Chapter 29

Two Mondays later at school, things were great. Craig had "asked me out" as in like boyfriend-girlfriend kind of thing, and I felt like that was going to do really well.

Of course, things were still weird in the area of Kaitlin and Mike. Kaitlin was still horrified by it all, and Mike acted like he was doing everything in his power to show her that he loved her.

She and I talked as I drove to continue picking people up. My parents had decided that we should get a "kid car" that us kids would take around everywhere, again. I had called the girls and told them that I would be coming by to pick them all up that day. I picked Kaitlin up first, of course. She and I always picked each other up first. I guess you could say that we were closer than I was with the rest of them, but I knew that it was only because she had told me about her and Mike, and needed me for support.

I pulled up in front of her house, and honked the horn.

"Hey," she said, climbing in next to me.

"Hey," I pulled back out onto the street, and headed towards Amanda's house.

"How's it going?" we both knew the double meaning to my question.

"Good, I guess. Mike is being weird."

"How?"

"He's being overly nice."

"So I've noticed."

"But I'm still scared Soph. I know what happens when couples have sex for the first time."

"I'm sure it's not like..."

She cut me off, "The guy loses respect for the girl, and then he decides to break it off and find someone else." She turned to me, "I don't want that to happen Soph. I love him with all my heart, and if that happened..."

I nodded, "I know."

She looked upset. I patted her shoulder, "Don't worry. The way he is acting shows me that he is trying to change your mind. He knows that's how you're thinking about it, and I think that he is trying to prove to you that he still loves you. He doesn't want to drop you Kaitlin, I promise."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded, and pulled up in front of Amanda's house. "Positive."

I honked, and she came running out. She climbed into the back of my Solara convertible, and greeted us with her usual complaint of Monday mornings. "Ugh, it's Monday. How many more days until Friday and the weekend?"

We laughed, she always said the same thing at the same time every Monday morning.

As we picked up the rest of the girls, we changed the topic to clothes, boys, etc. The normal things that best friends talk about when they are together. The subject of Kaitlin and Mike was not bought up again.

We of course met the guys at school, and we all continued on to homeroom. One thing I noticed, was that Craig was a touchy person. He liked touching people. He would always have his arm around you, grab your hand, or whatever. Lots of contact. Even though some people who didn't know him well thought that it was kind of weird, it was one of the many things that I loved about him.

He did it again: slipped an arm around me as we walked to class, all laughing and talking about god knows what. I don't even know what we were talking about, all I was focused on was that hand that was on my waist, and how perfect it fit there.

When I got home that afternoon, what I found in my email box shocked me. There was an email from each person in the France gang. All except Brittany, and she was online. I instant messaged her immediately.

"OMG!" she immediately replied. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S YOU!"

"How are you?"

"Great, how about you? How's France?"

"It's amazing thanks, how is everyone in BH?"

"They're doing good. I heard you talked to Leo."

"Yep, he sounds like he's doing well."

"Yeah, well he sat at the popular table, so I would guess so."

"Yeah," I checked at my clock, quickly did some math, and was immediately confused. "Why are you not at school?"

"Sick."

"Oh, well at least we can catch up! How have things been with everyone?"

"Things are good. Everyone is still going out, minus you and Kyle of course."

"Yeah, you and Erin still inseparable?"

"If you want to call it that ... lol."

"Lol. Parker and Charlotte doing well? I still haven't talked to them yet!"

"So I've heard, I will be the first out of us who has!"

"Lol yeah."

"But yeah, they're doing fine."

"Fine?"

"Well..."

"What happened? Are they okay?"

"Yeah..."

"What? Something happened, I can tell."

She didn't say anything for a few minutes, and then finally she started typing.

It took a while, I noticed later it must have taken guts to tell me. Even though I was, or had been, their best friend.

"They did it over the summer."

"They did?"

"Yeah."

"Is she..."

"No."

"Thank god."

Oh my god. They did it. Charlotte and Parker finally had sex. We were waiting for that to happen, and it was exactly like Kyle and I had predicted on that first day.

"But I had thought you and Erin..."

"Supposedly a lot of people had, I guess because we were so open with our make out sessions, lol. But in the end, it turned out to be the two of them."