One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

“Trav… where are you?” Lauren yelled from the upstairs.

She had been trying to find Travis for the past five minutes, but couldn’t manage to. He’s kept his distance from her ever since she told him about going out with Luke.

“I’ve been down here the whole time, Lauren,” he sighed out as she thumped down the stairs.

She sat down beside him, eyeing him. “What?” he asked not being able to take her staring at him anymore.

“Just talk to me. I don’t see how this is so hard.”

“What’s talking going to do?”

“Well maybe it would stop you from being a complete asshole right now,” she said as he tone changed.

She was tired of being the nice one. He just rolled his eyes and looked away from her. Right about now, Lauren was wishing Luke would show up sooner.

“Travis, you told me that you loved me. How am I supposed to react to that? Just let it go and pretend it didn’t happen?” she said with irritation. He has never been this difficult to talk to.

“You told me you loved me too. You don’t see me all poking at you,” he snapped back.

“Yeah, but I’ll admit that I told you that. Do you remember what else I told you?” He slowly nodded his head yes. “Travis, you’re acting like a damn two year old. It bugs the hell out of me,” she went on as she stood up and ran her hand through her loosely curled hair.

“Just have a fun time with Luke. Tell him I said hi,” he said sarcastically as he pushed off the couch and went outside.

It took everything Lauren had to not follow him. She probably would have went after him if there wasn’t a knock on the front door.

“Whoa… BMX chick can dress up huh?” he asked looking her over. She felt slightly uncomfortable.

“What about you?” she asked, pushing her discomfort aside… and noticing Luke looking really nice.

“We match well,” he smiled as he threw his arm around her and started towards his car.

Lauren smiled as he opened the passenger’s side door for her,just like Travis did when he picked her up from the airport. Those thoughts never faded throughout the night. It’s not that she wasn’t interested in Luke; she just had her mind else where…like Travis. Even when Luke would say or ask her anything, she would always reference back to Travis in same way, shape, or form.

“So how did you actually get into BMX,” he asked in attempts to get her off of the subject of Travis.

“I got tired of kicking Travis’s ass in every race I entered. I guess I just needed a new challenge,” she said.

He frowned at the mention of his name, but soon recovered.

“So is BMX enough of a challenge?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She eyed him oddly at first. Her intuition told her that he meant this in a completely different way than it should be taken. She was going to have fun with this.

“No… I might move on. Maybe some of the sexy rally divers could help me out,” she said teasingly.

Luke smiled. The rest of the night neither of them mentioned Travis at all. That wasn’t a real issue for him though. It was still a little hard for Lauren to do, however.

“Are you going to the X Games?” Lauren asked once a short silence fell over them.

“I don’t think so. I’m not competing. They got rid of Dirt years ago. I’ll just stay home and possibly watch it… Why?” he asked as his facial expressions wrinkled up.

“I don’t know. I’m going to watch it,” she saidtrying so hard not to say with Travis.

“I may just have to go then,” he smiled causing Lauren to do the same.

They sat there a little while longer. Lauren really wanted to get hometo Travis. Luke sensed that she was getting anxious. He smiled widely at her causing her to become confused.

“What?” she asked trying so hard to keep the smile that was already forming away.

“You’re nervous about something,” he said with his same smile.

“I’m not nervous…” she said dropping her eyes from his…that reminded her of Travis’s.

“Come on,” he said as he stood up. She looked at him funny again. “Come on,” he said again.

She went with him this time, following him out to his car.

~*-_-_-_*~

“Where have you been?” Travis asked when Lauren walked through the front door the next morning in her same clothes from when she left.

She didn’t answer him. As she made her way up the stairs, she avoided eye contact with him.

“Lauren,” he said as he slowly made his way to the staircase.

Without even turning around to acknowledge him, she continued her way to her room. Travis stood there unable to move. She stayed with Luke last night. Shaking his head as he made his way upstairs, he finally decided what he was going to say to her. He just wished it wasn’t when she came home from a night out with her ‘friend’. Once he made it up to her room, the water in the shower turned on. He hated this. It gave his mind more time to wonder. With ever second that passed, he kept second guessing exactly what he was going to tell her. It would have been so much easier for him if she would have just come home last night. He should have known what he was in for. Nothing good could come out of telling your best friend that you like them. Just as he was about to leave, Lauren came out with a towel wrapped around her petite frame.

“Travis, please. I’m not in the mood,” she said while she pushed some of her wet bangs out of her eyes.

“I wanted to settle this… matter we have,” he said as he dropped his eyes from her and brought his hand to the back of his neck.

“Go for it,” she said as she sat on the bed across from him.

He sighed quietly a few times. Lauren eyed him. She wasn’t feeling the best and just wanted Travis to get this over with.

“You’re right,” he said snapping his gaze back to hers.

“About…”

“Our friendship. It should stay a friendship,” he said still looking into her eyes as he stood up.

“Really?” she asked surprised. She figured he would want to argue more.

“Yeah,” he said with a small nod and weak smile before leaving.“But what if I changed my mind?” Lauren thought as he disappeared down the stairs.

She sighed as she went to her closet. She smiled at herself when she saw one of the many hoodies that she’s stolen from Travis lying on the floor. Quickly, she pulled on a pair of baggy basketball shorts and the blue DC hoodie on. Right about now she could use a Travis hug. That’s all she wanted. Just that little action from him would make her think that everything was ok. She didn’t want to stay with Luke last night… it just happened. And it shouldn’t have. But she was glad it did. By doing so, it made her realize that she loved Travis a lot more than she’s been telling herself.

Letting out, yet, another sigh, she climbed into bed, pulling the hoodie tighter against her. She smiled weakly as the familiar smell of Travis filled her nose. Once she was all settled in and almost ready to fall asleep, her phone went off from the table beside her. She rolled her eyes, mad at herself for forgetting to turn it off. She took one look at who it was from and hit the ignore button. When she thought it was safe to open her phone, she scrolled through her contacts until it made it to the end of the L’s. She opened the last one to edit it. Looking over it, she noticed that he was on speed number three. Without even thinking she erased it and placed the phone back on the table, satisfied with her decision.