I Will Wait

Chapter 1-Part 2

"Wow, you broke your promise?" The car jerked to a halt at the stop light on the corner of tenth and closer to my doom. "Low, El. What kind of a friend are you?"

"Yes." I whined not caring that I sounded like a horrible child at that moment. I had broken my promise. Should I have? Probably not, but I never thought that it would work out for Caleb and I anyway. He was Caleb, in his own little world here and I was Selah, in college in three states over and creating my own life. There was nothing else to it. I figured it was some pipe dream or a dare from the two older guys and that would be that. I guessed I was wrong.

"What did you do?"

I sat myself up in my seat and stared straight ahead at the red light, willing it to stay red for the rest of the night and keep us here forever. Maybe, if I concentrated hard enough the light would stay red and Joel would get bored and drop the subject.

"Selah."

Snickerdoodles and fudgecakes!

"I have a boyfriend." I finally caved. "We've been dating since the end of the last semester of," I thought for a second, calculating when it had been since I had started dating him. We had spent almost every waking moment together, it was hard to remember if it had been one year or one hundred. Then I added, "my first year."

"How did I not know this?" Joel turned his head to stare at me in disbelief. We told each other almost everything. This, on the other hand, was something I left out entirely from every phone call, text conversation, and facetime with Joel. If I had told him I had a boyfriend, lets just say it would be the end of my his life. Maybe both of their lives. There was no telling with my big brother. "How did you even manage to keep this from me!"

"Because you would have freaked out!" I raised my shoulders defensively. "You would have gone all protective brother mode. Like you are now." I pointed out a second later, jutting an accusing finger at him, it was shaking. Snickerdoodle and fudgecakes. I was shaking.

"Yeah. The fact that you didn't tell me leads me to believe I would have been right to go all protective brother mode. What kind of a doof is this guy?"

Ugh. The light turned green. That was not a good sign. God, would you please stop the car. Could we please not go to this party? Don't let me go! Please! It doesn't have to be a life threatening car wreck! Can we just run out of gas? Or the battery dies? Something please! I leaned over just enough to see the gas tank dial. Full. Snickerdoodles and fudge cakes! Why? Joel's had this truck for years, it can stop working now.

"No. He's not a doof, Joel," My protest would not have convinced him. "He's a really sweet guy, Joe. I'm not dumb. I wouldn't date someone horrible." I thought he had known me better than that. It was a shame. Clearly I was a new creature to Joel, maybe he did not remember that my favorite snack was churros or that we used to drive in his car up and down the street when we were bored blasting his 80s rock playlist that he insisted be titled The Next Best Thing. Because according to my annoyingly easy to laugh at older brother thinks rock and roll is the next best thing, second only to Jesus. My brother, was a huge advocate for Jesus and insisted they are the absolute best friends, I admire that about him. He has the strongest faith I had ever seen in anybody.

"How would you know what horrible is when you're blinded by roses and chocolates and pretty-boy eyes?"

"There weren't roses and chocolates. He does have pretty eyes though."

Joel shot a sideways glance my way. Smug and uncertain. The war of 'I told you so' and 'be careful' etched into each line that melded his expression into something too confusing to understand.

I grabbed my phone to look at the time and possibly to see if there was someone who could save me from the soon-to-be horrible disaster, instead I had a missed call.