Love Him

Part 7

Once I got home later that afternoon, I saw on my phone that a group chat on Messenger called, 'The Squad' had been created by Lance, including me, Nick, Mariah and Josh. Not Trevor because he didn't have access to any social media. The group chat already had some messages exchanged on it. I was tempted to click on it to see what the conversation was about, but then I realized that if I did, Joshua would see that I was active online. And he'd call me, but I couldn't let that happen cause I'd already lied to him. I instead decided to turn my phone off. I headed to my drawers, poking around for clothes to wear after my quick shower.

I stopped as soon as I heard my phone begin to ring. I slowly turned around to stare at it on my bed. It must be Joshua. He probably already saw that I had been active on Messenger for half a minute. Gosh, do I answer? Or act like I'm actually busy and let it ring? My anxiety building with each ring, I bravely stepped forward and grabbed my phone. I breathed out when I saw that it was Crystal calling. An odd, but nice surprise. I picked up. "Hey," I said brightly.

"Hey Carm!" Her enthusiasm matched mine. "I feel like I haven't been seeing you lately."

Is that right? I smiled. ""Oh. Since Friday, huh?"

"Yeah. I know we don't have exams tomorrow and I wanted to know if we could perhaps meet up? Unless of course you were thinking of using the day as a study day which would be totally understandable."

"No, definitely not the whole day," I laughed. "I'll for sure have a couple hours to spare."

"That's great." I could imagine the grin on her face.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well... are you up for walking?"

"Yeah." Of course.

"There's this large forest nearby that overlooks a river. I thought we could take a walk by there and, you know, hang out."

That sounded fun. "Yeah. I'm totally up for it. What time?"

"Um... maybe when it's not as sunny?"

"So like, 6:30? That way we could hang out before dark also."

"Yeah, sounds great!"

"Good." I beamed.

"Can't wait to see you tomorrow. I'll, uh, text you the meeting spot?"

"Yeah, for sure. Can't wait." After we hung up, I immediately hopped in the shower, telling myself to remember to text Joshua later. *

The next evening, I met up with Crystal at 6:30, near her place. She led me to a large forest and we walked through a path. We talked for a good while as the sun began to gradually hide behind some clouds, enjoying the nice breeze and the nature. "So..." Crystal said at some point. She glanced at me and smiled. "Let's skip to the more interesting stuff." I looked at her. "There any guy stuff you wanna talk to me about?"

I chuckled. "Um, no. Should there be?"

"What about Josh and Trevor?"

Ah. I frowned anyway. "What about them?"

Crystal gave me a side look that told me she wasn't buying my oblivious front. "I saw the way they were both feelin' you that one day at the park. And, at KFC."

I continued to play oblivious. "Okay...?"

"You can't tell me you don't have feelings for any of them."

I decided to be honest. "Not Trevor. We've always just been cool. He's got a good vibe."

"So what about Josh?" Crystal asked quietly.