Chapter 6
"Why didn't you text me back last night?" asked Lily when she found me the next morning.
"I fell asleep and when I woke up it was too late to respond." I said as we walked to her classroom.
"What time did you wake up at?" she asked.
"2:00 a.m."
"Oh. So did you tell your mom?"
"Yeah I did." I said sitting on the heater with Lily.
"Well? What did she say? Did she yell at you?"
"No. She said she was happy for me." I said looking down.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Lily asked confused.
"I guess. I just don't think she really meant it."
"Well how did she say it?"
"I couldn't tell. But I do know that she didn't sound all that happy."
"At least she didn't yell or take your phone or anything."
"Yeah. I guess your right."
"Hey Miley." said Joe coming and sitting next to me on the heater.
"Hi Joe." I said with a small smile.
"So I texted you last night." he said.
"Yeah I know. I fell asleep early and didn't wake up again until 2:00 a.m." I said.
"Oh okay. So did you tell your parents?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"She said she was happy for me."
"Great. Now was that so bad?" he said smiling.
"I guess not." I said.
Then he kissed my cheek and put his arm around me.
The next few days went the same. I found myself going to sleep earlier, and waking up on the ground in the middle of the night. I could feel myself shutting out my parents.
"Are you okay?" asked Demi one day at p.e.
I didn't hear her. I was in my own world.
"Miley? Hello?" she asked waving her hand in front of my face.
"What? Sorry." I said snapping out of it.
"What's up with you? You've seemed out of it a lot lately."
"Yeah. I'm fine." I lied.
I knew something was up. Now I know other people are noticing it too. I don't know why but I could feel something was going to happen. I just didn't know what.
"Are you sure your okay?" she asked again.
"Yeah I'm fine. I've just been having trouble sleeping lately and I'm a little tired."
I wasn't completely lying. I really was having trouble sleeping.
"I can tell. You have huge bags under your eyes." she said looking at me.
"Thanks. That makes me feel so much better." I said sarcastically.
"Love you!" she said laughing.
"Yeah, yeah." I said smiling.
"Hey Miley." said Joe coming up to us.
"Hi Joe." I said.
"What are you girls up to?" he asked grabbing my hand and holding it.
"Just P.E. stuff." I said.
"Nice." he said smiling.
It took me a moment to realize that Demi had left.
"Where did Demi go?" I asked looking around.
"On I'm not sure. I wasn't really paying attention." he said not taking his eyes off me.
I looked up and saw his green eyes and got and got that feeling as if something bad was going to happen again.
"What's wrong?" he asked me.
My face must have given away what I was feeling.
"Nothing. Just tired." I said with a fake smile.
He looked at me carefully. He knew something was up. But he decided not to push it.
"Oh okay. Are you still having trouble sleeping?"
"Yeah I am."
"And you don't know why?"
"Nope."
"Huh, that sucks."
The rest of the day went normally. Until lunch happened.
"Hey Lily I have to go do that math thing so I'll try and come when I can. Will you tell Joe that when he comes?" I asked when I saw Lily.
"Yeah. No problem." she said.
"Thanks." I said before I walked away.
"Where's Miley?" asked Joe when he reached the spot where they usually hang out at lunch.
"Oh she had to do this math thing. She'll try and come when she can." said Lily.
"Oh. I wonder why she didn't say anything earlier." said Joe.
"She probably forgot until now. She tends to forget things a lot."
"Yeah maybe." he said looking at the ground.
"Are you okay?" asked Lily.
"Yeah. I'm fine." he lied.
"Are you sure? Because you look like you have something on your mind." said Lily.
"Well I do."
"Anything you want to talk about?"
"Well there is this one thing." he said looking up at Lily.
"What is it?"
Then Joe kissed her.
"Joe!" yelled Miley.
They both looked up at me startled.
"Miley this isn't what it looks like." said Joe getting up.
"Oh really? Because to me it looked like you were kissing Lily." I said trying to hold back tears.
"Wait let me explain." he begged.
"Save it! I knew you would do something like this. I knew it! I was stupid to believe that you could EVER want to be with me." I said before walking away.
But then I turned back around.
"Oh and just in case you don't get it. We're done!"
As I was walking down the hall tears came rushing down my cheeks. I saw Joe as I walked; he saw me and knew what had happened. Before he could come over to me Demi stopped me. "Hey what happened?" she asked me.
"Joe kissed Lily." I said still crying.
She hugged me.
"Want me to kick his ass?"
I smiled slightly.
"No. But thanks anyways."
"Joe's coming over here." said Demi.
I whipped away as many tears as I could and turned to face him.
"Hi Miley. Are you okay?"
"You were right." I said.
"He hurt you didn't he?"
"Yeah. He did. But hey it happens." I said acting like I was okay.
