third time's a charm

"emergency meeting"

chapter seventeen: emergency meeting

Sunday, December 17. 10:43 am.

The rest of the previous day was spent helping Jamie's family decorate their tree and the rest of their house. Spending time with his family made me happy; talking with his parents was easy and they were genuinely good people. Thinking that they would soon be friends with my parents, again, made me excited.

I stayed over at Jamie's house until about seven. After we finished helping his family decorate, we watched a movie up in his room. Admittedly, our focus had not been completely on the movie, but the funny business was minimal.

"I think this is the longest Vales and Rowan have been away from us in weeks," Will spoke as he walked into the living room and sat down with a 'huff.' I looked over at him with furrowed brows and found myself letting out a small, amused laugh.

"Are you going to live?"

"I'm so fucking bored. I spent all day in my room yesterday."

"What was Vales up to?" I asked, not seeing why Will hadn't just asked him to come over.

"I don't know, he wouldn't tell me."

"What?" I asked, thinking that was strange. "That's weird, Will."

"I know that. It also pissed me off a little. I felt trapped here all day yesterday and no one was free, and you were gone having the best time of your life."

"Will... what is up?" I asked, muting the TV as he continued. It was clear he was agitated about something, and I was starting to think it was more than just Vales.

"Nothing," Will said, sighing quietly as he slumped back onto the couch. "It's not a big deal."

"William," I scolded, sending him a look in hopes he would fess up to whatever was actually going on.

"Claire's just being... a girl! Her whole attitude changed randomly yesterday and every time I would messaged her, she responded with something that made me think she was upset with me. I reread every message I sent her at least five times to make sure I didn't say some jackass thing. But I honestly didn't! And I asked her if everything was okay, and that just upset her more. I do not fucking understand." My eyebrows raised as Will let it all out.

"Can I read your messages?" I asked him, wanting to help him out. Without turning his head toward me, he glanced at me from the corner of his eye. "I just want to see if I can find something that you couldn't. I won't judge anything you guys have talked about."

"It's not that I care or have anything to hide..." Will slowly handed me his phone after opening the messages with Claire, and he hit his lip gently.

"Will, you're making me scared to read these," I said, unsure of why he was acting the way he was.

"No making fun?" Will asked, as if he wanted me to make a promise.

"Will," I said, rolling my eyes. I looked down at his phone, to where he had scrolled up to, and began reading the conversation. It started off normal, they were just talking about their schedules for the day. Will had said something about possibly seeing her, and she seemed to like that idea, but told him that she might have some impromptu plans with her aunt that was coming into town. I was confused as to what Will was talking about until I reached the turning point of the conversation. "Will... she wants to meet us. She feels like you're not serious about things."

"What?" Will asked, grabbing my phone as if there was going to be a clear message that said what I had determined. I took the phone back from him and pointed out some texts that made me think what I had hypothesized.