Chapter 17

Kayden:

Can you two come over?

Girl trouble

It was like he dropped off the face of the Earth. None of us had heard from him since yesterday. Him storming off from Angela at lunch wasn't the only highlight of yesterday's events. We caught him and Angela fighting at his car after school.

Since the whole Gray situation started, he was going to come over every night, but there was my date with Garrett and then, Olive and I went costume shopping. He was, however, supposed to come over last night after we went home. He was a no-show.

He didn't respond.

Zach had been trying to get a hold of him all day yesterday.

He didn't reply to any of his texts or calls.

I tried texting him, even decided to use my phone as an actual telephone and dialed his number.

Nothing.

We'd all been worrying about him all night and morning. What kind of girl trouble was he having? I got dressed in my favorite white, knitted sweater with a pumpkin printed on the front, black leggings and black, leather, knee high boots.

There was a knock on my door. Seeing that my parents already left for work, the only other resident of this house who it would be was Zach. The possibility of me still being in my underwear and bra didn't deter him as he walked right in without waiting for the green light from me.

"Did he tell you what was wrong?"

He shook his head. You could clearly see in his eyes that he was worried about him. This was the longest they'd gone without texting. "He never got back to me." His voice dropped to a whisper as he nodded his head in the direction toward downstairs.

It took a few seconds for Kayden to open the door, but when he did, we noticed that Angela was inside. A sheen of tears glazed over her eyes as she glanced at me. She started shooting daggers at me and stormed out, making sure to 'accidentally' bump my shoulders with hers on her way to her car.

Oh shit.

Oh, she pissed.

What'd I even do?

"What happened?" My eyes were still on Angela as she slammed her car door shut. She was far away, but I could swear it looked like she was hunched over the wheel crying.

"I broke up with her."

Holy shit.

"Because I realized that I had feelings for someone else."

Holy shit!

My breath hitched in my throat at the thought of my dream since I was five becoming my reality. I could tell by their facial expressions how this was going to end; Kayden was glancing up at me through his lashes and Zach was staring at me with his curled lips growing bigger.

The anticipation for him to say it out loud was killing me. I played dumb.

"For who?"

He dropped his head to face the floor and he ran his fingers through his hair, mumbling something to himself. "Don't make me say it."

I want to make you say it.

You have to say it!

Please say it!

"Who?"

Despite the weight of shock I felt in my chest, the corners of my mouth tilted upward. I longed to hear his voice saying the words. 

"I have feelings for you."

HOLY SHIT!

As satisfying as it was to hear those words out loud rather than in my head, the realization dawned on me that I was dating Garrett. A boy whom I started to like and who was amongst one of the kindest gentlemen I'd ever met.

I was torn. I had loved Kayden for most of my life and now, I also had feelings for someone else. I loved the classic love-triangle trope. It was fun to watch them on TV because I wasn't the one who had to make the choice. I never wanted to be in one of those situations.

Well, here I was.

Gosh, what has my life turned into?

-

Pacing back and forth and worrying about what to do was what I'd been doing since I got home. The sound of Zach's annoying video games was not helping the migraine that made itself at home in my head. The doorbell rang and it was obvious that Zach was too engrossed by his game to be bothered.

I'm so glad he offered to move in with me, I sarcastically thought. I swung the door open and there Olive stood in her sexy nurse costume in a bag that was under her arm. Each hand held a makeup bag armed with weapons to assault my face with.

She passed a lazy wave to Zach before taking me by my wrist and dragging me upstairs to my room. "I'm so excited for this party!" Halloween brought out the child in her. Olive twirled around and spilled out the contents of the makeup bag in front of my bathroom mirror.

Just wait until you hear this news.

"It's ironic when you think about it. You're the future nurse and yet, here I am dressing up as one. Well, a sexier version of one."

Okay, if you would just let me get a word—

"Want me to apply shimmery eyeshadow? Oh, where are your wings? Did you get them yet? I can't wait to see you with those wings! You're gonna look so cute!"

Geez, can you take a breath?

And let me get a word in?

I've been dying to tell you—

"Garrett won't be able to keep his hands off you and Kayden is gonna be so—"

"Kayden told me he liked me."

In that instant, Olive dropped the wings to the floor and stood frozen. Her feet were glued to the spot and she remained facing the opened closet until she spun around. She was stuttering, trying to process what I told her as well as my current situation.

"Kayden said he liked you."

"Mmhm."

"But you're with Garrett."

"Exactly."

"You were partly dating Garrett to get your mind off Kayden."

"Maybe."

"But now, you have actual feelings for him."

"That would be correct."

"But you've had a crush on Kayden since you were, like, five."

