fake | tratie | EDITING |

| eighteen |

"Piper just informed us of what she saw in the pavilion." Miranda tapped her foot on the ground.

"And we want to make sure you're okay," added Natalie, sending Miranda a look that said behave.

I groaned as I sat on a bunk and hoped they'd follow suite. I didn't feel like standing while having this conversation. I had barely figured everything out myself, and now I had to give my friends some form of explanation. "Travis found me in the strawberry fields and we talked it over. He told me his feelings were genuine, and I believed him. That's pretty much it."

"I thought we were supposed to hate his guts for hurting you," Piper commented, sitting on the bed with me. "Don't get me wrong, I got really good couple vibes from you two at first, but now I don't know what to think."

Shaking my head, I corrected her. "No, I was mad at myself. You guys were mad at Travis, but I wasn't."

I wondered why Piper was so mad if she saw a possible relationship in us.

Miranda scoffed. "I'm not mad at him, I just despise his very being."

I couldn't help my snappy words. "Could you guys at least try to support me?"

She hurried to me, and so did Calypso and Natalie. "No, no! That's what I thought I was doing, Katie. You don't know how hard it was to see you like you have been lately, and he was the one to blame for it."

"We just don't trust him," Natalie explained. "He shoved too much onto your plate and expected you to react well. I don't like that."

"We just want to protect you," Miranda finished.

Calypso nodded. "But we also want what's best for you, and that includes what you want to do."

They threw a lot at me in that little bit, and it took me a minute to think about what I wanted to say. Eventually, I spoke.

"He didn't expect me to react well. He was opening up to me." I drew a long breath, praying that they'd be chill. "He told me he'd never hurt me and that he really cared about me."

Now that I said it aloud, it sounded like every other guy who'd ever talked to me. Every guy who'd broken my heart said something along those lines, and I'd blindly believed them. But I was so distrusting now, what if I was over-analyzing Travis?

"I want to give him a fair shot. I think I really like him, and if he does too, then it'll work out," I decided, more to myself than anyone else.

Calypso agreed. "We have to let her make her own choices."

Grateful for her taking up with me, I smiled at her. "Thanks."

"Okay," Miranda joined in. "You know what? If you think this is the way to go, then I'll have your back the whole way."

"Same," Natalie piped up.

"But if he hurts you, we'll tear him apart." Piper grinned at me fondly. "You're our friend, and we don't want to see you in pain."

"I think he at least deserves a chance. I wasn't very fair to him."

Reluctantly, they all jumped off their bandwagon of hating Travis. They wanted to keep me safe and make sure I didn't get used or manipulated, so their first instincts had been to defend me to the death. I told them how Travis had found me in the strawberry fields, and everything he'd said to me. How he wanted to "prove" that he cared about me. It took a decent amount of convincing on Piper's and Miranda's parts, but they relented to my confidence in him. I wanted to believe he was being genuine, and I wanted my friends to believe it, too.