Foreign Love

XIII - Another One

Chapter 13: Another One

    We were approaching the school when I decided to bring up the party in a way that was not so obvious I wanted to talk about what happened between us, while being perfectly understandable that I did. For I did. A lot.

"So how did you manage to leave the party after the police came?" I asked.

He chuckled.

"I jumped over the hedge in the garden. Pure adrenaline. Imagine if my mum were to find out about this? Ugh, I'd never hear the end of it!"

I was trying to figure out a way to jump from talking to his mum to talking about the fact we nearly did it, but he made all the effort for me. Helpful.

    "Hey, about what happened at the party..." He began, scratching the back of his head.

    "What about it? Was it so bad?" He looked away. "It was my first kiss in three years, but we could try again." He looked at me again, with eyes as though he'd killed someone. 

    "Three years? Shit..."

    "Why are you making such a big deal about it? I'm 18, not 40, it isn't so hard to believe that you were only the second man to come into my life."

    "That's not it. It's just that I am not interested in you like that. I mean, I am, but... uh... what we had at the party... like, I was there, you were there, we had a thing, but nothing special, right?" The words came out of his mouth, but they carried very little, if any, meaning. Everything he said contradicted the previous one.

    "Nothing special?!" I managed to get something from that mess: "What part of 'my first kiss in three years' you didn't get?"

    "I know, and I feel bad for it now. I'm so, so sorry for having been that to you, Tom... but I was drunk and..."

    "Bullshit! You said you hadn't drunk a drop! How come now you're suddenly drunk?" He looked around, nervous. "If you want some time to think about what happened, fine. I've waited three months, so I reckon I can take a couple more, but don't come dumping me with cheap lies, because that's a dick move, which is very unlike you. That is if I really know you." He looked surprised by my sudden change of behavior. "Also, why would you be sorry for that? Andrew, are you hiding something from me? Whatever it is, I can take it. If there's a reason why you don't wanna be with me, I want to know. I need to know. You owe it to me and you know it."

    He spent some time recovering from the shock and preparing a way to deliver his next words.  thinking about what to say.

    "I'm seeing someone else," he said, finally. "And I'm actually going on a date with her tonight. You were... something I needed to get out of my system. I was curious, and I did it. I am genuinely sorry I meant more to you than you did to me. "

    That hit hard. A gunshot would have probably hurt less. I felt tears starting to come to the corner of my eyes, but I said I could take anything, didn't I? Well, it's time to act the part.

    "Oh..." I was trying to conceal all the emotions that were building beneath my skin. And there were a lot of those, believe me. "And who is the unfortunate girl?"

    "Amanda Jackson." Oh, no, anyone but her! What have I done to deserve this?

    "Out of all the girls you could've picked," I chuckled, but it almost made me cry. "Congratulations, Andrew: you two deserve each other. You really do."

I turned around and started to walk away by myself, knowing I'd break down at any time.

    "Tom, wait." He grabbed my shoulder to try to stop me, but I ignored him and kept walking. "Tom, please."