In which two childhood best friends are keeping a secret from one another.
OR
Joshua and I are best friends since the first grade. He knows everything about me. He cares about me. He's already like a brother to me. But there is one thing about me th...
Last night was one of the best nights ever. He succeed in making me fall in love with him. More and more. But today he has to go back to Salt Lake.
His flight is at 9 am. It is currently 8.45 and I'm at school right now, can't really focus on anything the teacher is saying. I keep thinking of Josh. Is he already on the plane? Is he still in the waiting area? What is he doing right now?
I texted him earlier but he hasn't replied. I keep waking my phone and just stare at the empty notification on my lock screen. Nothing. He hasn't replied with anything.
I just stare at my lock screen. I have a picture of us we took at the airport before he left in February as my lock screen. It's the one where he held me on his back like a piggy back. The picture is a little blurry since we weren't ready. I was laughing. He was also laughing. The picture was taken just seconds before he lost his balance and almost dropped me. I already miss him so much.
Then my phone wakes up by itself and a notification pops. I quickly tap on the notification and read the text.
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I smile. The teacher probably notices me smiling at my phone screen. But I don't care.
***
It is now lunch break. Right now I'm walking in the hallway, making my way to the cafeteria.
"Hey!" A voice calls from behind. I turn around to see Logan, jogging his way to me.
"Hey, what's going on?"
"Nothing much, just wanted to give you this." He hands me a small box with a ribbon tied. There's a tag on the ribbon that says 'happy birthday Rach!' and a small 'Logan' at the bottom. "I didn't get you anything for your birthday yesterday so here it is."
"Ooh, what's this?"
"Open it."
I untie the ribbon and open the box. It's a necklace with my initial. Not gonna lie, it's pretty.
"Oh wow. This is so pretty! Thanks!"
"I didn't know what to give you, so I asked Nat and she suggested me to get you a necklace," he explains. He's referring to Natasha, his little sister. She's a sophomore.
"Oh it's pretty! Thanks Logan!"
It really is a pretty necklace.
"You're welcome," he smiles. "So uh... Are you going somewhere?"
"I'm actually going to the cafeteria."
"That's like the only place you go to during lunch," he laughs.
"Yeah. My friends and I always go there during lunch. It's like our hangout."
"You know there are way better places to eat lunch than the cafeteria in this school."
"Like what?"
"C'mon I'll show you," he points with his thumb.
"Okay."
We both start walking as he leads the way. We're walking towards the front door. Just seconds later, we're already outside of the building. He leads me to a bench behind a big tree outside. The bench is not completely covered by the tree. You can still see it.
"Here. Sit down," he sits, patting the seat next to him, telling me to sit down.
"So... This is where you hang out?"
"Well I mean... Nobody sits here for some reason, so this sort of became my own personal sitting area."
"I honestly never realized that there's a bench here."
"That's because you spend too much time in the cafeteria."
I open my ziploc bag of sandwich. I take one out of the bag.
"You want the last one?" I ask him.
"You don't want it?"
"I'm not that hungry. And I usually make extra sandwiches to share."
It's true. I usually share them with Josh. Well... Not really because he's always the one who steals them from me. Everytime I open my bag of sandwich he always snatches it from my hands. That's why I usually bring more than one.
"Thanks," he says.
I take a bite out of my sandwich. "This is actually pretty nice."
It really is nice here. It's bright but not too hot. The trees make the air around super fresh. The sky is so blue with fluffy white lump of clouds here and there.
"Yeah. I used to hang out here with my girlfriend. But she broke up with me recently."
Wait. His girlfriend broke up with him? I thought he broke up with his girlfriend.
"Oh I'm sorry. What happened?"
"It's a long story. But basically she cheated on me and... Dumped me. When I asked her why she said that I was cheating."
"Oh I hate that! I hate when people blame you for what they did!"
"Yeah. It's kinda always like that with all 4 of my exes."
He's only dated 4 girls? I thought he'd dated more! And like he said at the party, he never broke up with them. They broke up with him! Everyone thinks that he's actually the one who breaks girls' hearts, who dumps them all. But now I know all of that is just a big lie.
"Oh I'm sorry."
"Nah, it's fine. But yeah all 4 of them dumped me. Like they're always the ones who ended the relationship. When my first girlfriend and I broke up, I knew that I had to move on. And I did. But it happened for the second time. And again. And then again for the fourth time. I feel so stupid for always falling in the same hole."
He looks away. "And now they made everyone to think that I'm like... a womanizer."
I don't say anything. I don't know what to say. I still need to process it inside my head.
He's not a heartbreaker. He's actually the one with his heart broken.
And then I realize something. Those girls that were looking at me when I walked down the hallways, those are Logan's exes.