"You act like your so strong and that you can handle yourself when really your dead inside. He broke you. Pushed you over the edge." said Joe.
"So what if he did? I'm not going give him the satisfaction of my pain." I said.
"I'll be here when you finally crack and have a complete melt down."
"Shut up! Why do you want me to completely fall apart so much? Can't you just leave me to handle this my own way?" I asked getting angry.
"I'm just speaking the truth. I don't want you to fall apart and do something crazy. That's why I'm telling you that I'm going to be here."
"Well thanks for the concern but I need to learn to deal with this myself so just butt out." I said turning my back to him.
"Thanks Demi." I said before walking away again.
For the rest of the day I felt empty. I felt as if there was no one else in the world and that I was alone to drown in my own misery. Joe was right. Joe broke me. Pushed me over the edge. He won. I didn't want it to be true, but it was.
As I was walking to P.E. I saw Joe. I felt as if my heart had broken all over again. He saw me and started walking toward me. But I walked faster until I reached the girls locker room. I reached my P.E. locker and slid to the floor and cried. I didn't want to go out there and see him. Demi had finished changing and found me on the floor.
"Come on. You need to get up and change." she said helping me off the ground.
"I don't think I can handle it. I thought I could but I can't." I said opening my locker.
"Well you still have to go to P.E. and I know this doesn't help but it's classroom day."
"Shit!" I said. "I should just skip."
"No. I'll be there with you the whole time." said Demi.
I stood there for a second then started to change. When we left the locker room Joe was there waiting.
"Miley-" he started.
"Stop right there. She doesn't need this." said Demi dragging me along with her.
Joe kept following.
"Really Joe? You expect her to want to talk to you after what you did?" asked Demi.
"Just let me explain!" he begged.
I got passed Demi.
"Explain what? You were kissing Lily. I knew you couldn't get over her."
"No you don't understand."
"Oh yeah? What don't I understand?" I asked crossing my arms over my chest.
"I was just seeing if I did have feelings for her."
"Oh like you did when you kissed me? You shouldn't have to go around kissing people to see if you have feelings for them."
I felt tears coming to my eyes again. Demi saw them coming to so she grabbed my arm and kept walking to the gym.
"You are strong!" Demi told me.
"Thanks. But I'm not." I said walking to my number.
She stayed at hers. When I reached mine Joe spotted me alone. I didn't know what to do. There was nowhere to go. He had me trapped.
"Please can we just talk about this?" he asked me when he reached me.
"I'd rather not hear about how you still have all these feelings for Lily and that your sorry and you will always care about me and blah blah blah." I said trying to get past him.
But he put his hands up against the wall trapping me there.
"That's not what I wanted to say."
"Then what? That you don't want me around anymore and your sorry you wasted your time on me in the first place and- "
He interrupted me by kissing me.
"You talk too much. Now will you let me say what I was going to say?" he asked.
I nodded.
"What I was going to say is-"
He stopped because the teachers were coming.
"We'll finish this later." he said before running across the gym to get to his classes set of numbers.
"What did Joe say to you?" asked Demi as we walked to the P.E. classroom.
" When?" I asked.
"When he got to you at your number." she said as we sat on the bleachers in the classroom.
"He said he kissed Lily because he wanted to know if he had feelings for her." I said looking at my fingers.
"Does he? Or did he not say?"
"I started going on about how he can't just go around kissing people to see if he has feelings for them and he stopped me by kissing me. Then he said that we needed to talk."
"Are you going to talk to him?"
"I still need to talk to Lily first."
"You still haven't talked to Lily?" asked Demi shocked.
"No."
"Well then yeah. You should talk to Lily first."
"I will after school."
"Good. Keep me posted."
"I will. And thanks for being there for me."
"No problem."
For the rest of the period I thought about what to do. I wasn't mad at Lily, and its only fair that I listen to what she has to say before I think about what to do with Joe. When P.E. was over, I walked past Joe avoiding the talk we needed to have.
"Miley." said Lily when she saw me.
"Hi Lily."
"So I'm sorry about what happened at lunch. I didn't know he felt that way still."
"Its okay. I'm not mad at you. He told me that he kissed you and why he did it."
"Really? Why?"
"He said it was because he wanted to know if he still has feelings for you."
"Does he?"
"He says he doesn't."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I still need to talk to Joe."
"Didn't you guys already talk at p.e.?" asked Lily confused.
"We started to but then class started and before we finished I wanted to talk to you."
"Oh so when are you going to?"
"Probably tomorrow."
"Good idea. Oh don't look now but Joe's coming."
I stood still and didn't say anything else.
"Miley?" asked Joe.
"What?" I asked annoyed.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." he said.
"Okay." I said.
Then I walked toward my mom's car as she pulled up. It was a silent car ride. I didn't talk to anyone for the rest of the day. As usual I woke up on my floor, but this time on time.