24.

confrontations

"KEVIN'S HOT, CLARA," Melanie observed, waving a half-eaten fry in the air. "And he's like totally into you."

"I have a boyfriend Melanie," Clara said, slurping on her milkshake. "And even if I didn't have one, I wouldn't date him. He's pathetic." I winced at the bluntness in her tone.

"Yeah," Melanie said, quickly reconsidering her opinion. "I guess he is kind of sad."

I bit my cheeks to prevent my laughter from spilling out. I won't even lie, that was hilarious.

"Are we going to talk about this or not?" Emery asked from beside me.

"Talk about what?" Melanie asked while Clara shrugged.

"The fact that Caelum agreed to go with Daesyn and not you," Emery said.

"I'm not mad he rejected me, he does it every time," Melanie said. "But how did she get accepted on her first try?"

I cringed at the way she said it. It felt like we were talking about getting accepted into college.

I chuckled. "Maybe he was just in a good mood?"

"Caelum is never in a good mood," Melanie spelled out.

"Have you ever wondered if he keeps on rejecting you because he doesn't like you? Maybe he hates you?" Clara asked her.

She laughed bitterly. "Caelum hates everybody."

"Well, maybe he prefers Daesyn to you," Emery yelled. "You're obsessed with him, you try too much and he rejects you every time, don't you get tired?"

Melanie turned to me, and I almost died from the look in her eyes. "You know, I even tried to kiss him—"

"What?" I asked quicker than I was meant to, banging my fist on the table. "Why did you try to kiss him?"

"Calm down, Daesyn," Emery whispered, holding my hand and I just realized what I did.

I lowered my voice, leaning back against my chair. "Why did you kiss him?"

Clara quirked an eyebrow at me, while Melanie didn't seem to mind my change of moods.

"He didn't let me kiss him."

"Good," I muttered.

"How is that a good thing?" she asked.

"I don't know." I shrugged nonchalantly. "He could've punched you. And I don't want him to punch you so it's a good thing he didn't let you kiss him."

"Are you even making sense?" Her green eyes narrowed into slits. "Caelum wouldn't hit a girl."

"Well he is Caelum, and he is unpredictable."

"Come on Daesyn," Emery interrupted and Clara nodded quickly. "Let's get going, it's already late."

"Yeah Melanie, I have to go home early," Clara added. "I still have um...stuff to do."

I nodded and stood, waving to both girls. Clara waved back but Melanie completely ignored me and left the restaurant. Apparently, she was still mad at me. I had mixed feelings about this even though I didn't want to lose a friend because of Caelum.

Clara gave a small smile and went after Melanie. I sighed and turned to look at Emery. "Seems like things didn't go according to your plan."

"Don't worry," she said. "I had already made it clear to Melanie that Caelum was never going to be interested in her. But she keeps telling me that everyone needs to face rejection once in a while yada yada yada."

"Oh."

"When she tried to kiss him, I still told her to stop being like that," she continued. "And now, she gets mad when I tell her he doesn't like her—"

I cut her off with a wave of my hand. "Where was I when she tried to kiss him and when was it?"

"It was on Sunday," she replied. "You didn't hang out with us."

If it was Sunday, it was either before or after I saw Caelum at the graveyard. I just shook my head at that. "Don't worry, Melanie is going to realize sooner or later that Caelum doesn't like her like that," I said. "Well, I hope she realizes sooner."

She laughed as she walked over to the driver's side of her car. "You know what Daesyn?"

"What?" I asked.

"You were acting like a jealous girlfriend in there." She grinned. "And now you're even talking like one."

I rolled my eyes, scowling at her. "I am not jealous."