Thank you to @IntrovertsUnited (love your username) for the cute drawing above💓

you know what to do: point out the typos cause nic was half asleep writing 6000+ words today.

Chapter Fifty: "Blow The Whistle."

"IS IT WEIRD?"

"What is?" Natalie asked, turning her body to face me. She shoved her phone in her pocket, giving me her full attention. My cousin didn't look that different. Her blonde hair was in a bun and the mascara and eyeliner made her bright eyes brighter than I ever thought was possible. The crop top she was wearing showed her belly piercing she had told me about in February as well as the blue butterfly tattoo on her hip. I was pretty sure Uncle Anthony and Aunt Madelyn had screamed when they saw it.

"Having to see him everyday after what happened." I clarified.

Natalie blew a raspberry with her lips, lying back on the couch. "Yeah, for the next couple of days after we broke up it was like we constantly avoided each other which was weird considering we lived in the same place. Then I found a friend who let me crash at her place and now we don't talk."

"What are we talking about?" Natasha walked into the pool house, handing me a coke and Natalie a Sprite. Stevie followed behind, taking a seat next to me.

"Me and Jacob's failed relationship." Natalie mumbled, popping the can open.

"Yeah, what happened between the two of you?" Natasha asked, sitting down on the couch.

The last time I saw Natasha, her belly was barely swollen. Now it was almost seven months of her being pregnant and it was clear to say that she would was not able to hide it anymore. But there was an evident change in her appearance. She smiled more than I've ever seen her before. Maybe it was her and Ivan or the baby on the way or both. It was probably both.

"We just became different."

"Different?" Stevie inquired.

"We both wanted different things," She took another sip of her drink before putting it on the table in front of us. "So we took a break but didn't break up. Mind you, I said that we didn't break up. He had even said that we didn't break up. A break meant time away from each other-"

"Natalie, I think we get it." I told her, completely understanding.

"So, when Brandon and I were talking one night and he tells me that Jacob has gone with one of our friends. One of our girl friends. I didn't really care because it wasn't that big of a deal at the moment, she was our friend. I went to bed pretty early that night 'cause I had a test the next day and imagine my shock when I hear a sound, get out of my room and he practically tumbles in with our- my supposed friend. They were sucking face, possibly drunk out of their minds. I didn't really give a shit to be honest. So, I get pissed then he gets pissed claiming that we weren't really dating. So we're shouting at one another, Brandon takes my then friend home and we break up."

"She missed out a part." I said, glancing down at the messages streaming from my phone. The guys were out today doing only God knows what but it didn't stop Jon Ming and Caleb from blowing up the group chat I was in with just the two of them. I put my phone on airplane mode, shooting Natalie a look.

"What?" Stevie asked.

Natalie bit her lip as if she was trying to find a better way to tell them. There wasn't really a better way to say it. "I may or may not have thrown a plate at his head."

"He ducked at the right time." I added.

"Wow the Anderson aggression just runs in the family." Stevie muttered.

"Um, no," I quickly turned to Stevie. "I have never thrown a plate at Sam's head out of anger. That's just some other level."

"Excuse me?" Natalie looked offended.

"I meant what I said." I told my cousin.

"But last summer when he ticked you off you kicked a soccer ball and it almost smashed him in the face if he didn't move his head at the right time." Stevie said.

I took a sip of my coke, clearing my throat. "So anyway, Natalie," Stevie laughed at my change of subject. "Yeah. I have no idea what to say."

"I really thought you and him would be endgame." Natasha sighed.

"Well, living with your boyfriend after only months of being together can be a mistake," She told us. "Too much time together can get really irritating I guess."

"Great so too much distance and too much time together is a bad thing." Stevie sighed.

"Too much distance?" Natasha asked, confused.

"Jasmine. Remember? Her and Andrew?" She confirmed and I continued sipping my drink, trying not to think about that.

"Well fuck." Natalie said. "Anyway, Tasha how is it to have something growing inside you?"

"It is not something," Natasha glared at her playfully. "And it's overwhelming."

"You have a child inside you. An actual being. Of course it's overwhelming."

"No, it's just that I should have expected all of this to happen. Ivan and I getting married. Getting pregnant. My parents- don't even get me started on them. When they had found out months ago ago that I had gotten pregnant before I got married, they're still trying to get used to Ivan."

"But you've been with Ivan for years." I pointed out.

