Destined

Twenty One

Boys are evil.

That's the only explanation I had to what Vince did. I replayed the last few months over and over in my head. We were happy, we were solid. Or so I had thought. But I guess in the end, Reese won. I didn't go to church on Sunday. I didn't even leave my room. Talia brought me breakfast but all I had was the juice. I turned off my phone, if it was off I couldn't keep getting my hopes up that Vince would call. I spent all day in and out of sleep. The girls tried to get me to talk but I refused to give in. I also refused to cry. Yes, I wanted to, I really did, but I wouldn't allow myself to do so.

On Monday, I tried to be more productive. I studied, baked blueberry muffins, and made the final arrangements for my trip back home. Unfortunately, Talia was going on her own little trip with Tyler and Liz chose to stay in school so only Maddie and I were leaving at the end of the week.

"Hey," Talia said when she got back from school and found me watching my muffins bake.
"I'm fine," I said immediately. "Don't worry,"
"Krissy, I don't know what Vince did to you, and I have half a mind to confront him-"
"Please don't,"
"-but you need to talk about it,"
"No, no I don't. Forcing people to talk about crap when they aren't ready doesn't end well. So just drop it, please. Vince and I are done, and we never even started so good riddance to us. I made muffins,"

No one else bothered to talk to me about Vince and I was grateful. Every time I heard his name I felt a little piece of my heart chip away.

On Tuesday, I was on my way to his class when I saw him and Reese walking in the hallway. And silly me, I panicked. I swirled around so fast, I hit into someone, bounced off that person, and met the ground. I heard the gasps and mumbles but I didn't dare look up. Someone helped me up and my eyes met Damien's.

"Please, get me out of here," I said before he could say anything.

I expected him to ask why. Instead he briefly glanced over my shoulder, and whatever he saw made him take my hand and lead me away. I knew Vince was watching me, but I didn't have the heart, or the strength, to look back at him. I was super embarrassed anyway.

Damien led me outside and I was so relieved that I hugged him the moment we were in the parking lot.

"Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you," I said.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
"Yeah," I released him. "I just...oh god, Damien, I'm a mess,"
"Maybe you need a change of environment," he said. "I was just heading into town to the car wash, maybe we could grab something to eat,"
"I'd love that," I said going with him.

The ride into town was short and pleasant. We listened to music the whole way and he was practically dancing in his seat. It was cute. After leaving his car at the carwash, we walked across the street to a restaurant to grab lunch.

"Are you ever going to answer that?" I asked when his phone vibrated for the umpteenth time since we'd left school.
He turned it off, "I have a confession to make," he said when we were seated at a table.
"I'm all ears," I said sipping my water.
"I wasn't originally coming to the carwash, I just really needed to get away from school," "Why?"
"They're trying to fill up Roger's place on the team, as captain I know I should be there, but it just seems like we're moving on too quickly,"
I nodded, "I get that, you and Roger were close,"
"Close enough. After I was elected team captain instead of him, we kind of drifted apart. He was working extra hard to take the... uh, throne from me next year, but I wasn't having it. We often got into silly fights about it, pulled stupid pranks on each other, coach was not happy about that," Damien smiled to himself, most likely remembering something.
"I'm sorry for your loss," I said reaching out and squeezing his hand.

Roger was and would forever be missed by many.

He nodded, "So,what's with you and Vince? Why are you running away from him? Last I heard or saw, you two were working the rumor mill?"
I sighed dramatically, "I skipped class,"
"What? That's not something I expected from you. Vince's class?"
"Yep, I just, we hit a bump, for lack of a better term and aren't seeing each other anymore. Not that we were before, honestly, it's complicated,"
I nodded, "Why?"
"For one thing, it seems he and Reese are going out,"
Damien frowned, "Well that's new,"
"Didn't really shock me," I shrugged.
"I could have sworn you two would end up together," he responded.
"I guess I'm the only one that got carried away with whatever was happening between us,"
"I'm sorry," he told me.
I shook my head, "I really did like him, but hey, I guess I wasn't enough,"
Damien laughed, "You're joking, right?" He asked looking at me, bewildered. He continued when I only stared back at him. "Look I don't know what stupid reason he has for letting you go, but I promise you, that's not it. You are an amazing person, you are beautiful, a great cook, generous, funny, trust me, whatever happened, it wasn't you, it absolutely could not have been you,"