They Call Her Love | ✔️

35: They Call Her Forgiven

"Flight one-thirty-four to Cabo is now boarding business class."

I check the flimsy ticket in my hands. Yup, that's us. Business class.

"We're only going for the weekend, right? I can't miss debate practice on Monday or Charlie will kill me," Faith tugs on her fishtail braid. She appears more her age since she ditched caking on the makeup, standing in a oversized t-shirt, leggings, and white sneakers.

"I promise, Charlie won't kill you. Unless your new boyfriend is actually a serial killer," I say, suddenly feeling protective.

Faith blushes. "He's not my boyfriend, Love. Just a friend."

"Right. Just like Caleb is just a friend," I snort before realizing what I had said. Why did I say that? Caleb? Where did that come from?

"Finally! You admit it!" Faith jumps up, grabbing her carry on luggage.

"Shut up. I don't want to hear or talk about it," I grunt, now irritated at myself for blurting it out.

"We are definitely going to have a conversation about this new found relationship of yours, sis."

"We're not in a relationship," I make it clear to her. "I haven't even spoken to him in weeks."

"That is absolutely atrocious. You both shared a moment of endearment, not once, but twice, in the span of our month long break and you haven't communicated with him since?" She looks at me in agitation.

"I can't handle that right now, okay? When we got back to school, I had to deal with that stupid video, and then the original one came out, and I just started getting on good terms with Darcy and Jagger again...it's a lot. I don't want to throw Caleb into that mix when my head isn't on straight. It's not fair to him," I explain as we continue along in line. I ignore the few people ahead of us that began taking pictures of me. I must have screamed celebrity since I was hiding underneath a baseball cap and dark shades in the middle of January.

"Interesting," Faith digests this. "That's very...mature of you. Certainly unexpected."

"Caleb is the one good thing that has stayed constant these past shitty months. I don't want to ruin it because my life is a complete mess right now."

"But it isn't. At least not as muddled as it used to be. You are making progress to being a better person. Somewhat stagnant, though progress nonetheless."

We flash our boarding passes and proceed towards the plane.

"I'm glad you acknowledge that I'm trying. It's not easy," I admit. "If it were, I wouldn't be making an escape to a secluded island."

"Since when is having millions of dollars ever easy? Money has the power to turn even the purest of hearts into the greediest."

"Was I really that bad?" I ask, actually contemplating this.

"No, I'm simply pointing out that, under your particular circumstance, anyone would have easily fallen victim to the outlandish and spontaneous behavior you portrayed, possibly even worse. Also worth mentioning, at the end of the day, you're still just a teenager. It's a given that we're going to screw up sometimes."

How can someone this young be so wise?

"And you're not escaping," She continues. "You're simply taking a much needed weekend off for rejuvenation."

"Emphasis on much needed. I'm glad you're joining me," I shoulder bump her.

"I would not have if debate practice hadn't been pushed to Monday."