Page 41 of In Too Deep

“You don’t say?” I hum as though this information is no big deal, refusing to let him know he’s getting under my skin.

“Yep, I think she wants to get back together.”

His words are like a punch in the gut, and my heart sinks. “Oh yeah?” I snap. “Well, I’ll let you talk to her then.”

My mind is reeling as I stomp back to my bedroom. The logical part of my brain knows it can’t be true, Cat doesn’t want to date Robbie, but my fears are hard to ignore. When I enter the room, Cat is sitting on my bed. She greets me with a smile, but it quickly fades once she notices the angry scowl on my face.

“Here,” I grit. “It’s for you.”

Her eyes widen as I extend the phone to her, the color draining from her face as she takes it from me.

Catelyn

Panic washes over me when I hear Robbie’s voice on the other end of the phone, and I look back up at Lawrence, who’s glaring at me with fury in his eyes. I knew coming here was a bad idea. I never should’ve let him talk me into it. I swear, the boy could talk me into anything. I was furious with him when he called today, but all the fury melted into a puddle at my feet the second he told me he missed me. Because the truth was, I missed him too. And I still feel guilty about not showing up to his birthday party.

My resolve held up better than I expected. If he hadn’t had his sister call me back after I hung up on him, begging me to put Lawrence out of his misery, I wouldn’t be here right now. She told me Lawrence has been depressed for weeks, and I totally folded.

What Lawrence didn’t know, but has obviously just been made aware of, is when he stopped calling me, I started calling Robbie. The first night, I was missing Lawrence so bad and hoping he would be there. The second time was out of spite. I wanted Lawrence to find out. The third, Robbie called me. And it just kept happening because it was better than the void Lawrence left behind. There’s no telling what Robbie told Lawrence on the phone just now about our nightly calls, but I feel awful about using Robbie. There’s no way I can admit that’s all it was to Lawrence now.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to Lawrence’s house today?” Robbie demands.

Heat floods my face, and I turn away from Lawrence. “I didn’t know until after we talked.”

“I thought you were over him.”

I sigh, hating that I’d ever confided in Robbie. Not that he didn’t already know, thanks to my best friend. But, still, I never should’ve discussed it with him. I didn’t mean anything I said, but I wouldn’t put it past him to tell Lawrence.

“I am,” I lie through my gritted teeth.

“Good, so you won’t mind if I hang out with the two of you? I wouldn’t be, like, crashing your date?”

“No…you want to come over right now?” My stomach drops as I turn back to Lawrence. He’s standing with his arms crossed in the doorway of his bedroom, looking even more pissed than he had a moment ago. “Robbie wants to know if he can come hang out with us.”

He pushes off the doorframe and stalks toward me. His chest heaves as he comes to a stop in front of me, his fiery eyes locked on mine as he rips the phone from my hand. “We were about to take a walk. We’ll be there in five.”

He disconnects the call and throws the cordless phone down on his bed before whirling away from me, walking out his bedroom door.

* * *

The tension has been extremely high since the three of us got back to Lawrence’s bedroom. He grilled me about the status of my relationship with Robbie all the way to his house. I wanted to tell him the truth, that he was still the only boy I had any interest in, but I just played it off and told him it was no big deal, that Robbie and I have always talked on the phone. Which didn’t seem to help at all.

Once Robbie joined the mix, things only got worse. It’s like he was purposely trying to rub it in Lawrence’s face that we’ve been closer over the past couple weeks. And, maybe, given the circumstances, that’s something he feels he has the right to do.

Now, Robbie and Lawrence are playing video games, acting as if I’m not even here. If Caroline had been home instead of out with her new boyfriend, I would’ve begged her to come back to Lawrence’s with me for moral support. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I agreed to come to his house today, but this was not it.

“Why don’t we call Sandra?” I’m grateful Lawrence doesn’t even bother to take his eyes off the game because I can feel my face turning bright red.

“Who’s Sandra?” Robbie muses, and I cut my eyes at him as he looks over with a smirk on his face.

“Oh…just a friend of Cat’s I ran into the other day. Apparently, she wants Cat to hook us up.”

Robbie’s face lights up as his smirk spreads into a smile, and I ball my fists, wishing I could punch him.

“Really? Well, we should totally give her a call then.”

Lawrence’s gaze slides over to me as my blood boils.

“I thought you weren’t interested in dating Sandra,” I bite out through gritted teeth.

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