The Game of Hearts

21 // His Soul is as Free as Mine

Chapter 21 - His Soul is as Free as Mine

"Horizons are calling to us 

Distance is quieted by trust 

Torn apart by miles  

Held together by each other's smiles

We've passed with flying colors 

Time to turn our thinking forward 

Feel the soft spray of the ocean 

As we turn our faces toward it"

Although Ellie said it was just for fun, I knew that her true intentions with this was to take my mind out  of the whole Matthew-and-Aiden-situation. Everyone suddenly seemed to think my biggest concern was the fight, but I wasn't constantly thinking about it. As I had said, I couldn't care less about them.

But, nonetheless, there I was, in a Saturday morning, coming to Ellie's house to have a barbecue. It was a rather sunny day, so at least we had been lucky on that. It was almost time for lunch and me and Dylan were some of the last people to arrive. Ellie's parents had gone to a trip and I was only thanked that she decided to do a rowing barbecue instead of a high school party.

Ellie didn't invite anyone from our school except Dylan and I, and one or two more girls she was friends with, but the rest of the people were from rowing, which made me slightly happier.

In the previous day my fellow rowers had learned about Andrea breaking up with James. After our day on the beach we didn't talk more and we went back to our competitive status as if that day hadn't existed.

James didn't seem that affected by the breakup and neither was Andrea, of course, and they both had come to the barbecue.

Once we knocked on the front door, Cameron came to open it. I didn't even know he'd be here too, but I knew who was going to be delighted by that.

"Hello, guys!" He greeted us with his accent and we saluted him back.

"The barbecue is in the back, everyone is already there." Cameron stated, making a motion for us to enter inside the house and closing the door behind him. We followed him to the back of the house and I instantaneously felt the barbecue smell.

The back of Ellie and Cameron's house was big and had about thirty people on it. Ellie had invited mostly people from our rowing class and from Cameron's, so I knew almost everyone. There were grills with sausages and pork meat, long wooden tables filled with dishes and a hammock hanging from two trees.

"Hi, guys!" Ellie greeted us and Lori and Roxy came along. I saw Cameron and Lori exchanging glances when he moved from our group to meet his friends.

"You have an awesome house, Ellie." I declared and she smiled.

"Thanks!"

The next minutes were passed with me greeting other rowers. Dylan had stayed talking with Ellie and Lori but Roxy was with me. When we passed by James I told him "Hello" and he nodded. If we hadn't met on the beach we probably would have ignored each other, but now I felt the need to salute him.

"Since when are you and James in better terms than 'I'm going to ignore you because we are rowing rivals'?" Roxy questioned, a frown on her face.

I shrugged.

"You know about his and Andrea break up, right?" I asked and Roxy nodded. "I was there when they broke up. I went to the beach and they decided to end their wonder relationship there."