Chapter 28: Kyle

What.

All I can do is blink.

Aaron's smile melts away and is replaced with a worried look. "Cassie?"

I don't answer. I can't answer. He just kissed me. It wasn't as long as I had hoped it would've been, as I had wanted it to be, but it was a kiss, a kiss that I feel like I've been waiting for my entire life.

And he likes me.

But...

"What about Tiffany?"

He sighs. "I'm going to tell you something, but, no matter what, you can't tell Autumn I told you. Okay?" I give him a nod and he moves on to his knees in front of me, resting his hands on my thighs. "Remember how I told you we moved?" Another nod from me and another sigh from him. "Before we moved, Autumn went to Breckenridge."

My nose scrunches up at the name of the 'elite' private school. Though I don't follow my high school's sports, I know that Hilltop and Breckenridge are rivals.

"Anyway, she had good friends there. They didn't hang out a lot over the summer, but they were still her friends. She was at the mall one day, and she ran into a guy and they started hanging out. They started dating and Autumn brought him to meet our parents. We didn't know that he was introducing her to all sorts of drugs or that she was addicted. And we definitely didn't know that he was hitting her. But when we found out, my parents immediately shipped her off to a rehab center in California and told the guy to stay away from her."

"She told me she was visiting your grandmother."

He nods. "That's what our parents told her to say. It would ruin both of their businesses if word got out that Autumn had a drug problem. They guy wouldn't stop hanging around the house, so we moved and Autumn came back, and we started school here. Tiffany somehow found out about Autumn and the guy and rehab because she came to me and threatened to go to the press with what she knew if I didn't agree to date her."

When the fuck did my life turn into a drama series?

Aaron's face falls. "You don't believe me."

"No," I say quickly. "It's not that I don't believe you, I do, but, I just... What does this mean? For us."

He stares into my eyes. "I don't know, Cassie. I can't break up with her. I'm not going to ruin my family."

I nod my head. "I get it. It's okay." It's not like I expected him to hurt his family just to be with me. If I were him, I'd be doing the same thing Aaron watches me, and I see the exact moment an idea forms in his mind. "Whatever you're thinking," I tell him. "Don't. Stop thinking it right now because it's stupid."

"You don't even know what it is," he pouts. "It's not that bad, Cassie, I promise."

"Have you ever heard about two things called relativity and personal definitions?" When the pout on his face doesn't go away, I sigh. "Fine. What is it?"

"How opposed are you to dating in secret?"

"Nope. I told you it was stupid."

"What happened to relativity and personal definitions?" he teases me.

"Those things don't apply to me. My opinion takes precedence over everyone else's."

Wow, I am really narcissistic.

Eh, I'm still better than everyone else.

"Come on, Cassie, please?" he begs. "All I know is that I like you and I want to be with you, and I can't think of any other way for us to be together without resulting in Tiffany going to the media. If you can, trust me, I'm all ears." He waits for me to speak up, but my brain has decided that now is the time to check out of the station and leave the train to drive itself. When I don't say anything, he continues to speak. "Cassie. What could go wrong?" he asks, and it's that sentence that prompts me to speak.

"A lot of things could go wrong. Tiffany could find out and still go to the press is the worst-case scenario."

"Then we won't let her find out."

"Aaron," I say firmly. "I understand why you don't want to break up with her, I understand why you can't, but I'm not going to be someone you're dating on the side, whether your relationship with her is real or not."

He stares at me before he blinks and nods. "Okay. But promise you'll let me know if you change your mind?" I nod and a look of relief crosses his face before he stands up and moves away from me, walking backwards until he reaches the doorway. "I'll come by to check on you later, okay?" I give him a nod and he turns around, walking away and up the stairs.

Well.

---------

"Autumn, how do your feet not hurt?"

Autumn and I are at the mall, and we've been here for close to three hours. The only reason I'm not dead on the floor is because I'm in a wheelchair and can't walk. After Aaron went back to his room, I messed around on the piano for a little but before Autumn came down and suggested we go somewhere, and we ended up here.

"Don't be dramatic," she laughs.

"Seriously," I say. "How the fuck are you still walking?" We walk past a line of shops, Autumn stopping to glance at each window display before moving on nothing catching her eye. She stops outside of a store filled with pretty dresses and skirts before she begins to push me inside. "Nope. Leave me out here."

"Why?"

"If I'm surrounded by dresses and shit for any longer I'm going to spontaneously combust."

Autumn sighs. "Fine. I'll be right back."

I watch her as she walks away, and I start to daydream. A voice coming from behind me snaps me out of it.

"Cassandra?"

My body stiffens. I know that voice. That voice fills my mind late at night sometimes, a bittersweet echo of what used to be.

As much as I don't want to, I can't help myself, and I turn around to face the voice that both calm something inside of me and makes me want to throw up.

"Kyle?" He looks at me with what appears to be shock, and I eye him warily, my gaze catching briefly on a small bump on his forehead. "What are you doing here?"

"I haven't been here in a while and I thought I'd check it out." He hasn't been in a while because he hates malls; I know that, he knows that, and he knows I know that. "What are you doing here?" He smiles at me, and I feel myself swooning before I stop myself. No, he hurt us, remember? "Here with Grace and Gabby. They loved this place, right?"

Memories of the days when he and Gracie and Gabby and I used to spend most of our free time at this mall, and the thought makes me want to cry.

And it makes me wonder how he can stand here and talk so casually, stand here and not feel an ache inside of his chest, stand here acting like everything between us is normal, stand here and act like he didn't hurt me, that what he did never happened.

If I'm struggling with all of that, why isn't he?

"I'm here with a different friend. Autumn."

His eyes widen with shock but he speaks before I can call him out on it, his eyes returning to their normal position. "Autumn, who?" he asks casually, but before I can answer, his eyes shift to somewhere behind me and his smirk––the one I hate––comes out.

"Kyle?" says a voice from behind me in the same tone I said it in earlier. I turn my head to see Autumn standing there in shock, not able to tear her eyes off of him.

What is happening here?

Kyle's phone beeps and he pulls it out from his pocket to glance at it, stuffing it back into his pocket when he's done reading the notification. "I got to go. I'll see you girls around." He nods his head at me and Autumn before turning and walking away, leaving me and Autumn silent.

It just got hella awkward.

--------

In the beginning stages of planning, the little bit that I did, Kyle was supposed to be Aaron, but i changed him to make him a bad guy because Kyle sounds eerily like a bad guy's name. Maybe a mob boss, or a loan shark, you know?

Anyways, what history do you think Kyle has with Autumn?

This book reached 950 reads earlier today, it's almost midnight now, and while that might not seem like a lot to you or other authors, it means the world to meet, so I decided to write this chapter as a thank-you gift. Seriously, I love and appreciate each and every one of you reading this book, and I hope you stick around for the remainder of the book. I remember when this book had so little reads, and the happiness I experienced as the number reached 100, then 200, then 500, and now 950 will never go away.

I'm sorry if this chapter was terrible, I've been experiencing terrible writer's block, but i managed to crank this out for you guys. Again, thank you.

The next chapter should be out by Friday, but no later than next Monday.

Thank you!!!

--Rose

P.S. I know in the last a/n I said the secret that Cassie's parents have to tell her would be out in this chapter, but that, obviously, didn't happen, and I'm sorry for that. It's (almost) definitely going to be out in the next chapter, though.

Alright, that's it from me, promise. And, again, last time lol, thank you so so very much.