"Yes. And my mother still holds a disliking towards him for no good reason- actually they've had their differences of arguments when it comes to me but only because they both love me. At least that's what I keep telling myself."

"Differences?" Stevie asked.

"There's a lot of things my mom doesn't like about Ivan that's she's eventually going to have to accept."

"Like what?" Natalie questioned.

"My husband is an atheist," Natasha said like that was the answer to everything. "When my mom found that out she wasn't really happy that he's not a believer. And then she got mad at me."

"Wow." Natalie mumbled.

"Yeah," Natasha brushed her bright red hair out of her face. "Family dinners are going to be weird in the future. I am not prepared."

"Do you have any names?" I asked her, my eyes going down to her stomach.

"Yeah," A smile crept upon her face. "If it's a girl we want to go with Elena or Rebecca . if it's a boy Elliot or Thomas."

"You're doing the tradition thing that they have in Liz's side of the family right?" I asked her.

"What tradition thing?" Natalie asked.

"They take the names of their daughters usually firstborn out of the middle of name or first name of the maternal line of the family. Does that make sense?"

"Like, Bethany's name came from Liz's name, Elizabeth and Liz name came from her mom's middle name Eliza. Do you get it?" I expanded.

"Yeah and in the be part of Rebecca we were going to do for Bethany. That was Ivan's idea." Natasha said. I smiled at that. It great that all the boys, the Cahill no matter how troublesome they can be, showed their love for their sister in different ways.

"You know you kind of light up when you say Ivan's name?" Stevie told her.

Natasha's face turned red. "Stop."

"I'm not joking."

"Even when she says 'my husband', she gets so excited." I commented.

"You guys are annoying." We laughed and I looked at Natalie who seemed to be deep in thought.

"You okay?"

"You know we could find a new guy for you." Stevie said.

Natalie gave us a smile. An actual genuine smile. "I'm good. I don't want to talk about Jacob. I've moved on."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I haven't moved on." Jacob said and my lips parted in shock. We were in the middle of the park sitting under the big maple tree. Inn the corner of my eyes I caught Andrew passing one of the soccer balls to Brandon who passed it back.

"What?" I could feel Sam from where he was sitting behind me his chest against my back, turn to listen.

"I haven't." Jacob confessed, tying his cleats.

Jacob kind of looked different. Maybe it was the facial hair he was starting to grow or the way he had decided to grow out his hair while Brandon had recently cut his own. I felt like it was his presence that changed. He didn't seem a lot like the clueless goofball I used to know. He seemed a little bit more mature. Just a little bit.

"You practically cheated on her." I said bluntly, blinking several times as the wind blew through, ruffling the leaves of the tree. I could hear the chatter of other people in the large park as well as the speakers Sam was holding in his hands that was blasting music. He lowered it down so I could hear Jacob properly.

"Yeah, it was a mistake but I still want her back, you know?" He leaned back on his hands, looking up at the evening sun in the distance.

"Jacob." Sam said, his head on my shoulder and a hand on my waist.

"It was a mistake." He repeated to us.

"Usually people don't take people back from that kind of mistake," I told him and he sighed in response. "And don't tell us that. Tell her."

"She's not going to talk to me. She's not going to ever take me back." It wasn't like he was talking to us. It was like he was telling that to himself by his tone.

"Jacob, she's kind of moved on." I said.

"That's what she told you. You see your actions can be different from your words."

"Okay," Sam said, lacing my hand with his. "What actions has she done that proves that she could possibly take you back?"

"We made eye contact once."

Sam scoffed. "That doesn't mean shit."

"She's dated another guy after you, Jacob," I said as an example. "She's moved on."

"That means nothing." I know my cousin, I had wanted to say but I held back.

"Guys!" I heard a voice shout and Jacob and I turned our heads over to see a bunch of familiar faces. Luke ran over to me and bent down to give me a hug, sitting next to me under the shade of the tree.

"Hey." I grinned, looking at the guy I haven't seen in over a year. Other members from our old soccer team made their way over. Liam, Marcel, Eze and more crowded around us, making me smile wider than I originally thought was possible.

Marcel's eyes went big, looking down at my knee as Andrew and Brandon jogged over. "Holy shit, what happened to you?"

"ACL and MCL." I said.

"Fuck." Luke muttered.

"Yeah."

