He was a Boy, She was a Girl

Aidens POV
It was the last day of junior year. Finally. The year hadn’t been too bad, after November really. Drama cooled down once Logan was kicked off the football team and I was moved up to Varsity. Doesn’t mean I stopped skating though. I found a nice group of guys that I hang out with outside of football people.
Reilly is supposed to come around July, we’re not quite settled on the date yet. I still have to tell Callie, but every time I get the chance to, I just choke up. And then there’s the whole Logan problem. I see the way she looks at him in the hallways, she feels bad. Really, really bad. I’m not jealous, no, but I do worry. He’s just not a good guy in general. I just wish Callie knew the truth about him.
The Cheerleading coach starts to announce the new captain and my thoughts trail back to the assembly “okay, so it was a very close call between two outstanding girls. Not only are they both great cheerers but would also easily lead the team. In the end though, only one can win. So, let’s give a big ‘round of applause to…” she pauses as she opens the envelope. “Calvina Morgan!” everyone was cheering and clapping for her. She honestly was one of the nicest people in the school. After that announcement, there were a couple more before school was officially out.
Kids ran into the halls, tearing up paper and screaming “FREEDOM!” I laughed as I pushed my way through the crowd to find Callie. I see her standing on the edge of a group, facing the area I once sat.
The skirts she had to wear were, well, short. And me being a guy…well, we can’t help ourselves sometimes, ya know? I walk up to her and give her a small tap on the butt, jokingly.
She turns around, looking pissed until she noticed it was me. She slaps my arm hard but playfully. Luckily I haven’t had to get her non-playful slap yet. “butt-smacking is totally not appropriate nor is it charming. Didn’t your mother teach you anything?” Callie gives me a short lecture.
I smile charmingly and apologize. “it’s just, that skirt makes you look so-“ I start to explain but then stop before I get a real slap.
She raises her eyebrows, daring me to continue, “so what?”
“so not going to finish that sentence.” Callie laughs her cute short laugh. “wanna get out of here?” I ask. Not too fond of the crowds or noise.
“actually, I have something I need to do right now. So I’ll meet you at home, okay?” that slightly surprised me. I expected to spend the last day with her, if not be going to some big party. But if she didn’t go to a party, then I didn’t go. It wasn’t really my scene.
I give her a reassuring smile and kiss her on the cheek. “yup, bye Calvina.” I say before running off to catch up with Justin and Luke, my two new skating buddies
“you and Callie fighting again bro?” Justin asks as we pull up to the skatepark.
“no, why would you think that?” I asks, slightly surprised. We usually don’t show that we’re fighting even if we are. Since, in our worst fights, we still don’t hate each other.
“well, you’re here with us, not somewhere with her. Just seems like you guys would be going to some big jock party on the last day.” He skates down the ramp and does and ollie mid-way.
“she said she had something to do.”
Luke smirks, “and was this ‘something’ getting more action than she does from you?” Luke remarks, following in Justins pattern.
It was true that Callie and I hadn’t been doing much these days. Not only were we both busy, but we never really got over the awkward moment at the cabin when I pulled away. We’ve kissed, just nothing extreme, just kisses.
“you better watch that mouth of yours Luke.” I say.
I do a few tricks before pausing for a moment. In that moment I spot Christina running up to us.
“Hey Justin, looks like your girlfriend finally came to see you without Cal.” Luke says. Christina and Justin weren’t actually going out, but they should be. Even I could see all the flirting that went on between them constantly.
“she’s not my girlfriend,” Justin replies hastily back. He keeps denying his feelings for her.
“you keep telling yourself that.”
“AIDEN!” I hear my name being called and realize it’s from Christina. She finally reaches me at the top of the hill. “why haven’t you been answering your phone?” she asks, slightly out of breath.
I point to my phone which was sitting on top of my sweatshirt, tossed to the side, “if I have it in my pocket when I skate, I’ll break it when and if I crash.” I explain to her.
She takes the time of my pointless explanation to take a glance at Justin and smile. “what’s up?” I ask.
“your girlfriend is making a really stupid mistake at the moment.” She says.
“It couldn’t be that bad Chris. I mean, it’s Callie we’re talking about, not exactly the bad girl of the school.”
“that’s the problem. She’s the nice girl of the school. And the nice girl always has to be friends with everybody.”
“Can you please get to the point Chris?” I was getting slightly irritated.
