Lahat ng Kabanata ng One Accidental Text: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

RhettThere were two things I was becoming painfully aware of.One, I was falling for Emery Collins.Two, I was a complete coward.I’d spent Monday night staring at my phone after our conversation, trying to convince myself there was a good reason not to tell her the truth.There wasn’t.There were excuses. Plenty of those.I didn’t want to hurt her. I didn’t want to ruin what we had. I didn’t want her thinking every conversation we’d shared had been some elaborate joke.But underneath all that was something considerably less noble.I didn’t want her to hate me.And considering how I’d treated her before, that was a pretty reasonable possibility.Tuesday morning, I found Knox sitting on the hood of my truck in the school parking lot.“Get off my truck.”“Good morning to you too.”“Knox.”He slid off, grinning.“Somebody woke up cranky.”I unlocked the driver’s door to grab my backpack.“Didn’t sleep much.”“Thinking about Collins?”I froze for half a second.Knox noticed.“Oh, man. Yo

RhettI’d always thought being a coward meant running away from something dangerous.Apparently, it could also mean sitting in your truck outside school, staring at a girl’s text message because you were too scared to answer it.DRESSING ROOM GIRL: then stop giving me half answersI’d read those seven words about fifty times.She was right.That was the worst part.Emery had given me every opportunity to tell her the truth, and I’d managed to turn each one into another reason she shouldn’t trust me.I could still hear her voice from last night.Then don’t make me guess.I’d spent weeks falling for a girl who was finally learning to stand up for herself, and now I was making her question whether she could trust the one person she’d felt comfortable opening up to.Me.The idiot responsible for both sides of the problem.I dropped my forehead against the steering wheel.“Nice going, Callahan.”A knock on my window nearly gave me a heart attack.Parker stood outside, holding a breakfast s

RhettI used to think the worst feeling in the world was throwing an interception with twenty seconds left on the clock.Turns out, watching someone you care about ask you to stop calling her sweetheart was considerably worse.I’d been staring at Emery’s last message for almost an hour.Please don’t call me sweetheart anymore.Five minutes after she sent it, I’d typed an apology.Then another.Then something about how much she meant to me.I deleted every single one.Because Emery hadn’t asked me to explain myself again. She’d asked me to stop doing something, and for once in my life, I was going to listen.I put my phone facedown on my nightstand.It stayed there for approximately twelve seconds before I picked it up again.God, I was pathetic.Wednesday morning, Knox climbed into my truck carrying two breakfast burritos and a sports drink.“Morning, sunshine.”I stared through the windshield.“Morning.”He handed me a burrito.I didn’t take it.“Okay,” he said, dropping it into the

RhettBy Friday morning, I’d discovered that doing the right thing didn’t necessarily make you feel better.Sometimes it made you feel like crap.I’d apologized to Emery. I’d told her the truth about the tutoring. I’d admitted I was the guy she’d been texting.And she’d stopped talking to me.Not that I blamed her.I just hadn’t realized how much of my day involved looking forward to hearing from her until there was nothing to look forward to.“Callahan!”Coach’s whistle nearly ruptured my eardrum.I looked up from the practice field.“Yeah?”“Unless you’re planning to marry that football, I suggest you throw it!”Parker stood twenty yards downfield with his arms spread.“I’m open, Romeo!”I threw the ball.It sailed three feet over his head.Coach closed his eyes.“Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Maybe next time we can aim for somebody wearing our uniform.”A few guys laughed.I deserved that one.After practice, Knox caught up with me outside the locker room.“Party at my place ton

RhettI’d been staring at Emery’s message for six minutes.EMERY: Then why did you treat me like one?There were a hundred things I could’ve said.I was stupid. I was immature. Knox talked me into it. I didn’t realize how much I was hurting her.All true.None good enough.Because the truth was uglier than any of those excuses.I’d treated Emery like a joke because, at the time, I hadn’t thought she was important enough to treat any differently.And how the hell was I supposed to tell her that?I sat on the edge of my bed, typing and deleting until my fingers hurt.Finally, I stopped trying to make myself sound better.ME: Because I was a selfish asshole who cared more about what my friends thought than how I made you feel.I stared at the message before sending another.ME: You liked me, and I knew it. I used that because I thought you’d help me. There isn’t a good excuse for it.Her reply didn’t come immediately.I deserved that.When my phone finally buzzed, I almost dropped it.EM