"How long do you have that brace on?" Eze asked.

"They don't know yet but probably a month more or maybe more. Most likely more. I have physiotherapy tomorrow to see."

Luke patted my shoulder. "You'll get through it."

"Thanks Luke. Now, how was this season? I heard you guys didn't go to provincials this year."

"Maybe because we didn't have you guys." Marcel said, strapping on his goalie gloves with a sour look on his face.

"You can't say that."

"I just did."

"I'm sure that's not the reason."

"Marcel is exaggerating." Liam told me.

"Am I really?" Marcel asked him, raising an eyebrow, grabbing one of my crutches to hit Liam with it. I didn't even bother stopping them when both my crutches were in their hands and they were hitting one another. Caleb used my crutch as a sword every time he saw me.

"We got new players and you know how it is," Luke tried explaining. "It's the chemistry of the team and it was just off this year. With you guys it was better. We were like a family. A strong family and team."

"You're going to college for soccer next year, aren't you?" I asked Luke.

"Yeah."

"Well, there's always going to be new people. You're always going to have to adapt."

Luke sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. "But still."

I reached over for the soccer ball that was next to my phone. Holding it onto the soccer ball that was in my hands, I spoke up. "It sucks when you're so used to one team and you have to move to another but it's for the best. It's change, dude. It happens."

"How was all of your teams this year?" He looked at all of us.

Sam and I scoffed as well as Andrew. "We were first years Luke, how did you think it went?"

"Bad I'm guessing?" He questioned.

"I was fresh meat at the beginning of the year." Sam shrugged.

"I barely got on the field as it was at first." Andrew added in.

"I made an enemy." I commented.

"Wow."

"It was weird at first." I told them.

"Yeah." Andrew agreed.

"But we got used to them. And before you knew it Drew got on the second string line up and Sam was a starter early in the season."

"And Macy got to be a starter too. And yeah, there's school too. So stress."

"So what we're trying to say is that you're going to a whole different place and things may not work out how you want them to but in the end it'll be alright." I watched the way Luke's eyes went to my knee and I snapped my fingers in front of his face. "In case you haven't noticed, it's not the end of me yet."

"We noticed," Luke said, smiling at me. "This is the shortest I've ever seen your hair." He flicked it and I swatted his hand away.

Marcel reached out to my ear. "Is that a new piercing?"

"Can you guys stop touching me like kids?" I swatted Marcel's hand off me and the entire group of them let out a laugh. I felt a sense of ease around them. I felt like I always would. "Now are you guys going to stand here talking or are you going to play soccer like we once did?"

"Where's the ref, Caleb?" Eze asked, looking around.

Caleb came rushing in a minute on Jon Ming's back and I let out a laugh. Caleb was wearing a white and black striped shirt and had a whistle around his neck. "I'm ready." He said, jumping off Jon Ming. Caleb handed me a scoreboard. "Here you go photographer."

I smiled, taking the scoreboard as the boys started dividing themselves into teams. I felt a pang in my chest at not being able to play especially in the place where I used to practice with Andrew after school when we were younger. Where my mom would try to help us out. I took a deep breath, my fingers going to the necklace around my neck. I traced along until my index and thumb were holding the soccer pendant. I missed her.

Sam caught my attention, pressing a kiss to the back of my neck. "You okay?"

I looked down at my camera and the scoreboard and them laughing. "Yeah, I am." And I was certain.

Sam rubbed my arms, leaning his head back against the tree, making me fall deeper in his arms. "We haven't been here in a long time but it feels like yesterday."

"That we got together?" I asked him.

"Yeah," He pointed over to a place on the field of the park near the pathway. "Right there. Remember?"

"How could I forget?"

"And Caleb, the annoying asshole kept interrupting me trying to actually ask you out."

I laughed at the memory. "That was so funny. You were so annoyed."

"Yeah but then we kissed here." He pointed near where we were sitting under the huge maple tree.

"Yeah." I said quietly, pressing a kiss to his hands before letting go. "Go."

"What?"

"Go play soccer. I don't know why you're sitting down with me."

"Sam, hurry up." Brandon yelled.

"I didn't bring cleats." Sam looked down at his converse shoes. "I can't play in these."

"Yes you can." I confirmed, reaching into the bag Andrew had brought and handing Sam a pair of gloves. "Try being goalie this time. New position."