“Callie is at my house talking to my brother with probably no one around.”
I drop my board and it rolls down the ramp. Justin and Luke even pause mid-trick. Why would she do this to me?
I push past everybody and jog to my car, speeding off in the direction of Christina and Logans’.
This is where it gets tricky, if I go up and knock, she’ll think that I don’t trust her. But if I wait out here, it may be too late. Somehow I was able to keep myself circling the block, and not going up to the front door (or back for that matter).
An hour later I finish the circle and spot Callie walking away from the house. Finally. So many thoughts were going through my head. The main one being why the hell was she there?!
When I get close behind her I honk and she stops walking. Without a word from either of us she slides into the passenger seat and I head off toward home. My fingers were gripping the steering wheel tighter than they probably should’ve, but I didn’t care. I was mad.
“what the hell were you thinking?!” I say loudly. “actually ,what the hell was he thinking?” I change the words in my question. Yes, I was mad she didn’t tell me where she was going. But it made me even more pissed that she was walking home in nothing but her cheerleading uniform. That’s not exactly the way you walk the streets around here alone.
“um, what do you mean exactly?” she asks in a voice that told me she expected me to be mad but didn’t expect me to be mad about that.
“if he cared even the tiniest bit about you he would’ve given you a ride home. There is no way you should be walking around looking like that,” I wave my right hand over her body, “by yourself.”
“right. Now that that’s over, could you tell me what’s really on your mind?” That’s the problem with finding someone that can read you well. You never get to hide your emotions, even when you want to.”
“your safety is always on my mind Callie.” I tell her and didn’t even have to lie.
“I’m sure it is.” Neither of us spoke another word on the rest of the ride home.
We enter the house and Callie sits down on the couch as I pace her hallway.
“what were you doing there?” I ask her, stopping and standing behind the couch.
She turns to face me, “I was talking to him.” Callie answers simply.
“Callie, most girls don’t just go talk to the guy who cheated on her.” I say.
She didn’t like the response I gave her, “you know better than anyone that I’m not most girls. And Aiden, he needs a friend. Everybody hates him for what he did. I can’t take it seeing him this way. He was my friend long before we dated and if he had apologized in the beginning he still would be my friend.” She explains, “Logan played his cards wrong, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get a second hand at some point, right?”
I sigh. She was right on that one. I look out the window as I talk, “okay. I get it. I just-“ I stop as I see someone who looked awfully like Tristan running by.
“just what Aiden? Just don’t want me hanging out with him?” I shake my head and look back down at Callie. How could she think I would tell her that?
“what?! No! I don’t like the guy but I’m not going to tell you who you can and cannot hang out with. I’m just worried about you. Sometimes you can be too nice to people. Not everyone deserves to be forgiven Callie.”
“I haven’t forgiven my brother yet.”
I really should just tell her about that day in the locker room. “I know. But that’s one person out of a lot. There are people out there that will pretend to be sorry just to get to you. Not everyone is good in this world and you really need to understand that.”
“well like you said, you don’t want to control who I see and don’t see.” It’s like she didn’t even hear the last paragraph.
“you’re right. I did say that. I don’t want to be the boyfriend telling you who to hang out with. But I will tell you that I really don’t want you hanging out with him.” I say.
She thinks about this for a moment, “that’s the same thing.”
“no it’s not.”
“yes it is.”
“no, Callie, it’s not.”
“you don’t want me seeing him but you won’t tell me not to.” She says, “same thing.”
“if you asked me, I would tell you no. It’s still your decision in the end though.” I knew I won this fight when she sighed.
“why do you hate him so much? You two actually have a lot in common.”
The last thing I want is to have a lot in common with a guy like that. “oh, thanks. That’s exactly what I want to hear.” I respond sarcastically.
“seriously Aiden.”
“why do I hate him? He hurt you, that’s one thing.”
“that was almost a year ago.”
“yeah, still doesn’t make a difference.” I go through my memory, coming up with more reasons, “he dissed my car, and when I first came here he was just really rude to me. Actually, he’s just been rude to me the whole school year.”
Callie smiles. What?! Why in the world would she be smiling at that. “he was jealous of us.” She says.
I had to hold in my laugh. “and you believe that?”
“why shouldn’t I?”
It’s time to tell her. She deserves to know at least what he said. I walk around the end of the couch and sit down next to her. “aiden, what are you not telling me?” she asks, worried.
