Last Summer Part 19

**So sorry again for the wait. I feel like I say that at the beginning of every chapter. So sorry! And BTW I am not going to leave you hanging on this story. I've already finished writing it. I just don't have the time lately to submit new chapters so that's why they take so long to come out. Anyways, hope you like this part! Please comment!**

Later that night, after I had taken a shower and gotten into my pajamas, Caleb and I curled underneath the quilt on my bed. He intertwined his legs with mine and wrapped his arms around my waist and I felt tingles all throughout my body. You’d think that I would get used to this, but apparently I hadn’t. Besides, he smelled even better than last summer. I doubted that I would get any sleep tonight seeing as how he was in my bed.
What I couldn’t get used to was the fact that he was in my bed. He had settled with such a boring, plain-looking girl when he could have anyone in the world. But no, he had chosen me and it was something that I would never understand.
Curled in bed together reminded me so much of last summer, but it was almost better. Because now I knew how much we truly cared about each other. I think everything that had happened strengthened our relationship.

The room was dark, only illuminated by the soft glow of my alarm clock by the wall. Plus, it was way too dark outside to even offer a tad bit of light in through the window. But the thing was that I could still see Caleb. He was there, in the shadows of my room, holding me close. It was something that I’d never get used to.
"You never did answer my question earlier. You said that you would tell me later," I murmured, running my hand through his hair for about the millionth time today. I just couldn’t get over how soft it was and it was guy hair for Christ’s sake!
His eyes connected with mine and I shivered. He explained, "You really don’t need to know. I mean, it’s all over with, right?"
"But I have a feeling that I need to know. I’m not going to be mad or anything."
He pulled me tighter to him; as if he was afraid I was going to leave the comfort of the bed-like I would ever do such a thing. He closed his eyes tight and then after a second he told me, "Remember that day…? It was after you had stood me up and I showed up and we got into this huge fight in your kitchen."

I nodded and then I remembered how I had thought he had been crying, but it had all looked like an illusion from the sun. Was that what he was going to explain? He said, "The day afterwards, Tiffany came over."
My body tensed up as I waited for his next words "me and her slept together." Instead, he told me, "She came over to yell at me for hurting you. She told me how you had been all junior year and how you barely ate and you thought that you weren’t deserving of people’s love. She told me that I crushed you." He looked up at me and then guilt in his eyes was unmistakable even through the dark. It pulled on my heart strings to see him like that. He looked so vulnerable.
He shook his head and told me, "I can’t forgive myself for that. Nikki, ever since I’ve met you, you’ve been a strong girl. Who am I to crush you like that? After that…I didn’t allow myself to be around you. That’s why when you came over to watch Billy; I would barely speak two words to you. And you were being nice that day too. Well, you didn’t hate me."
I blushed in the darkness and confessed, "I had thought you were going to kiss me. I was going to kiss you back too, by the way."

He chuckled and said, "I was, but somehow or another, I told myself that if I did, it would only hurt you. So I ran away like a little kid."
I pressed my lips against his in the darkness and sighed in contentment. When we pulled back I told him, "That made up for it."
He laughed and then kissed me again, this time more forceful than the last. He knotted his hands in my hair and pulled my face closer to his; as if he couldn’t get enough of me. He pulled back and said, "That was for the next time."
"You saying there’s going to be a next time?" I teased, grinning through the darkness.
"Never," he promised and then kissed me on the forehead.
Not another word was spoken after that. It was as if we both decided to just shut up and sleep because we both deserved it. I, for one, was emotionally drained, and he had to be worse off than me.
But I couldn’t fall asleep quickly because my mind was racing. Caleb’s parents had died. He was going to have to deal with that for the rest of his life. How come I had gotten off so easy?

