The Distance Between Us

Chapter 7: A Rainy Ride to School

Chapter 7: A Rainy Ride to School

Sunday night, Dylan vomited...four times. So, we came to the conclusion that he wouldn't be going to school the following day. However, I needed a ride to school because we were supposed to have heavy rain. My parents barely felt comfortable letting Dylan drive in the predicted rainfall, even though he had a year and a half of experience, never mind me. I have my license; I just never found a reason to drive. So, I had to ask the only person who lives near us, and that person is Holden.

So on Monday morning, rather than getting in the car with my brother, I got into the car with Holden, who was kind enough to bring me to school. When I got in the car, he looked at me and smiled. "Good morning," he greeted in his familiar boyish voice.

"Morning," I responded as I put my backpack on the floor in front of me. We drove to school in silence before I remembered to tell him what my mom told me to. "My mom's going to be picking me up from school, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Okay," he responded and I could tell he had something else to say. He was removing his hands from the steering wheel whenever we stopped just to wipe them along his jeans.

"What do you want to say, Holden?" I asked him.

"I don't really want to make things awkward," he announced. "And I just want to say that I think of you as a good friend and I don't want you to hate me."

"You don't like me?" I asked him and he nodded, earning a smile from me. "That's okay, Holden. You could've just said that. And to be quite honest, I don't like you in that way. I mean, I did at one point, but not anymore." That last part was irrelevant and I could've gone without saying it.

He sighed in relief and I could tell he'd been stressing this for a long time. "Why didn't you say anything when the guys said you did?" he questioned.

"Because it got them to stop calling me jealous," I responded with a shrug.

"I guess that makes sense," Holden replied. "So do you really like him?"

"Who?" I asked. "Axel?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"No, why would you think that?" I replied, earning a shrug in response.

"Well, for one, you knew who I was talking about," he retorted and I shook my head.

"That was because I just said something about being jealous," I responded. "I don't like him. I don't like anyone."

"Really?" he asked me. "You don't like anyone?"

"No," I told him.

"You really don't like Axel?" he inquired and I glared at him. To everyone: no I don't like Axel; to myself: I'm not sure if I do; I haven't sat down and figured out my feelings yet and I'm a bit scared to.

"No, Holden, I don't," I retorted. And I thought I got a lot of that from my friends.

"You hung out with Victoria the other day?" he inquired and I nodded, staring out the rainy window with wide eyes. Never again. I've dug myself deeper into the hole that I need to crawl back out of to regain friendship with Axel. And I'm desperately trying to get out of that hole or at least get a little bit more dirt at the bottom of it.

"Yeah," I muttered. "It didn't go well." Never again. It was a very stupid decision of mine.

"Why'd you hang out with her in the first place?" he inquired and I sighed, knowing it wouldn't make me sound any better regarding the whole 'crush on Axel' thing.

"Because Axel suggested it," I told Holden, who looked at me with a sideways glance before coughing.

"So, you hung out with her?" he asked.