I take in a deep breath, “that game on Wednesday, before our date. Logan said something that really got to me.”
“Logan has said a lot of things.” She pushes it off as nothing.
“Callie, this is serious. Jamie and I were talking about the date and joking about meeting your parents. Logan came up and basically interrupted our conversation, telling me that Tristan had very high expectations of his your boyfriends. This worried Jamie and I since we didn’t know that Logan knew that Tristan was back so Jamie asked why Tristan would even matter. Logan told us that he was back in town. And then, what really hit Jamie and I was when he said, and I quote, ‘turns out he wasn’t dead after all. But I guess some of us knew that without him being seen.’” Callies face dropped and it hurt to see her like that. But she needed to know, right? “Jamie said I shouldn’t mention it to you, so I didn’t. But I really don’t trust that guy enough to have my girlfriend around him.”
A minute passed my slowly before Callie says anything, “you’re lying.” She says just above a whisper.
Not exactly the words I wanted to leave her mouth, “what? You can’t actually be saying that?” why would I lie about something so serious like this?
“Aiden, I think it would be best if you left right now.” She gets up to leave the room and I follow.
“Callie. Don’t runaway from this problem.”
She stops, but doesn’t turn to face me. “I’m not running away. I’m just not believing you. Logan wouldn’t have done anything like that at the time. He couldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Calvina, please, just trust me on this one. I have no reason to destroy Logan, I want you safe though.” I run my hand through my hair nervously. This didn’t look like it was going to end good. “Jamie knows, Jamie would back up my story.”
“you guys are best friends now, of course he would back up something you said against Logan.”
“Don’t do this.” I beg, “I-“ she doesn’t let me finish the sentence.
“Aiden, just go.” She walks up the stairs and into her room. I just leave, slamming the door behind me.
There’s only one thing to do at this point, and that’s to befriend my enemy, Logan. I drive over to his house and this time park the car and knock on the door. Christina opens, looking confused.
“Callie left over an hour ago.” She says.
“I know. I need to talk to your brother.” Her eyes widen.
“are you sick Aiden?”
“in short, Callie and I had a small fight and basically she wants me to be friends with Logan.”
This made Christina laugh, “you and Logan, friends? The only things you have in common are football and Callie. Not exactly the two topics you’d want to be discussing.”
“Christina, she’s not talking to me. If this at least gets her to talk, then I’ll do what it takes.”
“of course you will.” She opens the door wider. “come on in, he’s in the music room.”
I bite my lip from laughing, “music room?”
“yeah, he plays the guitar.”
“did not know that.”
“no one does really.” I follow her down a long-ish hallway and we stop in front of a door. “well, there you go. If I hear things crashing, should I grab the guards?” she asks.
“no, it’ll be fine.”
“okay. Talk to you later Aiden.” I nod and turn to the door after she leaves back down the hall. I slowly open the door to find Logan sitting with his back to me, playing the guitar and singing.
“I just want you to know
That I’ve been fighting to let you go
Some days I make it through
And then there’s nights that never end
I wish that I could believe
That there’s a day you’ll come back to me
But still I have to say
I would do it all again
Just want you to know…” he fades and plays a few more chords before stopping.
I crack a smile, “Backstreet Boys, really?” I comment.
Logan turns at the sound of my voice and doesn’t look to happy to see me.
“I don’t know why you’re here. Callie and I just talked earlier.”
“yeah, I know. I came to apologize.” I say. I can’t believe this girl is getting me to do this. “so, uh, sorry.”
Logan burst out laughing. I probably would have done the same in his situation, my apology was totally unbelievable. “Callie put you up to this, didn’t she?”
I shrug, “she has a need for everybody to be friends.”
“well this,” he points between the two of us, “is not going to work.”
“that’s a relief, cause now I don’t have to be nice to you. So, care to explain why you didn’t give her a ride home?”
“what? You stalking her now?”
“no. your sister told me she was here.”
“All hell would’ve broke out if you caught me dropping her off at the house.” He says.
I roll my eyes, “I don’t know what you have against me, but I wouldn’t have beat you up if you dropped off Callie.”
“how can you not know what I have against you?” he asks and then answers his own question, “you stole my girlfriend, my spot on the football team and my popularity. Basically, you took away my life.”
