In this endeavour, make this last forever

Chapter 11

Cali was really enjoying her evening with Nate. She was happy to find out that she hadn’t just been building up what it would be like dating him to something better than it actually was. Actually, that’d be kind of impossible because she couldn’t imagine it being better than it was now.

“So, what do you think about the whole Garrett-Alex-Caleb-Holly situation?” Cali asked Nate from his bed while he worked on the computer.

Nate sighed and turned to face her; he should have known that he wouldn’t actually get any work done with Cali here, “Well, I think that Garrett, Alex and Holly have real feelings for their respective boyfriend/girlfriend. Caleb, obviously, still wants Alex; Holly’s told him that she won’t put up with his shit but Caleb seems to think that she’s not serious. But, he may be slowly developing feelings for Holly and then he’ll get whipped and Alex won’t know what to do without Caleb responding to her beck and call.”

Cali’s eyes widened, “You are strangely insightful. So, what are we going to do about it?”

Nate laughed and came to sit next to her on his bed, “We are going to do nothing but let it play out by itself, without our interference.”

Cali jutted out her bottom lip in a pout, “But – I – we –”

Nate cut her off with a finger on her lips, “But nothing. You are going to come and sit in my lap to tell me how awesome I am and how much you love me.” Nate tensed a bit and hoped that Cali hadn’t heard the last bit.

Cali grumbled but crawled into Nate’s lap anyway where he wrapped his arms around her and held her firmly to his front.

Cali pulled forward as she registered something, “Wait, did you say ‘how much I love you’? How did you come to that conclusion?”

Nate silently cursed himself for opening his mouth, “Urm. Well. I dunno…”

Cali grinned, “Stop talking.” She turned herself in his lap to face him, “I do love you. A lot.”

Now it was Nate’s turn to widen his eyes in shock.

Cali laughed and held his face with her hands on both sides and looked into his eyes, “This is where you tell me you love me too.”

“I love you too? I love you too.” Nate said, realizing that he did, in fact, love this girl. A lot.

Caleb was on his way to meet Holly at the park to pass around the ball before they had soccer practice. Even he’d have to admit that his first intentions for his relationship with Holly were unsavoury, he’d been caught by surprise and found himself actually liking her. Could be a bad thing though; it meant that his relationship with Alex was even more complicated. Holly had proved to be true when she said she wouldn’t put up with his odd relationship with Alex and he had barely seen her in the past few weeks unless it was a group outing where Holly would watch their interactions carefully.

Alex didn’t seem to mind his lack of time for her as she was pretty absorbed with Garrett and as great as Holly was, there was this nagging voice in the back of his head telling him that Holly would never compare to Alex. But as he saw her running around in a pair of short shorts, he thought that a distraction had never looked so good.

Greg was reaching his wit’s end. He and Kate’s relationship seemed to disintegrate right before him. Where he tried to build them up again, Kate only found cracks in their foundation. Currently, she was in another one of her insatiable moods as they spoke over the phone.

“How about we hang out after you do that thing?” Greg asked. It seemed like he was constantly trying to fit into his girlfriend’s schedule, whereas before, things just fit together seemingly. But maybe it isn’t good for a sixteen year old guy to be that attached to his girlfriend.

“I don’t think that’ll work. I’d have to bus from home to there then to your house on the other side of town to meet you. Why don’t we just hang out tomorrow?”

“I’ve got a debate team practice, like I do every Sunday.” Greg added, under his breath, “You should know that.”

But of course Kate heard this comment, “I’m sorry that I don’t keep myself up to date with your every breath,” she said with a snarky undertone. Normally, Greg would try to defuse the situation – he’d always been the levelheaded one in their relationship - but at this moment he felt so irritated with her that he was ready to let her hear his thoughts.

“Well, I’m sorry that I’m actually trying to see my girlfriend. And I’m really sorry that I want our relationship to work. But most of all, I’m sorry that you don’t seem to care at all,” Greg snapped.

Kate, for once, sensed that she may have been pushing him a little too far, “Sorry, I’m sure it won’t take too long to bus to your house.”

“Don’t feel the need to go out of your way for me. In fact, don’t bother at all. Take all the alone time you need, I think we both need to think about what we want out of this relationship. Call me when you realize that this isn’t all about fitting into each other’s schedules.” Greg slammed the phone down sure that he had done the right thing but not wanting to think about it.

Kate sat at her dining room table, speechless. As much as she had pushed Greg away these past few weeks, she wasn’t sure how she’d handle actually having him away.