Another Love Another Time Novel – I saw a picture of him pecking another girl and they were very intimate. He betrayed me. He said he liked me and could do what a boyfriend should do, but it was the opposite. My heart sank in my stomach and my chest ached. I recognized the girl immediately. She was the girl he had to carry from the beach last year when he left me in the water. He hasn’t had much time to talk lately. I thought it was the sports that kept him busy, but it looks like he has other things to do. “I’m not so sure you won’t lose her. You hurt her and she cried to your house. I’ve never seen her like that.” “Why was she crying?” “You were hanging out with another woman right in front of her and allowed that woman to swear at her. You’re terrible!”
River: Age 15 River I cannot believe what I am seeing. My mom and dad finally let me create an account on Facebook and my first friend request goes to Auggie. His mom and dad let him have a Facebook account last year, a lot of the communication from his baseball team and tournaments he goes to are communicated through Facebook. I hop on to his news feed to be nosy; curious what kinds of things that he posts. I start at the top and start scrolling down. He’s tagged in a few of the team pictures. He’s shared a few memes and videos that are kind of funny. He’s wished his mom a happy birthday. Auggie must have his profile public because I am getting a view of everything. I keep scrolling when my eyes land on a picture of Auggie and a girl pecking.
My heart drops to my stomach and there is an ache in my chest. I recognize the girl immediately. It’s the girl who he had to carry up from the beach last year, when he left me in the water. Amber was her name, I think, it’s confirmed when I see who tagged him in the post. Well, she got what she wanted. I know we have spoken about girlfriends and boyfriends, but I didn’t count on it hurting this much. Seeing his lips on some else makes me sick. The picture is like a bad car accident, I just can’t look away. He hasn’t had a lot of time to talk lately. I thought it was sports keeping him busy, but it looks like he has had other things to do. What if he starts to have no time for me? The ache is my chest grows. I can’t lose my best friend.
Why wouldn’t he tell me? I’ve pecked one boy other than Auggie and afterwards I felt guilty. It doesn’t look like he feels guilty looking at this picture. I know he’s pecked other girls, I just haven’t ever seen it with my own eyes. What if she doesn’t like him talking to me. I heard the things she was saying on the beach, I don’t think she would like to know that we talk/text daily. My mom has asked me what I would do when he does get a girlfriend. She knows how I feel about Auggie, but she also thinks it’s good for neither one of us to get serious right now, but she did ask what would I do if one of Auggie’s girlfriends didn’t like the fact that we did talk daily? Surely, he wouldn’t choose them over me, right? How will I act if he brings a girlfriend around me? We are supposed to head up to visit them in a few weeks. Will he bring her around? I look down again and see another picture of them together.
This time it feels like a knife twisting in my heart. My Auggie, he has her in a side hug and he’s looking into the camera, with a big smile plastered on his face. Amber is looking up at him looking all giddy. Auggie and her seem like they are pretty cozy. She tagged him in her post referring to Auggie as her boyfriend. Ugh! Auggie has a girlfriend and apparently, they peck a lot as I scroll through other pictures, she has tagged him in. He hasn’t posted anything about her, and all pictures are posted by her. I don’t blame her; I would definitely post that too. She’s pretty; Amber has brown hair with highlights that is long and wavy. I can tell she wears a lot of make-up and doesn’t look like a clown. I try not to compare myself to her, but it’s hard.
I don’t ever wear a lot of makeup. If I do its usually mascara and the only thing, cherry chap stick is the closest think that I use to lipstick. Well now I wish my mom would have never let me have an account. I hold my chest, there is still an ache in the middle of my chest, and I take a deep breath in hopes that I can ease it. I hate that she’s been taking him away from our daily talks. It seems that any free time he has he’s been spending with her according to the pictures posted to his timeline. My chest still hurts and continues ache. Why didn’t he tell me? I know this is what I wanted, I told him to date other girls, but he’s never put a label on it, and I really didn’t think through the fact I may have to see it with my own two eyes. I know this is the right thing for us right now, it just really hurts. I guess I’m glad I know now verses going up there and finding out.
