And Then it Happened

15

It was finally Friday night and I was so grateful it was officially the weekend. I wanted just a chill night with my friends without having to worry about school or anything else. Currently, Sydney, Ashlyn and Makayla were all sitting on my queen-sized bed with me at my house; Lily had to work tonight so she couldn't hang out with us unfortunately.

"Drake is so hot!" Ashlyn exclaimed, slightly groaning and placing her hands over her heart.

Apparently, Drake Johnson was her newest love interest. The thing with Ashlyn though, was that she never settled on one guy for too long. She'd become interested in someone quick and then her interest in them would fizzle out after about a week. I guess her new flavor of the week this time was Drake – one of our school's basketball players.

"What about Sam?" Sydney asked, referring to a guy that Ashlyn had been gushing about nonstop about two weeks ago.

Ashlyn scoffed. "He's old news, Syd," she said which caused all of us to laugh.

"It's okay Ash," Makayla stated while she ate a handful of popcorn she had made in the microwave not too long ago. "Honestly, I think you dodged a bullet with Sam; I heard he got arrested last weekend for assaulting someone at a party."

"WHAT!?" I exclaim; thoroughly shocked. "I always thought he was super sweet..."

Makayla shrugged. "I didn't believe it at first either, but someone showed me a picture of his mugshot."

"Speaking of boys, Syd, how's everything going with Cameron?" Ashlyn asked.

Hearing Cameron's name, my interest piqued. I looked at Sydney expectantly and saw her ears turn a light shade of pink as she smiled furtively.

"Well... if you must know..." she stated, drawing out her sentence slowly.

"Girl, you're killing me! Spit it out!" Makayla shouted, throwing her popcorn at Sydney playfully. I secretly agreed; I wanted to hear what she had to say about Cameron.

"He's so sweet! He took me out to this super nice Italian restaurant the other night and was just the perfect gentleman. He opened my car door and pulled back my chair to let me sit and everything. And then after dinner, we went back to his place and we just talked and cuddled the rest of the night." Sydney explained, a smile almost permanently etched on to her face as she spoke.

I felt as if my stomach had dropped; a heavy weight in my heart. I almost felt...disappointed? But I didn't know why. I should be happy for Sydney! She seemed genuinely happy with Cameron. I just couldn't shake the awful feeling I suddenly felt, and this worried me. I droned out the rest of what Sydney said as she kept talking about Cameron and their relationship; I didn't really want to hear any more of what she had to say about it.

"Ooh I have a text!" Sydney shouted, which shook me out of my reverie. She reached for her iPhone 8 and her smile got bigger as she saw the text lit up on her lock-screen. "It's from Cameron!"

Makayla and Ashlyn both squealed with excitement as they scooted on the bed closer to Sydney so they could look at the text Sydney had received. I quickly glanced at my phone and saw I had no text messages from anyone, and I began feeling more upset. Cameron and I had started texting routinely now and I had gotten used to our playful banter and meaningful conversations. Seeing that he was clearly on his phone, as he had sent Sydney a text, but hadn't sent me anything made me feel sick to my stomach.

Ashlyn looked up at me and noticed I hadn't budged and was still the only one sat on the corner of the bed, "Rachel are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think I just need to use the restroom, I'll be right back," I lie, getting up from the bed to walk to the bathroom. I felt terrible for lying to everyone, but I felt like an even worse friend because I couldn't even pretend to be happy for Sydney and her relationship anymore.

When I finally reached the bathroom, I walked in and shut the door behind me. I placed both of my hands on the edges of the sink as I leaned forward, staring at my face in the mirror. What was wrong with me?

Why was I getting so upset over the fact that Cameron hadn't texted me back? Why was I feeling disappointed when Sydney was gushing about how great of a boyfriend Cameron was to her? Why did I feel sick to my stomach just knowing that Sydney had been all cuddled up with him and had most likely kissed those soft, luscious lips of his?

Shaking my head, I turned the faucet on and slapped some cold water on my face. Turning the faucet off, I wiped my hands and lightly dried my face before going back out to my bedroom to continue hanging out with the girls. They asked me if I was okay again and after I had assured them that I was fine, we all went back to talking.

I could tell Sydney knew something was up and that I was lying though; Sydney and I had always been the closest out of our friend group, since we had known each other since we were practically toddlers. She knew me the best out of everyone, and she could always tell when I was lying – a trait that I was really wishing she didn't have right about now. Occasionally through the rest of the evening, I would catch her looking at me with her mouth etched into a small frown. Luckily, she never asked me about it and for that, I was thankful.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sorry for the short chapter, but we have some character development here for our girl, Rachel. She's finally realizing she might have feelings for Cameron.

Anyway, thank you so much for almost 500 reads, that's incredible! I love every single one of you who reads/votes/comments/fans, whatever. I've remembered how much I absolutely love writing; I'm so excited to keep writing this book and get to the end because I have so much planned and this is only the beginning.

Xx