He decides that it's time for a talk with Amy.

I knew that I had to get this over with, but talking with Amy proved to be more difficult that I'd have thought. Even once I accepted that it was time to hash things out, she certainly didn't make it easy. I tried to talk with her between classes, but our schedules during the school day weren't conducive to meeting up for a lengthy talk. The one time I did manage to bump into her, she gave me another one of her sad smiles before heading off to class. I stood there feeling like a terrible person for making her feel like this, thinking of how pitiful she looked as opposed to her usual bright, vibrant self.

This did nothing but firm my resolve to make things right again.

After consulting with Talia, we finally narrowed it down to the best course of action. We were all getting together at Talia's house before the drive up to the cabin for Spring Break, and Stephanie was supposed to pick up Amy from her track meet the morning of. What would happen instead is I would pick her up, giving us plenty of time to talk before the trip. Talia had gone as far as helping Amy pack and leaving her bags over at Talia's house to ensure that Amy couldn't back out at the last minute.

Fool-proof, right?

It finally got to the day of, and everyone was buzzing with excitement. All the bags were packed, the food and snacks were prepped, and the booze was stashed away. This was going to be a blast, and we couldn't wait to get there, even if the weather was supposed to be iffy.

We even got to have some fun at Steve's expense.

Since he was (thankfully) no longer dating Corrine and not coming with us, we came up with a little game for when something went wrong. Whenever someone dropped something, or if something went wrong, that person would shout, 'Dammit, Steve!' It was actually Simon who said it first when he dropped a box on his foot, but rather than it being awkward, we all thought it was hilarious and decided to apply it to everything we could. While it was a lot of fun, no one seemed to enjoy it more that Corrine and Talia, who I saw hugging each other tightly as they laughed.

Now there was one last loose-end that had to be put back into place.

Talia and I didn't let Stephanie in on what was happening until the last minute, but as I pulled out my keys and walked to my truck, everyone had some idea of what was going on. I looked up at them as I closed the door, taking note of their nods of approval before turning the ignition and driving towards the track. I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out what I was going to say, and in my head, it all sounded really good. I knew that none of it would come out sounding right when I actually said it, but it was the thought that counted, right?

Right?

I got there a little early, so I parked the truck and got out to watch the end of the meet. I managed to catch a glimpse of her at the starting line, looking as though she were ready to run a marathon. The uniform consisted of a skin-tight green tank-top and what were essentially bikini-bottoms, fully accentuating every curve of her fantastic figure. I watched as she tied her fiery hair back into a pony-tail, butterflies fluttering about in my stomach as her athletic body stretched out before me. There was a time where seeing her like this would have given me a raging hard-on. Now, I was just nervous to talk to her.

I stood by and watched as the race got underway, amazed at how swiftly she moved on the track. Despite everything else going on in our lives, she looked like she was in total control out there, leaving the other girls in the dust behind her. I was about to cheer for her when a louder, more masculine voice suddenly shouted her name. Looking off to the side, I saw her dad watching from the sidelines in full uniform, his squad-car parked a short distance away. He was smiling widely and clapping his hands as he watched her outperform her competitors, and yet something seemed very...off about his expression. There was pride in his eyes, to be sure, but there was something else as well; something I couldn't place my finger on.

After it was all over I waited on the sidelines for a bit, watching as everyone got their things together. I watched her as she pulled her tank-top over her head, revealing the sports bra that contained her impressive bust. Rather than lounge about like that, which she normally would, she threw on a loose long-sleeved shirt, the sleeves long enough to cover her hands. It would have looked adorable on her had I not known that she was once again hiding herself, all because of me.

I stood by the parking lot waiting for her as she walked towards me with her teammates, noticing the falter in her step when she caught sight of me. Despite that she continued along, saying her farewells to everyone before meekly walking towards me.

At first, neither of us spoke, so we stood in awkward silence.

"Hey," I managed to finally say.

"H-hey," she replied softly. "I was... I was expecting Stephanie..."

"Yeah, she...she had some last-minute car trouble. Needed a new spark-plug, so..."

We descended again into awkward silence.

This was going well.

I saw a figure approaching in the corner of my eye and looked over to see her dad walking towards us.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said, extending his hand for me to shake. "I'm Amy's dad, Piers."

"Nice to meet you, sir." I shook his hand and found out he had a strong grip, which I tried to replicate, but not too well. I didn't want him to crush my hand, which he seemed more than capable of doing. "I'm Ian."

"Oh, you're Ian? Nice to finally meet you. Sorry we haven't met sooner, but duty calls and all that jazz. Have to put in a lot of hours. Even still, I always make time to see my champ in action."

He turned to face her, beaming with pride, "You looked great out there today, Amy. No one else was even close to you."

"Thanks, Piers," she replied, not even bothering to meet his gaze.

The awkwardness of the situation had reached an all-time high as the three of us stood there without speaking. I could see her avoiding both of our eyes, looking more and more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked by. Piers, meanwhile, did his best to smile, and for a moment I saw the same sad smile that I'd been seeing on her face since our fight. He looked like a man who loved his daughter with all of his heart and wanted nothing more than to hug her in that moment, and yet was unable to do so.

I began to wonder what kind of drama I had piled onto Amy's life, and felt even more awful about myself.

"Anyway," Piers muttered, scratching the back of his head, "I just wanted to say that I'm so proud of you, and... well, have fun this week. I'll... I'll miss you, sweetheart. Just be safe and have a good time."

"Yeah. Okay," she replied, managing to look up at me. "We ready?"

I merely nodded in reply, shaking his hand again before Amy and I got into my truck and we began the short trip to Talia's house. In the rear-view mirror, I could still see Piers as he watched us go, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him; a man I'd never met before.

Now remember, this was supposed to be the part where I spilled my guts to her, waxing poetic about how I wanted us to move on and be friends again; ten whole minutes where I told her what she meant to me so we could bury the hatchet and fix everything.

Well, I choked.

For ten minutes, we sat in total silence.

Fuuuuuuuuck...

I'd been ready for this, as ready as I was ever going to be, but the whole thing with her dad... it just threw me for a loop. I hadn't been expecting that, and now here I was looking like an idiot. She just stared out the window the whole time, hands in her lap, buried in the sleeves of her shirt. I couldn't help but notice how much leg she was showing off with nothing but a long shirt over her uniform-bottom, but all that did was make me feel shallow, so I kept my eyes on the road.

It had begun to drizzle, so everyone else had gone inside for the time being, presumably making last-minute preparations. As we pulled up into the driveway of Talia's house, I felt a wave of nausea washing over me.

I'd fucked up. I'd fucked everything up, and now I was never going to be able to make things right again.

As soon as I had the truck in park, before I could even turn the ignition off, I heard the click of her seat-belt as she removed it, her door opening as she muttered, "Thanks for the ride."