Casey's POV

"And then coach was like super excited. He thinks if I kick ass in the next game, they'll give me a scholarship for sure. I mean, I'm not even sweating it. I know I'll get it," Drake rambled on, completely oblivious that my attention had shifted to the fork on the table. There were so many ways that I could put myself out of my misery with that fork. I could jab myself in the eye; call it an accident.

"I can't wait to go to college. I mean imagine all the different woman—not that I even care about that." Was he serious? What the hell had happened to the guy I'd fallen in love with? Who was this person? God, had I even known Drake at all? Had it all been a lie?

Did he even care what was going on with me? I'd barely spoken a word since we'd gotten on the cruise and we were now getting ready to leave, and he still hadn't asked how I'd been for the past few weeks.

For four weeks and three days I had obsessed, pondered, and imagined the different ways that Drake and I would finally get a moment together since our breakup. I had created so many scenarios in my head. So many possibilities of how it would turn out. But not once, not even for a split second, did I imagine that everything I had imagined it would be, would always remain a fantasy that would never come true.

It's amazing how much time you can waste when you don't realize that it's being wasted. How much time you can throw away, like it is just a simple notion. What we don't realize is that time is precious, it's priceless. And at the moment, I cursed the bastard for making me lose three horrid hours that I would never get back.

"So, yeah, it was hot as hell-" The sound of his voice became white noise as I zoned out, my mind fogging over. How someone could be so pretentious, I had no idea.

As my feet stepped onto the gravel of the dock, I felt myself sigh in relief. Being on land meant escape. It meant I could finally get away from him. I hurried along the dock, trying to move as fast as I could. I really didn't care for saying goodbyes or uttering another word to him. All I wanted to do was get as far away from him as I could.

"Casey," his breathless voice floated through the air as he ran to catch up to me. Picking up my pace, I fought the urge to run. As his footsteps grew louder, I knew I was trapped. "Hey, Casey," he called out, before reaching out to take hold of my hand and turn me around to face him. "Hey, where are you going? I thought we could talk?"

"Great," I mumbled under my breath, my voice lacking enthusiasm.

"What?" he asked, squinting his eyes.

I shook my head, dismissing his question. "What do you want to talk about?"

He shrugged, glancing down at his shoes for a split second. His eyes rose again, shyly. What I saw in his eyes and the words he uttered next, should have made my heart leap, but instead, I felt nothing. "About us. I want to talk about us."

Biting down on my lip, I studied his features. Drake wasn't the type of guy people called handsome, but he sure was attractive in his own way. His dark brown hair had always been my favorite thing about him. I would spend hours running my fingers through it, while he went on and on about how much his coach hated him and how much he despised the team's captain. Drake had always had a strong animosity towards Ryder. He believed Ryder was an asshole who'd stolen his spot as the team's captain. Drake had made Ryder seem like such a bad guy, that in no time he convinced me that I hated him as well.

My eyes fell to his dark brown ones and I waited for the usual butterflies to fill my stomach but once again, I felt nothing. All I saw when I looked at him, was a boy who had no clue how much he'd really hurt me, how much he'd made my world shift. All I could see was a selfish person who only cared about himself.

"I didn't know there was anything to talk about, Drake." I wanted to be angry. I wanted to hate him for making me question who I was. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to hit him for making me believe that he was perfect. I wanted to scream at him for taking all of that away in just the space of three hours. Taking all the things I made myself believe were so special about him. But I couldn't. Because I wasn't angry; I was just done. I was done pinning over him.

"I miss you. I miss us." I fought the urge to snort.

"Are you forgetting how bored you were of us? Correction—of me?" He gave me a sheepish look, his face morphing into the one face I could never resist when we were dating. Now, it just made me want to slap him.

"I know what I said, but I was wrong. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me and I want you back." He took a step towards me, his lips curving into a confident smile, it was almost pretentious. Almost as if he knew I would crumble at those words and crawl right back to him. And if you'd told me a few weeks ago that I wouldn't, I would have laughed in your face.

I stared at him, my expression blank. I thought I would be jumping at this, happiness bubbling up in me, but as he uttered the words I had been wanting to hear since we broke up, I realized that I didn't want it. I didn't want him. I didn't want a relationship that made me feel like I wasn't enough. "You wanna know why I've been hanging with Ryder for the last few weeks?"

"I don't need to know the details, Casey. And it doesn't matter, I'll forget all about you fucking that asshole, because unlike you, I've missed you all this time we've been apart and I can forgive you for fucking another guy," he answered, his tone cold and hard. I fought the urge to punch him, instead settling for a glare. I'd seen him on multiple occasions with different girls, and he had the audacity to judge me?

"I didn't sleep with him, but I don't need to tell you that, because I already did," I shook my head, "All of this time, I've been trying to become the girl that you wanted me to be. Spontaneous, fun, wild—things that I'm not. I'm not spontaneous, Drake. I'm not the type of girl that does anything impulsively.

"I'm the girl that over-thinks every decision she makes, because she knows that with every decision, comes a risk. A risk that can either turn your life upside down or make it so much better. Do you know what I spent the entire evening doing?" I paused, waiting for an answer but he only gave me bored shrug.

"You don't know because you don't care. But just so you know; I spent the entire evening thinking about how Ryder would do things differently. Like how he would open the door for me, or how he would spend the entire time trying to make me laugh, or how he would smile and ask me about my day—and not just to be polite. He'd ask because he cares. He want's to know about my day and when I answer, he listens like it's the most important thing going on in his life.

