Nothing to lose

Chapter 34: Grey

I knew I'd be able to work through my thoughts after talking it over with someone. And who better to listen to my problems than Tatum. Nothing against the other guys. I just felt like he would be able to relate more than Dean and Tobias.

I knocked on the door and waited for him to answer.

He opened the door, looking at me with one eye open.

"Grey, what's up?" He said, covering a yawn with the back of his hand.

He didn't wait for me to answer before waving me in.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to wake you," I told him with an apologetic smile.

"It's fine. You alright? You never pop up like this?" He asked with concern.

"Is it cool if I crash here for the night?" I answered his question with one of my own.

"Sure." He nodded, crossing his arms against his chest. "Just as long as you tell me why you're here instead of at your place with Mia."

I walked over to his couch and plopped myself onto it.

With a sigh, I raked my fingers through my hair. "We got into an argument, and I stormed off," I muttered. Every time I replayed the moment in my head, I became uneasy.

"Okay," I watched Tatum grab two water bottles from the fridge, a bag of kettle chips, and pretzel MMs from the cabinet. Then he pulled out two Styrofoam bowls. "I'm going to need more details. You're probably here because you want to talk, right?"

I nodded.

He walked over, handed me one bottle then placed the snacks on the coffee table in front of us.

"Alright, so I'm all ears." He opened the bag of chips, pouring some into one bowl before sprinkling MMs on it and passing it to me.

I chuckled. "Thanks." I'd be lying if I said this wasn't comforting food, which was kind of what I needed.

I tossed a chip into my mouth. "I found out Mia kept a massive secret from me, and I went off on her about it. We've never argued like that. Not since the eighth grade when she heard some dumb rumors about this girl named Kacey something and me." Someone had told Mia that she saw Kacey and me kissing under the bleachers during gym class, and they swore we were going out. Mia got mad because I had told her days before that I didn't like Kacey and thought I had lied. What didn't help my case was whenever Kacey saw me, she decided to stick to me like gum on the bottom of a shoe. That girl was a thorn in my side. She couldn't take a hint.

It wasn't until I saw her step up to Mia, talking a bunch of nonsense about being jealous and secretly in love with me, that I straight up told her she would never have a chance. As I've always said, whoever messed with Mia messed with me. Her fights were my fights.

I explained the whole argument with Tatum, telling him who said what and asking him what he thought this meant for our relationship. I also added the part about us making a deal to date for the summer.

His jaw went slack upon receiving that info, but he regained his composure. Out of everything, I told him that was the one thing that caught him off guard.

"What were you planning on doing at the end of summer?"

I shrugged. "I was hoping I would have changed Mia's mind by then and convinced her that we could make it. I never wanted to have Mia as some summer fling. She means more to me than that. I was just afraid to tell her that I wanted her for longer. I was worried it would freak her out. So I concocted this plan and figured I would take baby steps in that direction." I slumped back into the couch before grabbing a handful of MMs. "Now, I see no matter how she feels about me, she probably would have broken it off anyways because she was afraid. Afraid that one day, it would be all over, and she would have lost her boyfriend and her best friend. She wouldn't know how to recover from that."