Say You Love Me(54)

“I’m not making it sound anything.” She said snidely. “Just continue.”

“I thought we were on the same page. I apologized to her about hurting her feelings. Told her I thought she’d been ignoring me, but she told me that she’d just been busy. I guess with that fool, Luke.”

“He’s not a fool. He’s a nice guy.”

“Uh huh, did you know that they’d kissed?” I said angrily, feeling a spark of jealousy running through my stomach again and I clenched my fists.

“Yes.” She said simply. “How do you know?”

“I saw his text.”

“He text her?” She sounded surprised. “What did he say?”

“How am I supposed to know? All I saw was a text saying how all he could think about was their passionate kiss.” I said bitterly.

“Wow, he said that?”

“Mila!” I almost shouted. “He didn’t use those exact words. I can’t remember what he said exactly. Who the f*ck cares? This is about me, not about this schmuck? Whose brother are you?”

“I’m no ones brother?” She laughed.

“Ugh, you know what I mean. Whose sister are you?”

“You know I always have your back, Cody.” She said softly. “I take it you’re upset that Sally kissed Luke. Is this what this call is about? Did you guys argue about the kiss? And how did you see the text message on her phone? Were you creeping through her texts?”

“I would never snoop through someone’s phone.” I said with a sigh. “She was getting upset with me and acting all irrationally and shouting at me and her phone beeped, so I very kindly went to get it for her and I found it stuffed under the sheets and saw his name and text on her phone. She’d been texting with him in the bed that we’d just made love.”

“Really?” Mila’s voice was dubious. “That doesn’t sound like Sally.”

“Well maybe you don’t really know, Sally. Maybe I don’t really know Sally. Who knew she was a player?”

“Sally isn’t a player.” Mila said. “You know that.”

“How am I supposed to know that?” I said. “She’s in my bed texting another guy.”

“Okay, Cody, what help do you want from me?” Mila sighed in frustration. “I’m not sure exactly what you called me for, you don’t seem to want to listen to what I have to say.”

“I want to know what Sally’s problem is? What game is she playing with me? I want to know what I’m supposed to do now. Am I supposed to text her? Call her? Am I supposed to just go on with Luke? Ignore her? Go back to being friends and pretend everything is okay?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.” I snapped. “I don’t know. I don’t know what game she’s playing with me. I don’t know what she wants from me.”

“What do you want, Cody?”

“I don’t know.” My heart started thudding. “I want to be with her. I want to spend time with her. I want to kiss her. I want to hold her hand. I want to talk to her. I want to be her shoulder to lean on. I want her to come to me when she’s sad. I just, I don’t know...” My voice trailed off. “What’s happening to me, Mila?”

“You have to figure it out yourself, Cody.” Mila said softly. “I think you’ll get there, but you need to figure it out yourself.”

“I need to talk to Sally.” I sighed. “I just don’t even know why she was so upset.”

“Do you really not know?” Mila cleared her throat. “You’re my brother and I love you, but you cannot be this dense. I know you can’t be this dense.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know Sally had a crush on you when we were younger.” Mila suddenly snapped. “I know that you know because TJ and I have talked about it before.”

“Yeah, so.”

“So have you never considered the fact that her crush never really faded? Be honest now, bro. Come on now.”

“I don’t know.” I said softly, not sure how to answer. “Maybe? I don’t know. I’ve never really thought it.”

“You’re selfish Cody. You’re really really selfish.” Mila sounded pissed. “You know in your heart of hearts why Sally is upset. You know what’s going on, but you don’t want to acknowledge it. You don’t want to be anymore uncomfortable than you have to be. You think you can just sleep with girls and lead them on and just do what you want without any emotional entanglements? You think people don’t have feelings? You think you can pull and tug at the heartstrings and not have any repercussions? You think you can become close to someone and just be in some weird friend zone where you f*ck forever? That’s all you’re comfortable with. And God knows why you’re so scared of relationships? I don’t get it. I don’t get you. You can’t just play people like this Cody. You can’t just pretend ignorance. You can’t call the girl crazy. You can’t make it seem like you’re an innocent bystander in all of this. It’s not fair and it’s not right. You need to grow up. You need to look a little deeper. You need to stop being so bloody selfish and think about how others might be thinking and what your actions and words might be doing. Think about someone else’s feelings for once and act based upon that. Stop acting and doing things because you’re a jealous little boy that doesn’t want to share his toys.”