Traitor in a Second

The next day, I felt like things with Jonathan was getting extremely awkward. The entire time we hung out that day, Jonathan still had that look in his eyes and it was a little weird. He was jealous? Of what? Caleb? That was weird, I have to admit. Jonathan and I had been friends for longer than I could probably remember and never once had I thought of him in that way.

Sighing to myself, I pulled out my phone, going through contacts. Automatically, I stopped on Caleb's name, wanting to call him and get together like I usually wanted whenever things got bad because he always made me feel better. But Caleb was still in that mood, I could just feel it. I knew him better than he thought I did. Besides, if I did call him and ask him to come over, it was going to be very awkward with the whole "I love you" thing hanging around.

Jonathan was definitely out of the question, especially after yesterday. The last thing I needed was to see him look at me that way again. It wasn't helping matters with Caleb or my mind. It was making things worse. I wasn't in the mood.

There was only one other viable option; the third (well, fourth) party of the situation: Kyle. I scrolled down to his number, biting my lip. It would be kind of awkward, with the whole never really hanging out together thing, but that kind of awkward would be downright comforting right now.

I held my phone to my ear, biting my lip while it rang. For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to pick up but then the ringing stopped.

"Hello?"

"Hey Kyle, it's Evan," I told him, as if he didn't know but I was just buying time.

"Hey Evan....what's going on?" He sounded confused and I could just imagine him running his hand through his hair. He was confused a lot.

"Nothing, just wondering if you maybe wanted to hang out."

"The arcade? Have you called Jonathan and Caleb yet?"

"No, no," I said, shaking my head though he couldn't see it. "Just you and me."

"Just you and me?" He sounded confused again.

"Yeah, just you and me. We hardly ever hang out without the other two. Just thought it'd be cool."

"Yeah, I guess that'd be awesome. Do you want to come over or something?" he asked. I bit my lip for a moment.

"Sweet! I'll be over in...oh, hey. I don't think I've ever actually been to your house," I informed, laughing a little. Kyle chuckled, and I heard a bed creak on the other end.

"I'll pick you up in twenty, okay?" I nodded, climbing off my bed.

"I'll be ready."

***

Kyle's house was kind of huge. It was down this dirt road off the main one and it had the biggest yard I have ever seen. It was like one of those rich people houses but Kyle didn't really seem the type.

"Woah," I said, raising my eyebrows. "Money much?" Kyle laughed, stopping in front of the garage.

"Me? Nah. Step-dad, hell yeah," he said, looking over at me with a smile on his face. "C'mon. Let's go for a walk," he added. I nodded, opening the car door. When I stepped out, he was waiting for me. When I walked passed him, he threw his arm around my shoulders.

"So, where are we going?" I raised an eyebrow, glancing over at him. He smiled brightly, shrugging.

"Dunno," he said. "Plenty of places to go. Come on, we'll find somewhere." He led me out towards a well groomed grove. "It's nice out here," he mentioned.

"Hey Kyle, who's the girl?" I turned to face the house to see a girl maybe about ten or eleven standing out there.

"Is she your girlfriend?" she shouted. "Wait, is that Evan? It is, isn't it?" Kyle groaned, turning to face her.

"Go back inside!" Kyle shouted at her, shaking his head. "Sorry about her. My little sister is..." he trailed off.

"Kyle, she's even prettier than you said she was!" his little sister shouted. Kyle groaned again, and I watched him turn pink.

"Go back inside!" Kyle shouted again, shaking his head and turning around. He looked at me, blushing a little more. "Uhm..."

"Don't worry about it. How about telling me where we're going?" He smirked, pulling me along.

"Don't worry about it," he said happily. "It's my favorite place here, besides my room." He led the way through the trees, letting go of my shoulders to do so. I followed behind him, smiling a little when I finally saw where we were going.

"Just a little pond thing," he said finally, sitting himself down by the bank. "Call me girly, but I like it out here." I laughed, walking around to a tree, jumping up to grab a branch and climb.

"Don't even worry about it. Until Jonathan was twelve, he used to go into his mother's garden," I informed, laughing. "Just don't tell him I told you." I continued to climb the tree, not really worrying about falling.

"Are you going to be able to get down?" Kyle asked, raising his voice so I could hear him. I eventually stopped on a nicely curved branch, sitting on it, resting my back against the trunk.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I called down. "What, you're worried about me climbing a tree?" I didn't hear anything for a minute, just the sound of leaves rustling.

"Nah, I'm just worried about you getting down," Kyle said, his voice suddenly much closer. I turned to see him beaming at me. I gasped, grasping onto the branch as I was taken by surprise and didn't want to fall out.

"Whoah," he said, chuckling a little, wrapping an arm around me. "Don't fall, not there to catch you," he added. He looked at me for a moment, tilting his head. "Something going on, Evan?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, running my hand through my hair.

"You never want to hang out, just you and me. Something happen?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Not really, no," I mumbled, trying not let anything on, I didn't want to talk about it, especially not with Kyle. That'd be awkward.

"Huh," he mumbled. "I uh..." he trailed off. He pushed some of my hair away from my face, looking at me straight on. "Sorry, it was bothering me," he explained quickly. I laughed.

"It's all good. But I promise nothing is going on," I told him, letting him tuck a couple more pieces of my hair behind my ear. He smiled at me again and I had to admit, got a little shudder of just...wow, there.

"Good, then you hopefully won't mind this," he said, leaning over and pressing his lips to mine.