the door. Leo is my ex-boyfriend. The only boyfriend I’ve ever had. You see, with parents like mine that fight so constantly al of the time, it doesn’t give me a lot of faith in love and all of that crap. Leo was really nice though and he took me out on dates and we had a good time together. In the words of Haley Williams, he was my only exception. Well, that was until he cheated on me about a month ago and proved my original theory correct all along: Love never lasts and it’s a waste of time.

“Hello?” I answer the phone even though I really don’t want to talk to him.

“Hey, Logan,” He greets me. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” I say slowly. “What’s up?”

“I’m really sorry about your parents,” He sighs.

“Yeah, I’m over it,” I mutter. “Is that all that you wanted?”

“No, I just wanted to say that I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately,” He admits.

“Really, Leo?” I wonder with raised eyebrows. “You call me every week to let me know that you’ve been thinking about me- do you really think that I’m going to say anything different this time?”