Page 46 of Indian Summer

Of course, she had, so I hadn’t been saving her, I had been savinghim. Typical Ari. I frowned and Theo threw his arm round my shoulders as we walked down the hall.

“So maybe we don’t mention we just locked lips. I genuinely cannot be bothered with any more tension. Connor gave his speech the other day, so it will start him off, Matt will go all big brother ape on me and Colton…” he trailed off.

“What about Colton? Whatwouldhe do?” I asked slowing my steps. Theo rolled his eyes and pulled me faster down the hall to the outside world.

“We’re going to the coffee shop. Matt’s meeting us there.” Subject changed. Conversation closed I mused.

“What if I want to go home? Or the library? Or to another coffee shop?” I protested. Theo looked at me with a slightly confused expression.

“Do you?”

Well that wasn’t the point was it! I may have wanted to, but I couldn’t think of a legitimate reason at that precise moment other than I just wanted to say Icouldif I wanted to. Maybe it was them? Maybe women were perfectly normal and the four of them, or even just one of them was enough to make a normal sane girl plead temporary insanity? It never used to be this complicated, did it?

I trudged after him still contemplating their abnormal effect on women and what made intelligent females turn into rabid squirrels looking for their nuts. Ok, maybe not the best analogy, I snorted out a laugh. I received a worried look from Theo and I started to giggle.

“Are you high?” Theo asked me. That made me hysterical. I was properly bent over side splitting, full out laughing. Every time I looked at Theo, I lost it. Maybe Iwashysterical. I eventually pulled myself together and we walked the remaining way to the coffee shop. I kept receiving worried glances and the odd giggle erupted.

“What took you so long?” Matt asked as we sat down.

“Ask Lil Bit, she’s been laughing like a hyena for the last five minutes,” Theo grumbled. He took a large swallow of his coffee that Matt had ordered for us. I smothered another laugh.

Matt frowned at me. That was a little bit sobering, Matt rarely frowned at me.

“What’s so funny Bit?” Matt asked, he was looking between the two of us slightly bewildered. It didn’t help that Theo was obviously unsettled with me.

“Nuts,” I replied.

Identical blank stares.

I groaned and took a huge gulp of my lukewarm coffee.

“So, what are we doing here?” I asked, I decided changing the subject was better. Two furtive glances between them and I was getting more suspicious. “What is it?” I said a little bit more forcefully. Then I registered that it was just the two of them, I felt a little bit of excitement, maybe they were going to tell me why they were fighting?

“We wanted to talk to you about Jay,” Theo began. My bubble of excitement burst immediately. They wanted to talk to me about Jay? No. I wasn’t doing this.

“No.”

“Bit...” Matt began. I interrupted him.

“No. This is no one’s business,” I stood up from the table. I shook my head “We’re not doing this, if I want to spend time with Jay, I will.” I picked up my coffee, they were both frowning at me now. “Ok, tell mewhy. Why can’t I with Jay?” I still hadn’t figured out if I wanted to pursue anything with Jay, but I didn’t need these two telling me what I could or couldn’t do.

Theo looked away. Matt stood too, “I told you, he isn’t good people.”

“You played eight ball with him Sunday night. Him and his brother,” I countered.

“Guys, you’re causing a scene,” Theo muttered.

“Tough!” I snapped. I was holding Matt’s gaze, he wasn’t going to bend. I knew it as much as I knew my own name. I shook my head and walked out.

I heard the chair scrape back and a squawk from Theo and knew they were following me. I marched purposefully, which is fine. I can power walk with the best of them. However, when they are over six feet tall, the powerwalking doesn’t do much good. My shoulder got tugged and I was slowed down by a firm hand, I stopped in resignation. I didn’t look at either of them. I saw the two white t-shirts on either side of me and I looked out over campus.

“Tell me why,” I asked again. Silence. I didn’t move. “Tell me why I can’t see him or at least tell me why you fight?” I looked up at Matt and he looked away. I looked to Theo, he stared back at me and shook his head. “Then if you can’t trust me, I can’t trustyou,”I felt like crying and I didn’t want to be here anymore, I didn’t want to be anywhere near them. They said I was family,hesaid I would mess up the family dynamic. If you asked me the family dynamic was already screwed and them not telling me the truth just underlined how much Iwasn’tpart of this dynamic…only when it suited them.

I walked away and they didn’t follow me. My heart was heavy but Ihadchanged. I was prepared for being by myself, them being part of my life again had been so good. However, I wasn’t the girl from before, who sat in the corner waiting for it to be safe to come out. I had lost so much, maybe I would be better losing them too. Let’s be honest, I hadn’t been settled since they came back into my life. It had been a few weeks and everything was a mess.

I was quite honestly in knots over Colton. Matt tried desperately to toe the line between us, but it was a strain on him. His loyalty was torn on more than one occasion and it had been a mere few weeks. I needed to step away and get some perspective. They needed to know that I was ready to go too. They couldn’t just keep turning up and expecting me to follow like a faithful little puppy.

Ok, I was being harsh. Again. I shook my head and glanced at my phone, it was on silent as it always was when I was in class. I hadn’t had the chance to switch it back on when I had been caught up in the next piece of drama. I slowed down when I saw he message from Matt, it was sent seconds ago.

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