Between Us

Chapter 11

I practically skipped back over to the food court, waving my phone in the air as soon as Caden glanced up from his own phone. "Look what I got," I exclaimed, jumping in front of him.

"The number?" asked Caden, tilting his head.

"Yup!" My whole body felt lighter and I wanted to run around with my arms spread open. "I feel ten times more confident, now." The best thing about it—I didn't even need to text the actual person, so the embarrassment of seeing them again wasn't something I needed to worry about.

"That was the whole point." He didn't share my same happiness, looking back down at his phone. My shoulders deflated and so did the joy that was building up. Well, so much for the excitement.

"Excuse me?" A girl who was really tall and a little plump came up to us, her long brown hair tied up in a sleek, high ponytail. She wore a sundress, her neck decorated with golden chokers. When Caden looked at her, she gasped. "I knew it. You're Caden Byrnes."

How come we were meeting everyone Caden seemed to know? This mall wasn't big by any means, but still. Was this guy that popular around here?

The way the muscles in the side of his jaw worked meant that he recognised her, too. "What do you want?" His voice was ten times colder than it had been.

"Nothing. I haven't seen you since we all graduated." She shrugged. "I thought you'd be with Leilani or some of the others. I didn't think you'd started hanging out with..." She glanced at me, and my face fell. What was that look supposed to mean? "You know what I mean? Like, you used to be pretty popular." She clapped her hands together as she threw her head back. "Oh, wait, I know what you're up to. You're doing what we used to do, right? Make the losers think they were a part of—"

The sound of the chair scraping against the tiles shut everyone in the proximity up. Well, not everyone. Some turned to look and then went back to chattering. Both the girl and I stopped and stared at Caden as he brushed past me. The girl snickered. "Good luck," she said to me.

I had no idea what that meant, but it was ominous, sending chills down my spine. Ignoring her, I grabbed all the bags that were placed under the table before jogging over to Caden. He was faster walking than I was at running. By the time I got to him, I was a little out of breath.

"Are you okay?" I asked, not knowing what else to say to fill the silence. Besides, that encounter was really weird. He used to be pretty popular, she had said. I could see it. Kind of. I didn't peg him for the popular type but for the typical bad boy 'I'm too cool for friends' type. I guess not everyone can be stereotyped like that.

He didn't respond to my question, and he never did. Her words were harsh but the harshness wasn't aimed at him. It was aimed at me. I didn't care to know about him other than having him help me, but I was being given glimpses and hints of the person he actually was. The problem was, I didn't want to know. I was scared. And the reaction he just had, that was reaffirming all my suspicions.

Maybe he was bad news, after all.

***

It was like that incident at the mall never happened the next day. He was back to normal. Well, if you could count his shadiness as 'normal'. He was about to head out for his daily jog with Chunk just as a middle-aged couple walked by with a stroller.

"Hey Caden, how's Chunk doing?" the man asked. Why were people so friendly here? Seriously.

"He misses Ash. How was his first day at pre-school?"

"Ugh, the waterworks and the like." The lady looked at me and smiled. "You're the new family that everyone's talking about. You live here?"

Huh? "People talk about us?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

"Nothing bad. Your parents are nice people but the ladies at church gossip" —she waved her hand in the air—"the town is too small and boring not to do anything else." After a confused smile their way, they left us alone.

I went to go back inside when Caden stopped me. "Hey, you." I turned, surprised. "Meet at mine by six tonight. We're going to practice."

I wasn't sure I'd heard correctly. "Practice?"

"And bring your clothes," he said, without explaining. He didn't wait for an answer before heading out. Guess I was going, then. I had to tell my parents this before they thought I, too, was planning to run off by staying away from home for so long in forever.

Last night, my dad had the best reaction when he saw me carry in bag after bag.

"Woah, did you buy the whole store out?" he had exclaimed, fork in his mouth dropping animatedly.

"It's not that much stuff, is it?" I mumbled, looking down.

"I thought you hated shopping."

"She does, but she went with her friend," my mom—my own saviour—had said.

I steered back inside, helping my mom set up the table for lunch. "By the way," I began as I sat down next to dad at the dining table, "can I go over to the neighbour's house at six? He wants to show me something."

For a moment there was a pin drop silence that settled into my bones. When I thought they were going to say no, my mom sighed and said, "Okay."

"So long as—ow." My dad rubbed the area of his arm she had viciously pinched.

"It's okay, Shyla."

The overwhelming urge to run over and squeeze my arms around her was immense, but I shoved it down. I wasn't sure what I was going to do if she had said no.

"If you two are such good friends, why don't you invite him over for dinner?" My dad asked.

What? I hadn't even known the guy for a day and he was already thinking about inviting him over for dinner. At the look on my face, he added, "If you want to. He is your friend, after all, right? Why else would he go shopping with you?"

Right, I forgot that they didn't know the specifics of how this came about. I mean, my mom vaguely knew that he was helping me become confident but for all she knew, we'd become friends in the process.

"I guess," I said, awkwardly.