Chapter 20

I now it was my turn to regret the fact that the golf cart was moving. I had nowhere to escape. I guess it kind of made sense, and that freaked me out a little bit. I bit my bottom lip and turned to Keaton.

"He likes me?" I asked still in disbelief.

"Wes seems to think so." Keaton shrugged at me. My mind was whirling in a million different directions. A bunch of different thoughts filled my brain at the same time, I couldn't sort them all out.

"That is complete bull." I mumbled. Keaton turned to me looking confused. He looked at me with curious eyes, asking me to explain. I sighed and elaborated further. "One guy liking me I can understand. But two? That's totally not possible." I stated.

"What are you talking about Avery? Have you even seen yourself?" Keaton asked eyes slightly wide.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Here I have two really cool guys fighting over me, and back home I'm no one. I just don't get what those guys see in me." I told him. 

"Uh, well for starters you're kind of really hot." Keaton said. I smacked him in the arm, but not hard. I was kind of flattered actually. I started blushing. No one has ever told me that before. I've heard from my friends that I looked beautiful and gorgeous before, but a guy has never called me hot. Ever. Although, the fact that it was Keaton who said it made the experience kind of weird. I smiled at him

"Keaton!" I scream-laughed at him. He chuckled and blushed a little too. He started talking quickly before I had the chance to hit him again.

"Okay, Okay!" He raised his hands to me defensively. "Well you're also a really good surfer, and you're pretty, and you can skate, and apparently you can sing." He smiled at me. "Wes is really into you because you guys like the same things." He nudged me on the shoulder, and I smiled at him. He was very sweet.

"Thanks Keaton." I said to him smiling slightly.

"For what?" He asked me.

"For thinking I'm pretty." I looked at him and smiled. He was blushing like crazy. He looked away and started mumbling.

"Uh, no problem." I laughed.

"It was very sweet for you to say Keaton." And it was. Keaton was a very nice boy. The sophomore girls are probably going crazy for him.

And then I remembered.

"Uh so what am I going to do about Owen?" I asked, scrunching up my nose, changing the subject. Keaton's smile faded.

"Yeah that could get pretty messy if you don't do something." Keaton said a little worried.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Owen knew you first, so technically he has dibs on you. But since Wes asked you to hang out after he knew Owen had dibs, he was hypothetically stealing you away." Keaton stated.

"Dibs?! What is this? I'm not a slice of pizza." I scoffed.

"No you're not, and that makes the problem so much worse." Keaton sighed. I looked at him to explain. He inhaled, "I've seen it happen before, with Drew and Wes." Keaton said. I glanced farther up in the cart and saw the two best friends sitting next to each other, pointing out buildings and laughing. "There have been multiple occasions where Drew was dating a girl, and Wes would come by and snatch her up." Keaton said, a little disappointed in his brother's past behavior.

"Is that why you guys broke up all the time?" I asked. Keaton nodded slowly.

"It was one of the reasons, but yeah. That definitely played a part in us splitting up all the time."

"So what would happen?" I questioned. I was a little scared of what Keaton would say. If something as simple as liking the same girl could tear apart two best friends like Drew and Wesley, I was pretty afraid of what it would do to Wes and Owen.

"They would just argue all the time. Sometimes they would get in full on fights." Keaton said. "They always made me pick sides. When I would side with Drew, Wes would get pissed, and I would side with Wes, Drew always threatened to move out and leave." His face looked pained. I suddenly felt sympathetic towards Keaton. He was always stuck in the middle.

"So, you're saying that if I don't do anything to stop this, I might lose one of them?" I asked scared.

"Or worse. You could lose both of them." Keaton said looking at his brother in the row with Drew, and Owen sitting next to his sister.

"Shit." I said. Keaton put his arm around my shoulders. I closed my eyes, incredibly stressed out. I leaned my head on his shoulder. He knew exactly what I was feeling. I was extremely lucky to have Keaton here. I felt really comfortable around Keaton, he was really easy to talk to and he gave good advice. Maybe I envied him a little bit. He had only just finished his freshman year in high school. I remember my freshman year, it was pretty carefree and I was still innocent. But considering what he's been through, always being the one that has to pick sides, I couldn't help but feel bad for him.

