He licks his lips, now looking unsure, but then he sighs. “I’m sorry for the whole more-than-one-girlfriend thing, Meg. It was wrong of me to try and do that to you.”
All I can do is stare at him as I remind myself to breathe. Is this really happening right now?
“It was so stupid,” he continues speaking, a muscle in his jaw beginning to twitch. “A couple of the guys were doing it and they convinced me to try it out…I never should’ve listened to them though. And I didn’t think you’d break up with me, but then you passed that note to me during class the next day…” He shakes his head, causing my heart to pound even faster. “I knew I messed up.”
I swallow, trying to cure my dry throat. “Why—why didn’t you tell me?”
If he knew that he messed up…why act like I didn’t exist anymore?
“I guess I just figured it was too late,” he says, his voice lower than before, “that you only wanted to be friends. And since I couldn’t bring myself to see you as just a friend, I—”
“Decided to ignore me instead,” I finish for him, putting the pieces together. “Right? Because it was way more convenient to ignore me, rather than fix things between us.”
Typical Brayden.
“I’m sorry, Meg,” he apologizes again, “I never wanted to hurt you. I just…I didn’t know how to handle it.”
And I don’t know how to handle this. It’s too much. My head is spinning, my heart is hurting, and I just wish I hadn’t agreed to come on this stupid walk.
“Meg? Megan?”
He reaches out to touch my arm, but I take a step back so he can’t. I’m having enough mixed feelings as it is, any physical contact from him would just make this even worse.
“I get that you’re upset,” he drawls, his eyes softening as he studies my face, “but I want to make this right…if you’ll let me. Do you think you could give me a second chance, Meg?”
“Wait, are you thinking about giving him a second chance?”
“No, of course not. He’s not interested in me. I’m not interested in him. It’s not happening.”
And yet, here he is—standing in front of me, asking for a second chance. What does that mean? Didn’t I already give him a second chance when we agreed to be friends? Does he want to start over again? Or is he asking for a second chance as…something else?
But he’s not interested in me like that, right? He couldn’t be.
“Megan?”
None of this is making sense.
“Say something, Meg,” he says, his tone becoming impatient, “anything.”
Chapter 18: My Favorite Neighbor
“Well?” Lora asks, looking at me expectantly. “What did you say?”
“What was I supposed to say, Lor?” I huff, turning my attention to the ceiling of my room. “The whole thing was just weird…and confusing.”
“You had to say something,” she insists. “Come on, Meg, don’t make me go next door and ask Brayden what you said. You know I will.”
“How can you threaten me like that?” I wail before glaring at her. “After what I went through last night, you should be showering me with chocolate and…I don’t know…comforting words!”
“For both of our sakes, I’m going to act like you didn’t just say that,” she replies, momentarily closing her eyes. “Get a hold of yourself, Megan. Tell me what you said!”
“I might have told him that I needed to go,” I drawl, poking one of my pillows, “because I had…stuff to do…here at home.”
“You didn’t,” she says, giving me a judgy look that makes me cringe one hundred times over. “Megan! Why?”
“I freaked!” I defend myself, scrambling to sit up. “I didn’t know what he meant by giving him a second chance! I told you already—it was confusing!”
She tosses a hand up and curses at me. “Then why didn’t you ask him what he meant?”
“Maybe because I was feeling a little overwhelmed?” I shoot back, crossing my arms. “It was a lot to take in, Lora!”
“All right, all right,” she verbally waves me off, “well, what did he say when you gave him the lame ‘stuff-to-do’ excuse?”
“Uh…” I trail off, ignoring her sarcastic tone. “See, the thing is, I might have not heard what he said because I was too busy walking away from him as fast as I could.”
I give her my best: “I’m-totally-innocent-don’t-hate-me” look, but she shakes her head in disapproval anyway.
“Megan,” she grumbles, flinging one of my pens at me (which I barely manage to dodge). “The guy was trying to make things right with you, and you just flippin’ left him standing there!”
“Can we please remember that this was his fault to begin with?” I ask, tilting my chin up. “There wouldn’t be anything to fix if he hadn’t ruined our relationship in the first place!”
“People make mistakes all the time, Meg!” she exclaims, widening her eyes at me. “It’s not that hard to believe a twelve-year-old boy would screw things up with his twelve-year-old girlfriend.”
“But—”
“Maybe you should cut him some slack,” she suggests, giving me a meaningful look, “I mean…he said he was sorry, and he gave you an explanation. What more could you possibly want?”
“I don’t know,” I mumble, clicking the pen a couple of times, “I guess I’m just still upset that the reason for our breakup was because he gave into peer pressure; and then he made the situation even worse by not doing anything about it.”
“Well, he’s trying to do something now,” she states in a matter-of-fact way, “and I think that says a lot.”
Of course, she does.
“And besides,” she continues to speak, “you should be glad the breakup was because he gave into peer pressure!”
I blink at her,
