It's too much to handle. No more heartache, he just wants to have fun

This sucked. The feelings I had were way too difficult and way too complicated for me to make sense of. After a long, painful moment of silence, I let out a resigned sigh:

“Don’t worry. I’m over all this. I’m over the heartache, I’m over the mixed messages, and I’m over getting myself tangled up in a neurotic mess every time I get an erection. No more. You guys are my friends, and that’s it. It’s simple. You’re all hot, and I’m a guy, and I want to have sex with you. Biology 101. From here on out, we’ll just keep things fun, okay? I’ll just wait until college before I start looking for a serious girlfriend.”

My little rant caught Elizabeth off guard—she wasn’t expecting to suddenly find herself on the other side of the argument. She agreed with me, though I detected a touch of sadness in her voice. We both returned to the hot tub and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Come dinnertime, the phone rang. I had wanted my parents to give me complete autonomy over the week—I was legally an adult, after all—but they insisted that as long as I was under their roof, they were still going to worry about me. Before I’d left for the cabin, we reached a compromise where they would only call to check up on me two times during the week.

I guess it could have been worse. Elizabeth’s mom called her two times every day.

With a roll of my eyes, I picked up the phone and quickly assured my folks that everything was fine and that, no, nobody had died.

“Thank you honey,” my mom answered, “glad to hear it.”

We talked for another five minutes, then I went to hang up the receiver—

“Oh, honey? Your friend Corrine called.”

“I told you mom, she and I aren’t really friends, anymore.”

“I know, sweetie, but she sounded so upset over the phone. She was crying, and she kept saying to tell you how sorry she was. She’s called about fifteen times, it feels like. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but you shouldn’t stay mad at your friends. Even if it’s their fault.”

A knot formed in my throat. Corrine was crying? What had happened to her? I realized, to my chagrin, that I still cared about the girl. Knowing what a shitty boyfriend she had, I could only imagine what kind of trouble she was in.

“Thanks, mom.”