For the rest of the tour, I tried to keep my mind off all of my issues. I tried to enjoy all the sets and point out buildings that I recognized. It started working, but then the tour ended. The next stop of the day was Venice Beach. We took the bus over there and I was immediately overwhelmed by all the colors and noise. Well, I'm not going to have any trouble with distracting myself here. There was so much to do. Hundreds of surfboards were lined up against wooden houses, there were tons of vendors selling all kinds of food on a stick, and all kinds of people were walking up and down the beach.

We passed by a group of body builders benching weights with triple digits. The guys were about two or three years older than us, and were completely ripped. I couldn't help but stare at them, their muscles looked completely impossible. My mouth was open and so was Adrianna's. I looked over at Wes, and he looked pretty uncomfortable. He tried to shrug it off joking with us.

"Woah those guys are so jacked they make Drew look like a second grade girl." He laughed. Drew nodded.

"Yeah. That's not cool. It's unhealthy to be that big." All of the testosterone in one area was making me pretty uncomfortable too, so I didn't mind when Drew suggested we move on. It was around lunchtime and we were all pretty hungry. Owen and I offered to go get lunch for everyone at the snack shack. Wes narrowed his eyes at Owen but let me go with him because he was starving. I caught Keaton's eye, and he nodded. It was time for me to confront Owen.

We walked mainly in silence. Occasionally I brought up something about the beach or the weather, but he just answered simply. We ordered lunch for everyone and I tried to talk to him again. There was no response again. Finally I realized I was going to have to force it out of him. I grabbed his arm like a little kid, and pulled him behind one of the surf shops so we were out of sight. 

"I know why you don't like Wesley." I told him. His gaze fixed on mine.

"Well it's about time. I made it pretty obvious." He said softly.

"Well I'm telling you that it needs to stop." I told him.

"It's not that easy. I can't just flip a switch, Aves." He touched my arm. I shuddered. 

"Please. I trust him, Owen. I just want you two to get along." I pleaded.

"Why should I get along with him? He stole you from me." He started. I didn't have anything to say. I was taken aback. But he just drove the knife in further. "You used to detest him, remember? You thought he was just another player." Owen said.

"That wasn't fair, I didn't know him then, Owen." I whispered in my defense.

"Did you even like me? Ever?" He asked on the verge of yelling. I could hear the pain in his voice. "I thought you liked me, but you were only stringing me along the entire time." He scoffed.

"I was not leading you on!" I screamed at him. I looked him in the eye and my voice softened. "There was a time, when we first met..." I started to say. "But I like Wesley now. The thought of almost losing him made me realize how much I care about him, and-" I was cut off.

While I was talking Owen had leaned in and placed his lips on mine. For a second I forgot what was going on and I kissed him back. Once I did though, I immediately regret it. I pushed him off me. But it was too late.

"Are you really going to deny that you don't feel anything for me at all?" He said referring to the kiss that just happened. "That wasn't all me and you know it." He said dangerously calm. 

"No. No. No. I'm with Wes. I'm happy with him Owen." I said backing up from him. He looked me in the eyes.

"You're happy with me too, you just won't admit it to yourself." He said. I shook my head and denied it. "Have it your way Avery. But I'm not going to let you go without a fight." He walked away. My heart sank. This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. I felt so angry at everything. I was angry with Owen for kissing me, angry with myself for not stopping it sooner, angry with Adrianna and Drew for not having any problems.

I could feel the tears prickling the corners of my eyes. A few tears rolled down my cheek. I wiped my eyes with the corner of my sleeve. Why does Wesley always seem to be the reason why I'm crying? Even though it's not directly because of him this time, he's always involved. I was about to full on burst into tears when I heard a bell dinging a few feet away.

"Number 24! You're order's ready!" I heard a woman call. Shit. That's me. I pulled myself together and walked over to the window to pick up our food. I smiled and thanked her like nothing was wrong. Owen was waiting for me on the other side of the building, leaning against the door. When I passed him I didn't say anything to him, and he fell into step behind me. 

We arrived back to our friends looking like nothing was wrong... like nothing had happened.

OOOH! Major Drama up ahead! :O Haha, don't forget to add Riptide to your Reading Lists!! I'll have chapter 21 up tomorrow :)