"These were a priceless pair you know? Limited edition converse. I'll get dirt on them."

"I don't care," I grinned. "You're playing."

Sam rolled his eyes, grabbing the gloves, getting up and dusting himself off. The heat of spring made him leave his leather jacket at home and he stretched his shirt rising. When he caught me looking a smirk came to his face and he opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off. "Just go."

He laughed, jogging over to them when Caleb ran over to me as they took their positions. He sat down next to me, taking a dramatic breath before saying, "So."

"Aren't you reffing?"

"After years of going to some of Sam's games since I've met him I still don't get concept of soccer because frankly I suck at it. I'm only here because I wanted to wear the shirt and blow the whistle."

"Are you serious?"

Caleb blew the whistle as loud as he could, making me cover my ears as the game started. He gave me a grin. "Yep."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No, no, no," I told Sam, looking up at him. "Don't get attached to him."

"I wasn't getting attached."

"You just said you like him," I turned to get a clear look at him. "You can't like a character in this show. No one is safe."

"Does he die?"

"I'm not telling you." I waved a hand to get him to stop talking.

"Hazel, you practically just admitted to me that he dies."

"I DIDN'T. Just don't get too attached or else you'll cry when he dies."

"So he dies," I groaned when I realized I had spoiled it and Sam chuckled. "I don't cry at TV shows."

"I've seen you tear up in a movie," I pursed my lips. "Your pride is irrelevant whenever it comes to shows or films."

"Irrelevant." Sam repeated.

"Shh," I shushed him, pointing at the TV. "Look at the screen and shut up."

"You're mean, you know that?"

"And? You're interrupting my show."

"You've watched this before!"

"It doesn't matter."

"Why watch something again? I'll never understand that."

"Samuel. For the last time shut your mouth." I demanded.

He lasted five seconds. "Hazel, I'm confused."

"Oh my God!" I sat up from his chest, facing him. "You're annoying."

"You're the one who wanted to watch this."

"Because I wanted to watch it with you and ask you what you think. What do you think so far?"

"This is boring as fuck."

"We're only a half an hour into the episode."

"I stand by my statement."

I laid back into his arms, sighing and putting it on pause. "I hate you."

"Cool." He looked at me and noticed the look on my face, laughing. "Hazel."

"What do you want?"

"You really like this?" He pointed to the screen.

"Yes. It's one of the greatest shows of all time. Maddy recommended it to me."

"I kind of miss Maddy." He admitted.

"Same. She called me yesterday. She's says she's already tired of Canada."

"She wants to go back that badly?"

"Maddy had a really good time in Manchester, dude."

"Of course she did, dude," He said mocking me. "She was friends with me."

"Not everything is about you. She was my closer friend anyway."

"Only because she was your roommate. She had to be friends with you."

"Yes so our friendship was bound to have happened. You only met her through me so shut it. You were only friends by association." Sam reached over and grabbed the remote, turning the TV off.

My jaw dropped as he stood, knowing I would have a hard time getting it. "Are you kidding me? Turn it back on you idiot."

"No."

"I hate you."

"We've been over this a million. I know you do. I know you hate me. The feeling is very mutual." Maybe it was the look on his face or the way he was standing over me but I started laughing.

Sam stared at me confused. "What's so funny?"

I held my camera up and took a picture of him. "You are."

"I'm not funny looking."

"I still have that picture of you from last year."

"You have a lot of pictures of me from last year. You're gunna have to be specific, sweetheart."

"The camera loves you. It always does but I have like one or two pictures where it absolutely hates you."

"Are you telling that I'm ugly?"

"I didn't say that." I quickly defended.

"You implied it." He urged, his green eyes bright.

"No I didn't."

"It's okay. You're the only person that I allow to call me ugly anyway."

"And Caleb too."

"Yeah, but neither of your mean it but when I call Caleb ugly he gets offended."

I laughed at the irritation in Sam's voice, shifting to put my leg up on the couch in a comfortable position. Sam sat back down, putting an arm around me. "You know that house that Grandfather left to me?"

"Yeah. The pretty one."

"Because there is more than one house Hazel." He said dryly.

"It's a pretty house you and I know that you jerk." I hit him on the chest and he laughed.

"I'm joking, I'm joking," He took my hand, kissing the back of my head from how he was positioned on the couch. "But can you see us living there one day?"

