The Player

Brielle

8:09 PM

Sam and I sat at our favorite diner, Randy's Shack. Whenever any of us were stressed out or needed to eat our feelings, we always order two double chocolate shakes and onion rings to split. Today, I needed them more than ever.

When Christopher first ditched me on the sidewalk after our kiss, I was shocked. I couldn't wrap my brain around the fact that one moment his lips were pressed against mine, and then the next, he was gone.

But after the initial shock wore off, I just grew angry. How dare he leave me there after that! I immediately called Sam in my need to vent, and we have been here ever since.

"You know what really pisses me off?" I asked Sam, rhetorically of course. "The fact that he gave me no reason and just ran, like who does that?" I took a long slurp of my shake before catching my breath.

"And to be honest, he's not even that cute anymore. He's one of those guys that look good from afar, but when you look at them up close they just look worse and worse. He's basically a catfish."

I looked up at Sam for confirmation but was only answered with a slight nod of her head and a soft murmur. Her eyes seemed to have glazed over, staring at the Beatles poster hung on the wall.

"Sam!" I clapped my hands in front of her face, causing her eyes to snap towards mine. She looked disheveled for a second before finally returning to reality.

"I was listening!" she said in a high-pitched voice, lying straight through her teeth. She spotted my knowing glance before finally confessing.

"Okay fine, I wasn't, but can you blame me? You've been talking about how much you hate him for like two hours." She played with the straw in her empty cup. "A friend can only take so much."

I rubbed my eyes, resting my forehead on the cool table. "I know," I groaned, looking back at her. "It's just that he's stuck in my head, you know? And no matter how much I try to shake him I can't stop thinking about him."

I rubbed my temples with my fingers, feeling a head ache coming on. "It's just so frustrating."

"I know," Sam said, looking at me with sympathetic eyes. "That's why I texted him to meet us."

"What!" My jaw dropped as my eyes grew wide.

"I had to!" she exclaimed, quickly defending herself. "You've been saying the same thing over and over for the past thirty minutes. If I didn't do something, I was going to go insane."

A look of hurt was plastered on my face. I couldn't help feeling a little betrayed. I just wanted someone to vent to, I wasn't ready to confront Christopher.

because her tone grew

hurts me to see you distraught like this. Whether you guys

thought of even talking to him made my heart race in nervousness. What if it wasn't a crazy reason at all, and he just ran away because he decided that he didn't like

the door of the restaurant interrupted my thoughts. Before even looking, I knew it was him. I quickly opened a menu, trying to hide

over the top of the menu, spotting Christopher scanning the room

her purse from the table and standing up. I let out a sigh

mouthed the word

"Christopher we're over here!"

My heart sank.

almost at our table when she whispered to me, "This is

I set the menu down, becoming the usual shy, nervous wreck that I was around him. However, something about the way he smiled brought

seeming to be taken

he responded, scanning my face for any hint of what I was feeling. I tried my hardest to be expressionless, because under all my anger, I was hurt, and I didn't want him to

apology." I clasped my hands together and set them on the

on top of mine. I yanked my hand out from under his, cutting him off before he

left was the raw hurt that he caused me. I felt tears well up in the

myself out there for you, something that I never do, and you have the nerve to kiss me and

way out of the diner, not even bothering to look back. The tears began to fall down my face all at once,

spun me around. His face softened when he

I ordered, trying to yank my wrist

out a deep huff

just want to know why you did it. Why

pained expression coming over his face. He hesitated, trying

last of my tears. I was done crying over him. I turned and began to walk away from him. However, once he began

don't like to let people get close to me, because the more people that you care about, the more chances you have of being hurt. I was scared that if I let you in and

I spun around to face him,

I'm not afraid

be to kiss him, to forget

But I couldn't.

to meet his gaze. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and looked anywhere