"You know what the worst part is? Ryder is just my friend, and you, you're the guy who's trying to get me back, yet you spent the entire time, looking for ways to make it about you! I defended you—Nissa, Bubba, Nadia, god, even Ryder; they all told me that you were a jackass, but I defended you!"

"What do you want me to say, Casey, huh? That I'm sorry? Fine! I'm sorry. Now, can we talk about us? Who cares about Ryder? You're not his, you're mine. You love me, remember?" My blood turned cold at his words, my heart breaking in my chest as the realization hit me hard. He hadn't done this for me. He'd done it to win.

"All this time, it wasn't even about winning me back...you just wanted to win...you wanted to win a game that Ryder wasn't even playing. Drake, do you realize how ridiculous this is?" I shook my head as the lid on my anger began to shake.

"No, that's not what I meant. Let's just talk about this, okay?" He took a step towards me and I took one back, holding my hands out letting him know that he should back off.

"Talk about what? About the fact that I'm just a fucking pawn in your fucking game? I'm not a fucking trophy that you're trying to win, Drake; I'm a human being, with feelings. This is not okay," I shouted, my anger reaching an all time high. I wanted to punch him so much.

"For fucks sake, Casey, would you stop being such a drama queen. Let's just talk about this." I stared at him for a minute with disbelief, the shock making me speechless for a moment. How had I not noticed what a jackass Drake was? How had I missed that?

"I've wasted enough time on this, Drake, I don't want to waste another minute. We're over." I turned around and walked away, keeping my head held high. I was done hanging my head in shame.

Walking into the hotel restaurant, I spotted my friends sitting at a table on the far right corner, hunched over, engaged in conversation. I smiled when Nissa threw her head back and laughed at something Ryder said. Walking over to their table, I grabbed her in a tight hug, planting a kiss on her cheek, then turned to Ryder and grabbed him in a hug as well, grinning when he held his hands out to keep me away, his eyes wide.

Once he'd stopped struggling against my hug, I pulled away and slumped down into the chair next to him.

"What was that for?" Nissa asked with a small smile.

I shrugged. "I just felt like hugging you guys." Ryder raised an eyebrow and I smiled in return.

"Dude, you're freaking me out, what's with the all the gooey shit?" he asked, giving me a frightened look and I laughed.

"I just had an epiphany, that's all," I answered enthusiastically. After I'd left Drake standing on the beach, I'd gone up to my hotel room, which thankfully was empty. I'd tried to cry, I'd tried to feel a little remorse. After all, I'd just permanently lost the 'love' of my life. I wanted to hurt but I didn't. Because slowly and subconsciously, I'd stopped loving him. I'd been so busy, that I hadn't realized that Drake was no longer the center of my world. I would always feel a sense of lost; he was my first love, but now I knew that he wasn't my last.

"Hold that though, I have to get more of this chocolate cake," Nissa announced as she stood up. I nodded with a smile while Ryder just ignored her.

"So how was the date?" Ryder cleared his throat, seeming uncomfortable, and I understood why; he wasn't a big fan of Drake.

"Whoever told you it was a date?" I asked playfully, raising an eyebrow.

"Romantic couple's cruise?" He raised an eyebrow, his eyes held an expression that I didn't understand. They were darker than they usually were and reminded me of a storm brewing in the sea.

"I could hardly call it a date," I mumbled and his eyebrows lowered, waiting for me to elaborate. "I spent the entire cruise thinking of ways to pluck my hairs out of my skull. When that didn't seem like a solution out of my boredom, I thought of ways to stab Drake in the neck with a fork." His eyes lost the darkness, filling with...relief? Why was he relieved? Was he relieved? Was I seeing things?

"I''m sorry," he replied. But he didn't sound sorry. "You okay?"

I shrugged. "I'm fine. But my day isn't really worth recounting—I'm hoping yours is?"

"I spent most of the day with your best friend, you do the math," he laughed, his eyes wondering off, while mine widened in surprise.

"You and Nissa? Spent a day together?" He nodded.

"She's not as bad as everyone says she is," he stated with a shrug and I gave him an 'are you on crack?' look. I knew my best friend and she was as bad as everyone said. "I don't get why everyone calls her psycho-wacko-Evans. She's okay."

"Did she do something to your brain? I have a suspicion that she's an alien ever since I dreamt one day that she was and woke up with her standing at the end of my bed with an evil grin, so if she's mind controlling you, blink twice." He laughed, giving me a look and I raised an eyebrow, letting him know that I was serious.

"Oh, come on, she's not that bad." He shook his head, taking a bite out of the pie on the table, in front of him.

"Are you forgetting that Nissa lit the entire science lab on fire to get out of a quiz? Or that she sent threatening notes to Grady Valencia for an entire year because he stole a pack of her favorite skittles?" Nissa was definitely a wacko, but that's why I loved her. She did things that I would never do and every now and then she'd convince me to go along for the ride. And I kept her from going too far. We balanced each other out. She was a wacko, but she was my wacko.

"Huh, I guess I kind of see why they call her psycho-wacko-Evans," Ryder replied, his eyes thoughtful.

I nodded just as Nissa walked back to us, carrying two plates stacked with a moist-looking chocolate cake, with raspberries on top. Sitting down, she slid a plate in Ryder's direction, making me raise an eyebrow. "We bonded over food." I grinned with a chuckle. "So how was the date?"

"Tell you all about it later, right now, I want the two of you to explain to me what the hell the two of you were doing on a couple's cruise." Ryder choked on the piece of cake he'd stuffed in his mouth while Nissa just stared at me with a 'deer caught in the headlights' look, her fork halfway to her opened mouth.

That was all the confirmation I needed to know that I did spot them on the yacht and that I wasn't seeing things in my boredom induced jaded state.