I didn't answer without any hesitation, craning my neck to look up at him. "Yeah. Definitely one day."

"I can't wait for one day."

I smiled. "Neither can I."

"Baby?"

I stilled for a second at that name, getting in a proper position to look at him."Yeah?"

"Marry me," That smile that was on his face diminished when he repeated those words a second time. "Marry me."

"Sam," A smile came to my face as I flicked a lock of his curly hair away from his forehead. "We're only nineteen."

"And?"

I laughed, hitting his chest. Then I realized with the look on his face it didn't look like he was joking and my laugh faded away. I sat up, slowly finding my way to face him. "You're serious."

"When am I not?"

When is he not? "You're not serious like nine percent of the time but Sam-"

"But what?"

"Like I said, we're nineteen. I'm in love with you and you're in love with me. What's the rush here?"

"So what I'm hearing is..." The smile on his face grew as he trailed off.

"Sam!" I laughed again, hitting his chest lightly.

"That you'll eventually marry me." He finished off.

I held his face in my hands, looking him straight into his green eyes with a promise of words that never sound so certain. "One day."

"One day," He repeated, turning his hand to kiss the palm of my hand. "And for the record I just wanted to know what you would say."

"So you wouldn't propose to me like this on the couch in your room, while I'm trying to show you one of my favorite shows?"

"No," Sam started to zone out and I wondered what was going through his head. "It would be big. It would surprise you. It would be completely unexpected. But one day you'll see it."

"But for today, I need to catch a ride to somewhere." I grabbed my crutches, starting to stand up.

"Where you heading?"

"Oh, you're dropping me there?"

"And I'll pick you up too, obviously. How else are you going to get there? On your invisible wings?"

"Yeah of course," I rolled my eyes. "And I'll meet Rudolph the red nose reindeer in the sky and we'll forget where I'm going and head to the north pole. Do you want a present from Santa?"

"If the present he can give me is to fix your attitude then I'll accept it." My lips parted at that comeback and Sam smiled smugly. "Yeah, remember you don't always win."

Sam started walking out of his room. "Are you coming or are you going to just stand there?"

"You know what? I'm going to call Caleb maybe he can give me a ride."

"Don't be mad." He groaned.

"I'm not mad. I'm salty." I mumbled, slowly making my way out of the room when I almost collided with someone.

"Sorry," Phillip started apologizing before looking up at me with his bright eyes. "Macy!"

"Phillip!" I matched his voice with the same enthusiasm.

"I didn't know you were here."

"Blame your brother."

"I have like eight," Phillip said and I rolled my eyes, ruffling his hair. He smiled before looking down at my leg. "Are we going to be able to go to the park anytime soon?"

"Yeah."

"And ride our bikes like we did last summer?"

"Phillip, we'll be able to do that eventually."

"When that comes off and you don't need those?" He asked, pointing at the brace and the crutches.

"Yeah. But until then you're just going to have to talk to me and tell me everything that's been happening."

Phillip narrowed his eyes at me. "What are you talking about?"

"I told her about you and Amanda." Sam said, walking past us.

Phillip glared at his brother. "You weren't supposed to tell her."

"Well, you were gunna tell her eventually." Sam leaned against the railing of the staircase.

"You're nine." I reminded Phillip.

"We're not dating! She likes me! She kissed me!" He point at his chest at each exclamation, the desperation on his face.

"She kissed you?"

"Sam didn't tell you that part?"

"No." I glanced over at Sam and he nonchalantly shrugged. Idiot.

"Yeah," Phillip's nose scrunched up at the memory. "It was so weird."

"And now you're dating?"

"She asked me in front of everyone! I couldn't say no." He sighed, putting his hands in his pockets.

"You're a nice guy Phillip."

"I know. But Ivan and Sam said they're going to find a way for her to break up with me."

"What?"

"I can't just break up with her," He explained. "That's mean but if she breaks up with me, then it's good."

I looked up at Sam and he shrugged. "He's being nice."

"Why can't he just write her a nice note or say that he's not allowed to date?"

"Because I'm a Cahill." Phillip answered.

I stared at the kid dumbfounded. "And?"

"And nothing," Phillip told me. "That's my answer. Ivan told me that that should be the answer to a lot of things."

"Phillip we've been over this. We don't listen to Ivan we-"

"Only listen to Toby, Cedric, Lucas, Joey, Greg out of your brothers and Sam when he says something that makes sense. I know, I know."