“I didn’t cheat on Callie, that was you. And if I remember the story right, you broke up with her, over the phone. It’s not anywhere close to my fault that your grades were slipping. With the whole popularity thing, I don’t know what to tell ‘ya. Stop being a jerk and maybe people will be your friend again.” I tell him. “Look, I can help you with football and getting back to being popular. Um, I guess I could tutor you in French class since I know that’s your worst subject. Can we at least give a friendship a chance?”
“you would help me out? Really?” he asks, not believing a word of it.
I shrug my shoulders, “I’m doing this for Callie though. For some godforsaken reason she really cares about you.”
For the first time ever, Logan smiles at me, an actually smile. “ `Ya know, I’m not too shabby on a board.” He says.
“Tomorrow then, meet at the skatepark, say 3?”
“works with me.”
“great. I’ll see you then.” And with that I turn and walk out of the music room. The breath that I was holding in is finally let out. I can’t believe that just happened. Callie better be worth it.
“hey, I didn’t hear any fighting…”Christina says behind me, making me jump. She laughs.
“god, you scared me.”
“sorry. What went down in there?”
“lets just say we’re going skating tomorrow.”
“you and my brother are friends?” she doesn’t believe it, I could see it in her eyes, “as in, actual, physical, friends.”
“we’ll see where it leads. We’re not hating each other though.”
“right. Change of subject. Is your friend Justin single?”
I smile, “yes.” I answer simply.
“well then, can I have his number?”
“I’ll ask him and then text you. Right now I’ve got go.”
“okay, see you later. Don’t forget to give me an answer.”
I laugh, “I won’t.”
I sped off back to the house. Very quickly I mix together a large overly chocolatey shake, Callies favorite, and then I head over to her house.
Standing outside her window I call her. She surprisingly answers on the first ring, “I’m only answering to tell you not to call again. I don’t want my phone filled with messages.”
“before you hang up, I thought you should know that I’m going skating with Logan tomorrow.” I inform her, “and look out your window while you’re in shock.” Her curtain slides open and she looks down at me standing there with a shake in one hand and my phone in the other.
Callie smiles, “the door is unlocked.” She says and then hangs up on me. I smile and hurriedly open the front door, running up her steps. Callie was sitting in the same position as before and I walk over to her, sitting down next to her feet. She quickly grabs the shake from me.
“so, am I forgiven?” I ask, moving her feet onto my lap so that I could sit back.
“you’re really going skating with him tomorrow?”
I nod, “three o’clock.” I say, “I’m also helping him with French and football, and maybe getting his friends back.”
“why?” she asks.
“why do you think?” I reply.
“I have no idea. If I recall, you hated him barely two hours ago.”
“well, I decided that if you cared so much about him, he couldn’t be that bad.”
She sets the shake on the floor next to her and then reaches up and grabs the back of my neck, pulling me in for a kiss. “you are seriously the sweetest guy I have ever met.” And then her lips were on mine. Her legs rearrange until she is straddling my lap and before I knew it I was on my back. I flip so that I’m on top and then pull away to catch my breath. Just as I do so, Callie attaches herself to my neck. It wasn’t even in my head that she would find my sweet spot. Very few girls have in the past and with how little experience she’s had, well, I just didn’t think it would happen. But, I can be wrong sometimes, this being one of them. It didn’t even take her a minute. As her lips touch the spot just above my collar bone, I shiver in delight. Callie smirks against my skin and grazes her teeth against the spot. I hold my breath, forcing the moan in the back of my throat not to escape my lips. Then she bites down, not hard, but still a bite. This sent me over the edge and the moan finally escapes.
Callie pulls back then and laughs, “mission accomplished.” I groan and roll off her. She fixes her skirt and then turns to face me and gives me a short kiss on the lips.
“Before you showed up, my phone was getting filled with messages from Christina, asking random questions about your friend Justin. Would you like to explain?”
“what? I can’t play matchmaker here?” I ask, sounding fake hurt.
“Justin and Christina? You sure about that?”
“you and I work, right? Plus they like each other. Let them make their own mistakes.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out to read the text, assuming it was from Justin. Instead, it came up unknown.
July 23rd. It read. I look at the number and realize that it was Hannah.
“who was that?” Callie asks, snuggling closer to me.
“just Christina saying thanks for the number.” Callie smiles against my chest.
July 23rd. So long away, yet so close.