24 Hours with You

As soon I saw her I turned around to steer myself back out of the store but instead, I bumped right into Josie.

"Where are you going? We're barely in the door!" She said turning me around and giving me a light shove further into the store. At this point I had no doubt that Amber saw me so I decided that it was just as well to stay and shop. I realized I made the wrong choice when I saw her make her way towards us.

"You're James' friend right?" She sent me a slight glare as she asked.

"Hi Amber." I faked a smile. If James really liked this girl, I knew I'd have to put up with her which
would be much harder to do if I didn't at least try to keep things nice between us.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" She gestured for me to follow her as she turned around and started walking towards one of the sale walls. I looked back at Josie for a second and she mouthed the words 'what the fuck?'. I didn't know what was going on either so I shrugged and kept walking towards where Amber stood.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" As I stood there in the middle of Macy's waiting for her response, I wondered what on Earth it was that she wanted from me. She already had James liking her and she barely knew me so I really didn't know what her deal was. When she finally replied, I wasn't too happy with her answer.

"You what?" I asked again, dumbfounded by what she had asked of me.

"Look Casey.."

"It's Cassie."

"Yeah whatever, I just don't want you talking to James. You had your chance and now it's my turn." She decided that she was done talking then and turned to walk away from me.

"So what? You had a one night stand with him! What makes you think that that gives you the right to tell me that I can't be friends with him?" She turned quickly and walked back towards me, determination written all over her face.

"If you must know, he asked me out on a date tonight and if we're going to try to make a relationship work, the best friend who's pining over him needs to go."

"Excuse me? Pining over him?" I had no idea where she got off thinking she knew anything about James and I but I was about to set her straight. She leaned in close to my ear then and whispered.

"You think you're hiding it but anyone with two eyes can see just how much you like him." I was horrified. Was it really that obvious? I started getting nervous then and I could feel my palms starting to sweat.

"D-d-does he know?" I asked quietly.

"No. I'd like to keep it that way too but if you don't cooperate, it might just slip. What will he think of you then? He won't have time for the pathetic girl that fell in love with him when she knew she didn't have a chance." She said it with an evil smile that I wanted to smack right off her face. I was frozen in place, shocked that James could actually find something good in a person like her. As I came back to reality she had already started walking away and I spat out a fuck you at her back. When I turned around to walk back to Josie, she was already behind me and I could tell she knew it wasn't a pleasant conversation.

"Let's go before my fist accidentally collides with her face." She said and grabbed my arm to pull me out of the store.

We walked straight to the car, a five minute walk without a word. I could tell she was dying to ask 100 questions but wanted to wait until nobody else could hear. The second we got in the car the questions flew.

"So that was her huh?"

"Yup" I said, popping the 'p'.

"She seems like a lovely girl." She said sarcastically, making fun of Amber's nauseating voice. We both break out into uncontrollable laughter at her perfect imitation.

I loved the feeling of having a girl friend to talk with again. I already had so much trust in Josie, ever since we met we just clicked and we could talk about anything with each other. It was just what I needed. There was a huge lack of estrogen in my life up until that point.

"So what did she want?" She asked once our laughter died down and we were being serious again.

"She wants me to stop talking to James." I said staring out the window, contemplating what to do.

"Who does she think she is?!" She was just as pissed as I was about the whole situation but what could I do?

"I know, but I don't really have a choice. If I don't listen to her then she's going to tell James how I feel about him and he would just be weirded out. It's best if I listen to her. He'll eventually forget
about me anyway." I sighed then stared out the window. Was it really the best option? The day before I was thinking of telling him, so why not just let it happen? No. I couldn't do it. I hadn't thought about what he would think of me afterwards until Amber said it. He would think I was a weirdo, she was right.

"Are you insane? Even if he doesn't like you he still couldn't forget about you! You're his best friend for Christ sakes!" She said yelling at me. She wanted to make me understand but I already had my mind made up, no matter what she said.

"If he finds out, he'll think I'm some nut case and he won't want to be friends with me any more. Either way I lose. I just wouldn't be able to handle losing him and being rejected by him. It would hurt too much. This is the only way."

"Cassie you can't give into her like that! James will be torn up and we both know it! You can't just do this to him without an explanation." She said. I had to admit, she was right. But that didn't mean I had to listen to her.

"He'll be too busy keeping up with her to notice anyway, especially since he's moving back to his place tomorrow. It'll be like we never crossed paths in the first place."

"Most normal people don't end up living together for a week just after they meet. They don't forget about each other. You're just making up excuses to make it right in your head. If anything, he'll miss you more." She said. She looked at me like a mother reprimanding her child.

"It doesn't matter if he'll miss me because he'd be happy to get rid of me if he ever found out. Who wants a best friend that likes them? I have to do this. At least if I have the upper hand of sorts, I know what's coming. If I give him my heart to break then there's no going back and I can't control anything that happens."

"That's what love is about. Trusting someone with something as breakable as your heart." We both knew from experience but she was on the good end of it. She had Brandon, a loving boyfriend who would never touch another girl. Whereas I had the cheater and dealt with all the pain. I didn't want to go through any pain like that again.

"You're right but it's one sided, and this will help me get over him. Just please don't fight me on this. It's what needs to be done. If I didn't have to, I wouldn't even have given it a second thought." She looked at me and with one glance I could tell she knew that she couldn't fight me any more. She gave me a sad look, hopeless look, then started the car and drove out of the mall parking lot.

James came over around 12:00 pm the next day to pack up his stuff. He told me all about the date he had with Amber the night before. Apparently she was a sweet, genuine girl that he could possibly see himself with. Go figure. The date went great and they had planned to meet again on Tuesday for another. I told him how happy I was for him that he finally found a girl to keep him in line. He laughed at that.

As he was getting ready to leave he offered me a ride to my doctor's appointment which I refused, telling him that Josie had already offered.

"Alright. Call me after and tell me what he says okay?" I knew he genuinely cared by the way he looked at me so I had to agree, even though I knew I wouldn't call.

"Okay."

"I sure will miss having you around all the time. I know it's weird but it'll be kind of lonely going home to an empty house every day." He commented with a light chuckle. His eyes were glazed over as he stood in the doorway, leaning on the door frame. It was then that I could tell that he was elsewhere, thinking intently about something.

"It's not weird. I'm upset that I won't get to eat your delicious cooking every day, or have someone take care of me. It was nice while it lasted." I said with a smile. He laughed at my joke and took it like a gentlemen. We both knew he had sub par cooking skills.

"Some day I'm going to have you over for dinner and you're going to be blown away. I will eventually get better." We laughed together then chatted for a little while longer before he decided he should go and let me get ready before my doctor's appointment.

He was gone in and instant and I closed the door slowly behind him. That's when I found myself whispering the last goodbye.

"I'll miss you too."

Notes

I was in a writing mood today so I decided to write this. Hope you guys like it :) Please comment I love knowing what you guys think of everything that's going on!