A Sometimes Ending Love

A Sometimes Ending Love (Part 4)

    The next morning I woke up to find Amanda sitting at the foot of my bed.  She was looking at me expectantly, and when I just stared at her, she said, “Well, are you going to tell me where you disappeared to last night and with whom?  I was looking for you after the party and all I could find out was that Sara saw you leave with a guy that couldn’t keep his hands to himself.”

   I started laughing; I couldn’t help myself.  She looked so offended by the idea, when I knew for a fact she had made out with a few guys last night.  My brother texted me and told me to come get control of my friend, but I was too busy having a heart-to-heart with my new bestie Luke.  Well, not exactly.  Basically, he walked with me back to my beach house and there was an incredibly awkward silence.  When we got to my back door, he just said, “I guess I’ll see you around or something.”

   Yeah, he swept me off my feet, for sure.  I still thought it was nice of him to notice my distressing circumstances last night and get me out of them, even though he slightly took advantage of the situation.  After leaving me alone, I attempted sleep for a few hours before I realized that distracting thoughts of Owen and Luke would be keeping me up until I acknowledged the fact that I was still in love with Owen, and that while I was grateful for Luke’s intervention, I still wanted to know what Owen’s response would have been.  Would he have begged on his knees for me to forgive him, or would he laugh at my distress, like he did a few months ago?  I would have to wait to find out.

   Returning my thoughts to the present, I found Amanda looking at me like I had lost my mind.

   “You go off with a stranger that could have raped you or something and you laugh at my concern?” she said indignantly.  I couldn’t suppress a smile as I replied, “He wasn’t a stranger… exactly.  I met him at the airport.  His name is Luke, and he saved me from an uncomfortable conversation with Owen.  He pretended to be my boyfriend, and that was the reason for all the touchy-feely hands.  He walked me home, and that was it.  I wasn’t raped.”

   She smiled at me.  “Now that we have that straightened out, is he hot?”

   We both started laughing this time; Amanda’s priorities when it came to dating generally started with looks, followed by personality.  Of course, she also ranked their kissing abilities up there.  I liked to believe myself as a less shallow person, but I did let on that Luke was relatively attractive.  Amanda interpreted it as “the hottest guy our age to walk this earth.” 

   She had a few concerns, though. 

   “I mean, what are you going to do if he’s a senior?  Are you going to pretend you’re dating him throughout the whole school year just to make Owen jealous?  Or on the first day of school, will you just ignore each other, or just be friends for the year, or will you start dating for real, or-“

   I shut her up before she had a stroke.  “I have no idea.  Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

   Of course it didn’t, but what can you do?  Not much, when it came to handling Amanda, except ask her about her night.  That way she was too distracted to care that you didn’t really answer her question.  For the next twenty minutes I sat there listening to her go on and on about “this one guy that was super hot so we kissed but then I found out he had a girlfriend so I slapped him and then guess what?  Jason came up to me and asked me on a date!  Then I figured out he was drunk so I don’t know if that really counts…”

     She was a bit of a flirt, but she was my best friend, and when it came down to it that really didn’t matter.  She was now rattling off some great and exciting plan for today that involved taking her brother’s convertible and driving to go shopping in Charleston.  She was determined to get me a new wardrobe.  Amanda believed that if I improved my clothing selection (which didn’t make much sense, considering we had to wear uniforms to school), got a haircut, and bought makeup, I could be the most stunning girl in school, therefore making Owen regret breaking up with me.  That wasn’t going to happen.