I'll Always Choose You

Chapter 4

"I'm. Not. Going," I repeated for the tenth time. Me and Lauren spent the day in my room on Sunday. I may not be able to go to her house, or anybody else's house, but I got my mom to allow my friends to come over. Even though it took a lot of convincing, she allowed it.

"Yes," said Lauren. "You are."

"I don't want to!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's stupid and boring."

"You only think it's stupid and boring because nobody asks you."

"Speaking of, has you're boyfriend asked you?" I pressed.

Lauren's face turned into a mixture of anger and sadness. "No. And we've been dating for almost a month now."

I felt pretty bad about bringing that up because I already knew that she was heartbroken that her boyfriend hasn't asked her to Homecoming, which was in 6 days.

"Sorry I brought this up. I know you're pretty devastated," I apologized.

"Whatever. I'm not going to Homecoming unless he asks me."

"He doesn't have to control your decisions. You can go if you want to go. He shouldn't be the reason you're not going."

"He's my boyfriend. I can't go to Homecoming without him."

"I just don't understand why he can't just ask you."

Lauren stayed quiet for a minute, staring at her hands before saying, "He said he's too lazy to ask me."

My mouth dropped open.

"He said that to you?!" I exclaimed.

She nodded, tears forming in her eyes. "I was hoping he'd do something memorable for me, like hand me a fish with a note that read, 'out of all the fish in the sea, I picked you to go to Homecoming with me'. I don't care if it's that cheesy. I just can't believe he doesn't care enough to do something so simple."

"No offense...no, never mind. I mean this in the most offense way. He's a bastard for saying that he's too lazy to ask his girlfriend to Homecoming. I'd break up with him, but I'm not suggesting or pressuring you into doing anything like that if you're not ready."

"I'm honestly thinking about dumping his ass. He's been treating me like shit lately. He wouldn't tell his parents that we're dating and he still hasn't, he wouldn't tell anybody that we're dating; that's why you found out so late. He treats me like an idiot. He got pissed at me for not wanting to..." she paused, not sure if she should go on.

"It's okay," I reassured her. "I'm listening. You don't have to be afraid or embarrassed."

Lauren took a shaky, deep breath. "He got pissed at me because...I didn't feel comfortable having...sex, with him. And I wondered why the hell is he pissed when he's the one who treats me like this." She wiped the tears that leaked down her face.

"He should understand that you're not ready for that type of stuff yet," I said. "Not make you feel like a fool because you don't want to."

"I know," she said, her voice quivering.

"You know what," I said, getting up. "I'm gonna have a talk with David. I'm going to knock some god damn sense into that son of a bitch."

"Natalie, please don't."

"I can't just have him treating you like some puppet. He needs to realize that if he messes with my best friend, he'll get a nice, delicious can of whoop-ass sent directly from me."

Lauren smiled a little, and it brought a smile to my face to see that I cheered her up.

"I'm talking to him whether you like it or not."