"Makes sense," Sam repeated with narrowed eyes. "Let's get going shall we?"

I smiled down at Phillip, giving him a fist bump. "PJ, I'll see you later."

"Bye." Phillip ran off and about twenty minutes later, Sam narrowed his eyes when he realized who's house we were in front of.

"Huh." Sam said, staring at it with an odd expression.

"Yeah."

"How long are you gunna be?" He asked, his eyes still on it.

"Not long. I don't think so."

"I'm going to get gas for the car and I'll be right back okay?"

"Okay." I got out of the car and when I had made my way up the steps of the giant house, Sam pulled away in his car and I pressed the doorbell.

When I was going to press it another time, the door opened and a familiar face brought a smile to my face.

"Drake."

He gave me a bigger smile. "Mace."

A hug later, I was finding my way through the house when Drake mentioned it. "Sam told me but wow. Seeing it and hearing about it are two completely different things."

"Yeah." I lifted one of my crutches as he observed me with his brown eyes.

"But, anyway, I like your hair."

"Thanks and you, you look buffer." I bluntly mentioned and he laughed.

"Yeah, I've been to the gym a lot."

"Really?"

"Megan got me on it. She goes so now I go too."

"How is Megan?" I asked referring to his girlfriend after he handed me a water from the kitchen. My eyes wandered around the house. Everything still looked the same to me. Nothing really looked different.

"She's good. We're good."

"Are you going to pop the question anytime soon?"

Drake laughed, shaking his head about to take a sip of his water. "Not yet. Has Sam popped the question yet?"

"He just did actually."

Drake almost choked on his water he had been drinking. "What? What did you say?"

"That we're still young. That we have time. But one day."

"One day?"

"Yeah."

"You know, that's what I like about you two. You're so certain." Drake's phone rang and he took it out of his pocket. "I gotta take this but go on up. There's an elevator in the back, remember?"

"I remember." I gave him a small smile, thinking of one time in sixth grade when Jasmine and I got stuck in that same elevator.

"Jasmine will be in in a couple of minutes anyway. She went to the mall." He disappeared down the hall and minutes later I pushed the door open to her room.

It was still the same; the purple room and purple furniture. The Star Wars and Star Trek stuff she had were still there but she looked like she was in the process of taking them off, due to one of the posters on the bed and one of the shirts on the ground.

Wow. I thought to myself, my eyes catching a picture of her on the shelf. She was smiling at the camera with a bunch of people that were wearing the same lifeguard uniform. I was surprised she was back since her semester in university didn't end.

I put the picture frame down when I heard voices. The sound of laughter. When the door opened, the laughter increased but one of the two instantly stopped. Jasmine looked at me in shock, almost dropping her phone.

She didn't look that different but at the same time she did. I couldn't explain it.

Someone was right behind her, still laughing. "Jaz, it's not that..."

Their voice faded away and I looked at the guy that was probably Ace. Ace was tall but I was taller. He stopped laughing when he saw me, diminishing it into a small smile that showed one dimple etched into his cheek. He put the bags he was carrying in his hands on the desk, putting a hand out towards me. "Hey, I'm Ace."

I held my crutch at an uncomfortable place to shake his hand before putting it back. "Macy."

I looked over at Jasmine. Her eyes were glued to my knee, shock covering her face when Ace said in his thick accent, "Oh, you're Macy."

Yeah, I just said that. I thought in my head.

Jasmine cleared her throat and Ace turned to her. "Um, I just need a moment with Macy. I'll meet you downstairs in a second."

"Alright, nice to meet you." He disappeared and Jasmine entered her room, putting the bags on the counter.

Jasmine rubbed her hands before looking at me in the eyes. "Macy, what happened?"

"Drake didn't tell you?" He must have thought she already knew, I thought by the shaking of her head. "I tore my MCL and ACL."

"When?"

"A little over a month ago. It was a soccer game." I told her, putting all my weight on my other leg.

"I-I didn't know."

"Yeah," I waved off the topic, not wanting to talk about that anymore than I have since I returned. "But that's not why I'm here."

"Um, what brings you here then?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Let's talk."

There was a pause.

"We haven't spoken in months." Jasmine didn't say anything to that and I got slightly irritated by that. I felt like I was getting irritated by everything. I was getting irritated by change. Just the change between us. "So, how's school?"

