Chapter 55

Baylen came to my room to speak to me about Keegan. I didn’t want to hear anything about that boy or his conniving ways.

“Brees, let me talk to you just briefly about Keegan’s side of the story,” Bay said.

I reluctantly agreed and sat in my large bean bag chair. Baylen sat on my bed after throwing a few things onto the floor.

“You gotta clean up in here, Squirt. It’s like a war zone. I’m afraid to go back to Arizona with you still here,” he said, making a sour face at my mess, ”Anyways, Keegan had left here to go break things off with Isadora that night. He said she was very upset when he told her he was still in love with you. He decided it would be the right thing to hold her while she cried I guess. He said before he knew it they had fallen asleep. That wasn’t his plan. He would never spend the night at her house. They definitely weren’t doing anything sketchy. I’m pretty sure Keegan is still a virgin. Not to air out his business. But just consider giving him another chance, Squirt,” Baylen suggested.

I paused for a moment, realizing that had my brother known Keegan and I slept together, he probably would freak out.

“I’ll think about it Bay. I mean we have the New Year’s Eve party, but didn’t we send Isadora an invite?” I inquired.

“I mean we did, but that doesn’t mean she needs to come with Keegan. You should text him and just leave that line of communication open. You never know,” Baylen said, hopping off of my bed.

“I will. Thank you Bay for being so cool about all of this,” I said, hopping off the bean bag and giving him the biggest hug I could muster up.

He ruffled my curls and then left my room. I felt a glimmer of hope in my heart, but didn’t want to act on it. Jagger and I just became exclusive and she professed her love for me. But what if Baylen is right? What if Keegan really did go there to break up with her? Had I not intervened, we might still be mending our relationship. I didn’t know what to do. I gave this boy my virginity. I love him more than I can even say. Do I throw that away for Jagger, who lives 4 hours away from me?

I grabbed my phone and started to text Keegan. My heart was racing, but I had to act on this impulse before the moment left me.

“Hey,” I wrote.

He immediately sent back a smiley face emoji.

“Are you coming to the New Year’s Eve party?” I texted, falling onto my bed with the biggest smile.

Three dots started and then stopped. Maybe he was unsure of if he was coming or not. Finally I saw a message pop up.

”I wasn’t even sure if I was still invited, but yes I will be be there. Wouldn’t miss it,” he wrote.

That made sense that he thinks he wasn’t welcome. Honestly, up until about five minutes ago, he wasn’t. I still wasn’t sure about everything between the two of us, but what I was sure of is that I loved Keegan. I had to fight for him this time. I let him go much too easily before and I know that was because of my feelings for Jagger. I don’t love her though. She is incredibly fun, athletic, smart and drop-dead gorgeous, but she doesn’t give me that feeling in my stomach like Keegan does. Jagger loves me, but I have to see if Keegan was really at Isadora’s for me and not her.