Chapter 48 Trying
I pull the sheets over my head, facing away from everyone else with the phone close to my face. The brightness is turned all the way down, but when you haven’t looked at a phone or its screen for a while, it feels like a flashlight in this dark room.
Cassie is texting me to finish our plan to get Beth and her back together.
‘Where should we do it?’ I text her.
I was going to just have her come here, but I don’t know if that’s the best idea in case things get too heated. And considering the fight situation, Beth and I should probably try to lay low.
‘Alec’s house?’ She offers.
It’s a better idea than here at the camp, but at the same time, I don’t want Beth to feel ganged up on being at Alec’s house. I also don’t want anyone else to be a part of it.
‘I don’t think she’d like that. Do you have some other spot that we could just hang out at for an hour or so?’ My mind thinks of the flower field Alec took me to, but I want that to stay between him and me.
‘The clearing?’
That’s perfect, I can’t believe I forgot about the clearing. The place we went to the party when I met Alec. Of course, now I know it was all some master plan, so it’ll be a little weird to see it again, but it’s perfect for this situation.
‘Yes, let’s do it there. We’ll meet you there tomorrow at like noonish.’
I’m leaving it up to her to get the place ready for us. I hope she will ensure there is some sort of seating, as this will likely be a long conversation.
‘Okay, I’ll see you guys there.’ I close her text, going back to Alec’s responding to his goodnight text, before shutting the phone off and putting it under my mattress again.
I roll onto my back, looking up at the wood holding up the top bunk above me.
Beth should be okay with this. I hope she’ll actually give her a chance. She wasn’t jumping at the opportunity to meet her again, but I have faith that for my sake, she’ll play nice at first.
I try to sleep, ignoring the anxiety of everything that could go wrong.
She’s set up the area nicely. She cleaned all the trash from previous parties that had been scattered around. She brought three chairs set up in a semicircle, making us all look at each other.
She’s pacing in front of the chairs when Beth and I walk up to the cleared-out space. It’s odd to see it in the daylight.
I take in the messy fire pit full of old ash, the logs that have been used as chairs. My eyes wander to the boulder where I first saw Alec. I remember him standing there waiting for me. He was so attractive from the second I laid eyes on him. It’s mind-blowing to think about where I am now compared to then. How far we’ve come in such a short time. How much my life has changed since then.
She stops pacing with a smile on her face as she looks at us approaching.
“Hi, thank you guys for coming.” She sounds nervous.
I glance at Beth, who is stiff and obviously closed off beside me.
“Thank you for setting this all up for us.” I keep my voice light, hoping it’ll help disarm Beth. I walk to the chairs wanting to take a seat, but Beth doesn’t move.
“Come sit so we can talk,” I tell her, sitting in the chair positioned in the middle of them. Cassie takes the chair to my right while Beth slowly sits in the chair to my left. She’s being dramatic right now, acting as though it pains her to even be here.
“I appreciate you coming today, Beth. I know you’re still really upset at me, and I understand that completely. I just want to fix this between us so we can be good friends again.”
Beth rolls her eyes. “I’m only here because Anna begged I don’t think we should even be talking to you again after what you did.”
Cassie doesn’t respond right away, so Beth continues.
“Why would you lie like that? It’s bad enough that you lied, but why would you just disappear? We really thought something bad happened to you.”
“It’s no excuse, I know there is nothing I can say to really make this okay. I just got scared and nervous that you guys would hate me. I didn’t want to risk it happening, so I just ran away. It’s stupid, I know I should’ve just told you guys the truth or told you I was leaving.”
“Yeah, you should have. I wouldn’t have cared if you didn’t actually go to the camp. Hell, I wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. Even if you'd just told us you were leaving for a while, it would’ve been better than that. I literally thought you were dead. And then to find you at her boyfriend's house was even worse.”
“I’m sorry, Beth. If I could, I would go back and change how I handled everything.”
“This is the crap that made Anna want to take you back? You still can’t even provide a great explanation besides the fact that you’re stupid.” Cassie pauses at Beth’s hostility.
I don’t want them to fight, but I also know that getting involved will only make it worse.
“You’re right, that isn’t all. I told her the truth that I don’t have many friends. The only ones I have are all boys. I wanted girlfriends, and I miss you guys more than I could explain. It’s hard for me to be in this position with you. Please forgive me, Beth. I don’t expect it to be like it used to be, but can you at least try?” She pleads with her.
Beth’s face is as hard as a rock, but I can see the hardness falter ever so slightly. She’ll try again.
“Fine. I’ll give you a chance, but this is it. You only get one more chance; if you do something like this again, I’ll never speak to you again.”
Cassie’s face lights up. “Thank you, Beth, I won’t, I promise.” She already sounds so much happier.
“Well, now that that’s handled, why don’t we all catch up?” I finally speak.
Beth still looks apprehensive about this whole thing, but she’s trying. And I love her for that.