Olive cursed under her breath with her hand flying dramatically to her heart. "I need to sit down." She dropped herself on the bed.

"I'm freaking out because I like both Garrett and Kayden. I've loved Kayden since I was five, but Garrett... he's such a sweet guy. I felt a connection with him on the date. We have so much in common. He wants to get into the medical field too, he loves the beach, he's also such a big, not to mention, smoking hot nerd, he's just as competitive as I am. I just don't know what to do. I really don't. I mean, what do I do?" I finally took a breath, but my mind was going a hundred miles a minute as I dragged myself next to Olive. We sat there in silence; our breaths being the only noises our ears detected. "What am I gonna do?"

Olive shrugged and shook her head. "I don't have a damn clue."

-

I decided to put the whole Kayden vs. Garrett thing to the side for the night. This stressed me out the whole time I was getting dressed into my costume and Olive was doing my makeup.

Maybe the answer would come to me somewhere down the line and it would feel right. In the meantime, I was going to the party. I was dressed in all white; a tight crop top that showed off my midriff, high-waisted jeans and pointed high heels.

Shimmery eyeshadow decorated my eyelids, Olive curled my hair in waves before adding a halo headband and she finished the look off with small wings behind my back. Olive looked stunning in her white, tight nurse uniform that had a short skirt.

Her costume was tight enough that you could see her curves and she added an old fashioned nurse hat. She framed her eyes with fake lashes, colored her plump lips with red lipstick and pink blush to her cheeks.

"I just have to say this. Damn, we look good!"

We posed for about fifty different selfies in front of the mirror before Zach knocked on the bedroom door. He automatically swung the door open in his surfer costume. Lucky bastard didn't need to do more than dress in a tank top with a chain dangling around his neck. If only women had it that easy. "Kayden and I will see you there?"

I froze, save for my eyes that widened more than just a smidge.

"Kayden's coming? I didn't think he'd still come after the breakup."

"We're still going. Technically, she never said we were uninvited. Peace out!" He stomped down the stairs on the way out, and shouted that Garrett was here.

There goes my stress-free night.

When I started to feel eyes on me, I turned to Olive to see that she was just as shocked as I was. She let out a low whistle with her wide eyes the same size as mine. "Why the hell would she not uninvite them? Who'd wanna face the guy that broke their heart and their best friend at their own birthday party?"

I was wondering the same thing, but shook that thought out of my head and focused on my new plan: to avoid Kayden at all costs and act like it didn’t break my heart to see him hurt.

"What are you gonna do?" Olive asked with guilt etched into her facial features.

I shrugged. "I guess I'm just gonna have to ignore him." The taste of guilt danced on my tongue as I spoke those words out loud. It was going to be easier said than done. We sprinted downstairs to open the door and there Garrett stood in a red suit and tie with a devil horn headband. He looked me up and down and I swore there was drool dripping from the corner of his lips. "Damn, you look–"

"–good. We know," Olive interrupted, flipping her hair with a confident smirk.

"Shall we, my beautiful angel?" Garrett held out his arm while sending a wink in my direction.

My face heated up at the gesture and nickname. I hooked my arm around his and he guided me to his car. Olive yelled out that she'd meet us there. When we pulled up to the house, I wasn't expecting it to be the size of a mansion.

It was about three thousand square acres with a gate in front of the long driveway. We were greeted by splashing noises coming from the backyard and there were floor to ceiling windows that allowed us to see elegant furniture in the living room and what costumes the other guests were wearing.

I dragged Garrett to meet Olive at the front door where there were spider webs on the corners of the door frame and carved pumpkins sitting in the corner.

The inside was covered in more decorations that made it look like a haunted mansion; fake blood was dripping from the walls, a big tarantula hung from the ceiling and a skeleton hung on the wall in the corner. The birthday decorations were mostly in the kitchen.

Gold balloons spelling out ‘18’ were by the back door, a birthday banner was hanging above the window that was over the sink and there was a three-tiered cake sitting on the island waiting to be cut. In the middle of observing the inside of the house, I spotted Kayden and Zach sitting on the couch.

They were both dressed as surfers with tank tops, swim trunks, flip flops and chains around their necks. A deep red blush spread to my cheeks when I realized he was checking me out too. His teeth were biting his bottom lip and his hand was clenched into a fist.

Olive leaned in toward my ear and whispered, "I guess you can say mission accomplished." Her gaze was fixed on Kayden who was now pretending he was listening to what Zach was saying.

"Trey, what's going on?"

Trey Warton, Garrett's best friend, was throwing him a worried look while Angela was, again, shooting daggers at me with narrowed eyes and her arms crossed. Before I could ask her why she was giving me the cold shoulder, Angela brazenly marched up to me and punched me in the face.