"Chad."
"Mags," he said and glared at Caleb.
I was shocked. Chad was never aggressive. He was nice to everyone and he never thought twice when someone else looked at me before. Why now?
"What"s up?" I asked and he looked at me, his expression softening a little. "What are you doing here?" I asked, not unkindly.
"I wanted to come see you before I left to set up my apartment in Gainesville," he stated and glanced at Caleb nervously. Then he sighed. "I was hoping we could talk."
"Well," I said and didn"t know what else to say.
"My dad is letting me go alone for two weeks to get settled in and then I"ll come back to pack. I leave in a few days." He clucked his tongue. "Maybe we can go get something to eat?"
"I already ate at Caleb"s house."
He scoffed.
"So, first Kyle, now this guy? What are doing, Maggie?" he asked sweetly, like it was an intervention or something.
"Chad, this is Caleb. Caleb, Chad."
"Hey," Caleb said smoothly but Chad ignored him.
"Caleb is Kyle"s cousin. I wasn"t on a date with Kyle that night."
"It sure looked like one to me."
"Well, it wasn"t. It"s always been Caleb."
"Can we talk," he said exasperated and glanced at Caleb again. "Alone."
"I"d rather not."
"Maggie," Caleb said and pulled me a little bit away. "Maybe you should talk to him."
"What?" I scoffed. "Why?"
"Because you need to fix whatever it is that"s wrong with you guys and this way, he"ll go to school and not feel like he needs to apologize anymore. He feels guilty."
"He should," I insisted and felt my heart spike.
"I know," he crooned and framed my face with his hands. I sighed. "I"m not saying you should forgive him and run away into the sunset." He chuckled. "I"m saying it would be better for both of you if you have some - at the risk of sounding cheesy- closure."
"I guess," I conceded. "But I don"t want you to go."
"I"ll just go wait at Kyle"s. Let you guys talk for a while. Then I"ll come back as soon as he leaves. Give me your cell."
I handed it over and he pulled his out too. After a few seconds of pressing b.u.t.tons he gave it back.
"There, now I"m in yours and you"re in mine. I can"t believe I didn"t have my soul mates phone number," he said jokingly.
"Yeah, pretty crazy," I said and wanted to feel happy and secure like he did but I just couldn"t.
"Maggie," he said softly and I looked up his face. "Are you scared to be with him?"
"No. He wouldn"t hurt me."
"Then you"re scared of Marcus? I"ll be right back. You won"t have to worry about falling asleep without me-"
"No, it"s not that. I just don"t want to do this with him right now. He"s leaving and he doesn"t want to leave with me mad at him but, if not for that, he wouldn"t be apologizing to me right now."
"Hmm. I"m sure it"s more than that," he insisted. "I"ll be three minutes away. If it gets too bad just call for me and I"ll come running."
I c.o.c.ked a brow at him.
"Why do you think he"s here?"
He looked at me closely.
"I think he saw you with Kyle and freaked. He"s never seen you with anyone else and it made him jealous. I think he"s coming to ask you to work it out with him, to give the long distance thing a shot or come to Florida with him for school."
"Nuhuh. He wouldn"t ask that."
"We"ll see," he mused.
"You"re not worried?"
He shook his head.
"Nah," he said but looked at me crookedly. "Should I be?"
I smiled and shook my head.
"Nuhuh. No way."
He smiled and pressed his face to mine. Once again, noses, foreheads and cheeks touching, lips so close, not even an inch between them. His hand came up to my cheek.
I breathed him in and nuzzled his nose with mine.
"I want to. So bad," he whispered.
"Then why don"t you?" I whispered back.
I knew we were talking about kissing.
"I told you I"d let you set the pace."
"You"ve been waiting on me?"
I realized that was exactly what he"d been doing. He never did anything I didn"t want to. He never pushed me to do more. He was waiting on me. Every time he"d pressed his face to mine, he had been waiting on me to close the distance.
"I never wanted it to be said that I pushed you into anything," he said and leaned back a little to look at me.
"I wouldn"t think that," I insisted.
"I know but, you already gave up so many choices. I wanted you to have the choice as to when and if we kissed or not."
"If?"
"Yeah."
"So, if I never kiss you, you"ll be perfectly fine with that?" I teased.
"Well," he grimaced. "Not perfectly fine but, I"ll live." He smiled. "I just want you to be happy, Maggie."
This was it, I was going to kiss him. I got closer, licked my lips. He saw and I enjoyed his reaction it as he sucked in a breath. I smiled and really liked the idea that I could cause him to be so shaken. He leaned down and put his lips against my ear, making me shiver.
"It wasn"t my pulse that just jumped from 70 to 120," he said smugly.
I smiled wider and laughed softly, tipping my head to him in agreement. Then I laid my hands on his upper arms and pushed myself up on my tiptoes, feeling his nose against mine and...remembered Chad sitting on my steps. I turned and saw him eying us with clear disdain and disgust.
I pulled back with a sigh and heard Caleb do the same.
"I"m sorry, Caleb. I forgot all about him."
"It"s ok. I"ll take that as a compliment."
I reached up and kissed his cheek, almost the corner of his mouth really, right on his dimple.
"See you in a little bit?"
"Yeah," he said gruffly and nodded.
"Ok. I don"t plan on hashing this out for very long, so come back soon, ok?"
"You got it."
I turned to go to Chad and heard Caleb behind me.
"Uh, Maggie?"
"Yeah?"
He looked a little embarra.s.sed and smiled bashfully.
"A little help here."
"What- Oh, really?" He needed me to release him, to help him leave. "But why?"
"Tables have turned. I guess since you"re the one walking away this time, it"s my turn to see what it feels like."
"And so far?" I joked.
"It sucks."
I laughed and so did he.
I walked up to him closely and peered up at his face. He looked amused.
"Caleb, I want you to go home and pine for me until I"m done with this other guy." He groaned and grabbed me around my waist making me laugh. "Ok, ok. Go to Kyle"s and wait a while until I"m done here. Then come back soon and I"ll be waiting for you."
He laid his head against mine, his hands on my hips.
"I can do that," he said softly.
"Bye."
"Bye, gorgeous."
He left with a crooked smile, his dimple flashing at me. I waved and turned to see a very p.i.s.sed Chad.
"Took you long enough. You act like you"ll never see him again," he spat as I made my way to him.
"Jealous?" I got right to the point as I heard the bike crank and drive away.
"Yes!" he yelled. "You never acted like that over me."
"And neither did you."
"Look." He stepped closer. "I wanted to talk to you, seriously. Can we go inside?"
"I"d rather not. Dad"s acting weird," I said though I was cold, I just wrapped Caleb"s jacket tighter around me.
"Since when do you ride motorcycles?"
"Since Caleb drives one."
"Where did you meet this guy anyway?"
"This guy goes to Tennessee, but he was in town for Kyle"s grad party."
"You just met him the other night?" he asked loudly coming to stand in front of me. "You don"t even know him, Maggie!"
"Yes, Chad, I just met him. Why do you care? What do you want to talk about?"
"Us," he admitted softly. He closed his eyes and put his hand behind his neck, sighing. "You were always just Maggie. I"d been with you forever. I didn"t want things to change but when I thought about going to college without you, I didn"t hurt." I looked at him sharply. "I"m gonna be honest, Mags. I knew I"d miss you but I wouldn"t ache for you. I thought we"d still be friends, still talk and eventually...I don"t know. So I figured it would be easier on you if I"d break it off. But you totally did the opposite of what I expected and I"ve spent all year suffering for it."
He grabbed my jacket clad upper arms gently in his hands. I tried to pull away but he held me firm. I sighed and gave in.