"It's going okay, you?"

"Why haven't you spoken to me since?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

Jasmine crossed her arms. "Because you obviously chose."

"I didn't pick a side."

"You didn't have to pick a side," She said. "It was always going to be Andrew anyway."

"Jasmine, I gave you the chance to rekindle our friendship after what happened. We talked for a while."

"We did." She agreed.

"Then what happened? You just talk to me one day and then just stop. I was the one who always called you. I checked up on you. I did. Don't tell me I didn't."

"I know you did."

"And In my mind I was thinking what if I didn't check up on you? Would you do the same for me even though we're miles away from one another? So I didn't call you anymore. I didn't send you a text first. Just to check and till this day you still haven't spoken to me."

"Mace-"

I getting riled up because I have been holding this back for months. "I just want you to know that effort in a relationship whether you're dating or you're friends is a two way street. And ever since summer of last year ended there has no effort from your side. At all."

She was silent for a second and I heard her quietly ask, "So you came here to tell me that?"

"Yeah, because I know that you moving and getting all caught up in your new life or place or whatever is great. It's exciting. Whatever, I can relate. But I still wanted to call you. I still wanted to talk to my friend, someone I thought would stick with me for a lifetime. It's just that even when we spoke on the phone it was so obvious."

She stared at me and I was certain she was faking the confusion."What was?"

"That's it's not the same anymore. It wasn't. It was just awkward." Awkward. The word I never used with any of my friends whenever we would be talking. Because believe it or not we would always find something to talk about.

Andrew had mentioned this before. That he and Jasmine's relationship ending was foreseen. The conversations grew shorter and they rarely had anything to talk about anymore. That's how it was for me and her especially after what happened with her and Andrew. But on our side, we tried to hold the conversation.

She opened her mouth to speak but I stopped her. "It was like every single time I called you, you just wanted to have the conversation to get it over with by saying 'I have to go somewhere, bye'. You went somewhere else, you changed and completely let go of everyone that was with you including me. And I never thought that would be possible."

Jasmine's eyes trailed off me for a second before she exhaled. "So me breaking up with Andrew was what initiated this whole thing? Us not having a proper conversation? You telling me that this is my fault?"

"I don't know if it's just your fault. It's my fault too. Maybe I should have put more effort than I was already giving. Maybe I shouldn't have thought of you as a different person after what happened. But Drew? He kept telling me to not push you away. Don't pick a side. But he didn't know we had stopped talking because I decided not to be the one to call you first. That I decided to test if our friendship was really hanging by a thread. And it was."

"Mace-"

"You cheating on Andrew is what did it but it was the aftermath that had the most impact on our friendship. I didn't mean to pick a side. I really didn't," My voice cracked and my vision blurred but I blinked the tears away. "But it's not like last year. And maybe it's for the best."

At my last sentence Jasmine's eyes went down, her fingers trailing along the desk. I heard a sniff and she wiped her eyes quickly. "It really isn't the same anymore, is it? It never really was after we went our separate ways."

"No." I mumbled.

There was a moment of silence between the two of us and I found that completely ironic. A moment of silence. And look what died. Our friendship.

Jasmine looked up at me, biting her lip before saying the words, "I'm sorry."

I stared at her for a second longer, trying to remember that girl I knew. She looked at me in a certain way because she had expected this to come. We both did.

"I'm sorry too."

I was starting to get out of the room when she called out,"Mace."

I stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

"I really am sorry."

"I know you are," I took a deep breath. "Take care."

I was making my way out of the house as fast as I could when Drake stopped me. "Did everything go okay?"

I glanced upstairs, where the door to Jasmine room was still open and I could see her looking down at us. I tore my eyes away from hers, looking at her brother. "I'll call you."

Drake nodded silently, getting the hint of what happened. Sam's car was already at the front and I made my way inside and he got out of the car to put my crutches in the back. I stayed silent, biting on my bottom lip so hard that I tasted blood. Oh my God. When we were driving off the empty street, he glanced at me. "Hazel, what-"

I let out a shaky breath, the tears falling from my face. I tried wiping them away but they fell onto my cheeks faster than I thought. Letting me know that I had been holding them back for a while now. Sam pulled over and he quickly held me in his arms. He didn't ask any questions. He knew it. He held me as I sobbed in his chest at the loss of a long time friendship.

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