"Holy shit!" Tiffany screamed as she opened the door to my room. According to the clock it was ten in the morning and Tiffany was usually still asleep. But I guess the one time that I had Caleb in my bed, she had to ruin it.
Me and Caleb hadn’t even been doing anything for her to walk in on. Little kids could have walked in on us and we wouldn’t have cared. To tell you the truth, I much would rather little kids than the currently red-in-the-face Tiffany Smith. She looked pissed out of her mind.
Caleb and I had been talking while I had been tracing the lines on his chest. Is that really such a big deal? It’s not like we were getting busy in here or anything, so Tiffany had no right to freak out like this.
"Nikki Marie Hemingway, I would have thought so much better of you! I would rather see you in here with Dave then with that bastard!"
"Stop it, Tiffany," I tried to command, but she didn’t listen. She stormed into the room and kept on screaming.
"Really, Nikki? Are you this desperate? What about Todd, huh? He was cute and he really liked you! But no, you have to fuck your ex-boyfriend who crushed you instead! It’s nice to see that you value yourself!"
I tried to remind myself that she was my best friend and that she only wanted the best for me, but she seemed so angry with me. It looked as if she hated me. I was about to say something, but it seemed as if Caleb had to say something too. "Don’t yell at her!"
Tiffany rolled her eyes and then turned her attention to him, "And you! Don’t even get me started! You promised me that you would never mess with her again! I told you what you did to her; do you really want to do that again?"
"Shut the hell up, Tiffany!" I screamed, climbing out of the bed. She had no right to talk to him like that; he hadn’t done anything. Maybe if she noticed I was actually clothed, she wouldn’t freak out as much. I walked over to her and placed my hands on her shoulders to calm her down.
"Don’t touch me!" she squealed. "God, Nikki, don’t you see what you’re doing? You’re setting yourself up for heartbreak again just so you can screw around with a fine piece of ass!"

I knew that Tiffany was a drama queen, but I had never seen her like this before. She was positively livid and it was like I couldn’t stop her rampage. I told her, "It’s not like that…trust me."
She laughed painfully and then said, "You know what? I’m going to live with Dave."
"Wait…what?" I asked her, my heart plummeting. Did she really hate Caleb that much? "You can’t…you just met him."
"Nikki, I love you and I can’t watch this. He’s going to crush you again and I don’t want to be here when it happens. I’ll leave. You can have the love shack to yourselves." With this, she wheeled around and I could hear her feet pounding on the stairs.
I had to stop her. I ran after her and said, "You can’t move in with a guy you just met. You may think you’re in love with him, but do you really know him?"
She paused in the middle of the den and said, "I know enough to know that he won’t rape me. He practically lives in a mansion, so I’ll have my own room. He was asking me to move in with him last night. It’s all set."
Tears formed behind my eyes; she couldn’t do this. She was going to end up raped or pregnant or…I couldn’t even think of the possibilities. "Tiffany, please, don’t."
"No, I think I will. Go back upstairs to see the douche if you don’t want to watch me pack." For a moment, there was nothing but silence between the two of us. I was trying to capture the tears that were about to pour over and it looked like Tiffany was trying to keep steam from escaping her ears. Then she spoke again, "No, you know what? I cannot even be in this house right now. Call me when the two of you won’t be here and then I’ll come and get my stuff."

I stepped forward to try and grab her arm; to keep her from going, but she jerked away from me and then marched out of the house, grabbing her cell phone and sunglasses on the way. She slammed the front door and it caused the entire house to shake. Was our friendship really ruined because I was back together with Caleb? Did it really matter to her that much?
I heard Caleb’s footsteps on the stairs and when he made it to the ground floor, he looked at me, guilt written all over his face. He thought this was his fault. "It’s not your fault," I told him and then walked over to where he was standing by the staircase.
He had put on a T-shirt over his holey pajama pants and he was staring towards the door. He said, "Nikki, how is this not my fault? Tiffany wants nothing but the best for you, trust me. I should be the one leaving, not her."
"No!" I exclaimed and then wrapped my arms around him. He wasn’t leaving me just because of Tiffany. Because she left, I would probably need him more. I looked up at him and said, "Caleb, it’s not your fault. I should have talked to her before you came over. She was shocked seeing us in bed together because last time she checked, I hated you. You’ve got to stop blaming yourself for everything. Nothing’s your fault."
He proposed, "I won’t blame myself if you won’t blame yourself. Nothing is your fault either. Everything’s just been a misunderstanding."
I took a step out of his arms and said, "Deal." I held my hand out and he shook it. He smiled at me and then pulled me back into the warmness of his chest.
There was no way on earth that I would ever let this guy go. He was basically a part of me. How had I survived an entire year without him? Miserable , I reminded myself. I had spent an entire year without him and it had been the worst year of my life.
But this year was going to be different, I could tell.