What do I do? He’s going to know I know about her when he sees my friend request. Do I bring it up or do I let it go like it doesn’t bother me? We have pecked several times since the first time we pecked, and we have experimented with other things. He’s the only guy that I have done anything with. What is wrong with me? Who would encourage the boy they love to go out with other girls? I think it would be pretty unfair of me to ask him to not date. I know he would if I asked him, but he should experience being able to have a girlfriend. He should be able to see his girlfriend every day and get to do things with them on a regular basis. Auggie has discussed going to the same college together after we graduate high school to play softball and baseball. I’m hopeful he gets all these girls out of his system, and we will be ready to be together than. Although I told tell him that.
Auggie POV I haven’t spoken to River since Saturday night. By the time I woke up this morning her and her mom were already gone leaving me with a disappointed looking mom. She knew something was up, she knew River never left without saying goodbye, but she also knew I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I’m so confused right now. I was so excited to see her and to have her hang out with my friends, but when we got to the bowling alley, Amber wanted all my attention. I really didn’t know what to do. Amber kept on getting mad whenever I would try to talk to River, and I wanted to show River that I could be a good boyfriend. Somewhere in between I had apparently done something wrong, and she hasn’t talked to me since.
I know she’s mad at me, but I’m mad at her too; I got in trouble by my parents for not watching over River and letting her leave. They said River wouldn’t talk about what happened with them. I really wasn’t sure what River was so mad at. I mean Amber was a little rude to her, but it wasn’t like she was going out of her way to be nice to Amber. I knew I had messed up somehow when even Logan was giving me one-word answers through text. Eventually he just said he would talk to me on Monday. It was now Monday, and I thought he might be cooled off by this morning, but I was mistaken again. We always meet in the front of the building and walk into school together. I had already sent Amber in the building so I could speak with Logan alone, but when the first bell rang and Logan still was a no show, I figured either Logan wasn’t coming, or he was already in the building. I sent him a quick text. “So, I know everyone’s mad at me? River hasn’t responded to my texts or calls all weekend. I can’t believe I got in trouble for her leaving. I didn’t tell her to leave.”, I kick my shoe into the dirt while adjusting the strap on my bag on my shoulder.
“You know I hate to get in between nonsense with you and River, but I feel like I have to this time. I want to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them honestly.”, he looks me straight in the eyes. “o-kay”, I respond not really knowing what he was going to ask. “Do you think you were a good friend to River on Saturday?”, he holds his hand up before I say something. “Just listen, Do you think you were a good friend? To a friend who drove six hours in a car to hang out with her best friend. That friend then agreed to hanging out with you and all your friends where you only said two words to her the whole night because you were too busy sticking your tongue down the throat of your girlfriend in front of a friend who you know loves you.” I go to defend myself again and he holds his hand up again.
“I’m not finished, when that friend came to you to ask you if you were ready to go, mind you, you were still sticking your tongue down your girlfriends throat, you allowed some girl to be rude to a friend that you’ve known all your life. So back to my original question. Do you think you were a good friend?” I’m thrown a little and all I can come back with is, “I said more than two words to her that night.” I know it’s weak and as I think through that night, I realize he’s right. Every time I would go to say something to River, Amber would pull my attention away. “I see you’re getting it, which brings me to my next questions. Is Amber worth losing River? Because I can guarantee that Amber will never be okay with River being in your life and you know River will not put up with Amber being rude to her.” “I won’t lose her we’re best friends.”
I state confidently. “Are you sure? Because if you invited me to hang out somewhere and then pretty much ditched me the whole night to hang out with a girl, I wouldn’t be too happy. That’s not what a friend does. I wouldn’t be so sure of you not losing her. You didn’t see her on Saturday. You broke her Auggie, she cried the whole way to your house. I’ve never seen her like that. It scared me. You know how strong she is and she just wouldn’t stop crying until we got back to your house and as soon as we got back she went to bed. Our dads tried to get it out of me what happened, but I didn’t tell them anything.” “Why was she crying?”, knowing I already know the answer to my question.