Chapter 27

I literally fell over he was dragging me around so roughly. "What do you want? Get off!"

I jerked my arm out of his grasp. "What the hell just happened in there?"

"I don't know, why don't you ask your girlfriend who was grinding her ass off on top of Craig."

I didn't curse that often, only when I got really upset. That must mean I was upset. No duh.

"Look Sophie, I know that you hate Amy because we're together, but seriously. That was over the top."

"It was over the top for her to call me a whore!"

The gang was coming outside, and I rolled my eyes to myself.

"What just happened in there?" Kaitlin asked.

"No idea, why don't you ask Amy?"

"She's not talking. I think she's leaving," Jackie said, not exactly looking upset.

"Whatever," I couldn't care less.

"I'm really sorry about the way she acted, that was out of line," Amanda spoke up.

"No shit Sherlock," they knew I didn't curse. "I'm sorry guys, that just really got to me."

They nodded, and the guys were coming close behind them, Craig amongst the group. He looked worried.

"Yeah, it would have gotten to me too. That was over the top," Chris added. He slipped an arm around Amanda.

Ben looked at me in disbelief, "You had absolutely no excuse for blowing up like that." He sounded angry. I couldn't believe he was standing up for that brat.

"What are you talking about? She verbally attacked me. She had no right to do that," I said. I was shocked. Craig came up.

"You know man, she's right. Amy was out of line with that." He slipped an arm around my waist, and when I looked up at him, he gave me a quick glance that told me it was okay. They were all on my side, not hers. Except Ben.

"Screw this," he stalked away.

"Oh my gosh guys, I'm so sorry about this. I just completely trashed this party."

"Only the party right here, there's still a crazy party going on inside!" Amanda informed us, grinning. They all whooped, and headed back inside. I had to hang back a step.

Craig noticed it. "You okay?" he asked.

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Look, whatever just happened in there, was kind of crazy."

I nodded, "I have no idea what happened."

He nodded back. We walked and sat by the pool together. I took off my shoes, and slipped my feet into the water. He came, and sat down beside me, taking off his sneakers. He was wearing shorts, and his muscular legs were obvious right next to me.

I put weight on my hands, rocking back and forth slightly. "Amy and I had something between us that had to be settled. And I think you were just caught in the middle. I'm sorry."

He gave me a questioning look, "It's okay. What did you guys have to settle?"

I straightened one leg, letting the drops of water run off of into the pool, making little ripples everywhere. "I don't even know what it was specifically."

"I do."

My questioning look asked for an answer.

"It's all about Ben," he didn't look exactly happy about that. "You were with him, and you feel like she completely replaced you."

"That's not..."

"It is Sophie, I know. You were upset about that, and just had to get to her somehow. Whether it was using me or not, it didn't make a difference, I just happened to be there."

"Look Craig, I wasn't using..."

"I know, I know." He stared at the water, his jaw clenched. He looked upset about it.

"You know you're the only person here who understands me."

His look told me he had no idea what I was talking about.

"You know how hard it is."

He half nodded, but looked even more confused.

"I left behind so much in California, and it was equal if not greater to the pain I felt when I left France at the end of freshman year. I didn't know what to do. I had to take it all out on someone, because my parents didn't understand where I was coming from. And then everyone here half expected things to go back to the way they were. But they couldn't. With Amy here ... I didn't know what do. I felt like she had completely replaced me. That's why I asked the girls before you guys came if she fell immediately in with you guys. I wanted to see how fast she replaced me..."

I felt my eyes filling, and tried to blink them out. I couldn't cry. Not in front of him.

One rolled down my cheek, and I tried to sweep it away. But before I could, he saw it. "It's okay Sophie. I understand," and I knew he did.

I leaned against him, and felt like bawling my eyes out for days. He rubbed my arm, and then my hair.

"You're the only person who does."

"Understand you?" he asked, his chin on the top of my head.

I nodded.

"It's a gift," he whispered, and I had to smile.

We sat there for a few minutes, and I soaked up his smell. God he smelled good.

"Think we should go in?" I asked him.

He shrugged, "Doesn't make a difference to me. Do you want to?"

"Whatever you want."

He smiled, "Let's get out of here. I'm sure we can find something better."

I nodded, and we both got up, putting on our shoes after drying off our legs with one of the towels that Jake always had on hand around his pool. "Just let me say bye to Peter," I explained, as we headed in to get our jackets.

He nodded, "We should probably say bye to the gang."

I nodded back, and we set off to find them with our jackets all ready on. We got hugs, kisses, "I can't believe your leaving!", "are you sure you're okay?", and everything in between. We assured them, and then I found Peter.

"Look, I'm going to go."

"Are you sure? You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think Craig and I are just going to hang out."

He nodded and gave me a quick hug, "See you later."

I gave him a kiss, and then Craig and I left.

We ignored the idea of getting one of the cars, and walked. We walked to this little cafe that was near the Eiffel Tower, and got some coffee.

"So what were things really like while I was gone?" I asked him once we had sat down in booth that faced the Tower.

"Different. That's for sure," he assured me.

I nodded. "How?"

"Well, as you know Amy came."

"Don't pretend to be sweet, I want the direct play by play."

We laughed, but he started over.

"After you left, Ben kind of stopped hanging out. During that summer, he got himself a job at a summer camp, for some odd reason, and was a counselor there for two months. He hardly wrote to us, except for an occasional hey.

"Us guys hung out a lot, and the girls hung out a lot too. I'm not sure what it was ... it was like we were pulling ourselves together. I know this sounds cheesy, but it was like there was a place missing when you weren't here."

He paused to sip his coffee.

"And then Ben got back from summer camp, and kind of locked himself up in his room. We hardly saw him, despite the many parties that existed during those last couple of weeks."

"What was he doing?"

"No idea. His sister said she would always hear him on the computer, so she figured he was writing or something weird." Ben had a little sister who was Adrienne's age.