AN/ This chapter goes out to everyone who has stuck with my story so far, I hope I don't disappoint you!
"I can't believe you're making me do this. Please, don't." Jaleen begged her friends. "I don't even know what play it is."
"Its Romeo and Juliet." Patty informed her.
"Shakespeare? And a romance! You have got to be kidding me. I'm anti-man right now, remember? You can't be serious!" Jaleen tried to dart for the door but her two friends held her fast.
"We're serious." Patty told her.
"As a heart attack." Charlie offered.
"You know that I'm going to kill you guys later, right?" Jaleen asked. Both of her friends nodded.
Patty forced Jaleen into a chair. Her friends sat on either side of her. The teacher came in and started rambling on and on about Shakespeare. Jaleen was pretty sure she fell asleep at one point. Patty elbowed her and she jerked upright.
"Alright everyone lets start the auditions." The teacher said as cheerfully as ever. Just then he ambled in, the last person Jaleen wanted to see. Reid.
"Hope I'm not late." Reid said smirking as he plopped down on a chair.
"Not at all Mr. Garwin." The teacher beamed at him. Jaleen tried to hide her face behind her copy of Romeo and Juliet, but Reid looked straight at her.
"Oh crap." She muttered glaring at her two guilty friends. "So Reid just happens to be into acting." She said accusingly.
"Oh wow, that's such a surprise." Said Patty. So much for her being a good actress, Jaleen thought.
"Yeah, real shocker." Jaleen muttered. Reid smiled at her, guiltily. She just continued to glare.
Sloan sat on her bed, staring at the cursed thing that she held in her hand. What should she do, what could she do? How could she tell Caleb? Tears began to roll down her cheeks. What now?
At first she thought it was a fluke, it wasn't like she hadn't missed before, but this was different. She felt different. She blinked away her tears and looked again at the pregnancy test she held in her hand, hoping the result had changed. No such luck, the positive sign was as clear as ever. How could she have been so stupid, she had responsibilities, she didn't have time to be pregnant. How could she do what was required of her with a baby on the way?
She had to leave. Skipping town was the only option. She needed to go somewhere and have this baby in secret. Not yet, though, she couldn't just leave Caleb. She loved him and she had to at least say goodbye. Yes, she'd leave that night. Caleb had asked her out that evening, she would go to dinner with him and then break it off.
Should she tell him, though? It was his child, shouldn't he know about it? No, because then he would try to do the honorable thing and marry her. She needed to just leave, make up some lame excuse and go.
"Ms. Rosario, you're up." The teacher declared energetically. They really shouldn't hire former cheerleaders as teachers Jay thought. "And Mr. Garwin, you will be reading opposite her."
Reid jumped to his feet and hurried onto the stage, Jay on the other hand took as long as she could.
"My lucky day." She muttered under her breath. Reid walked up to her.
"We need to talk."
"What do you call this, genius?" Jaleen shot back coolly.
"You know what I mean." Reid whispered back.
"Reid, I have nothing to say to you, so let's just get this audition over with."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Would you two do the first balcony scene between Romeo and Juliet? Its Act 2 Scene 2."
Kate walked down the hall alone. Jason had woken up sick, so she was on her own for the day. She had found after she split up with Pogue that all of the girls she had thought were her friends were really just trying to get dates with one or another of the sons of Ipswich. Suck up bitches all of them.
"Kate." A voice called from behind her. She slowed down, but didn't stop; she was running late for class, "Kate, stop."
Kate turned around. There was Pogue, in his usual leather jacket. Kate had forgotten how handsome he was. She hadn't been this close to him in months. She covered her emotions with a steely glare.
"What do you want?" She asked haughtily.
"Truthfully?" he asked looking into her eyes. "You."
"I'm dating Jason." She said and turned away. Much to her distress, he didn't follow.
"I know, but you're worth the wait." He called after her. She stopped in her tracks. She told her feet to move, but they wouldn't listen. Against her will she responded.
"The wait till what?"
"Until you realize that no one else will ever love you the way I do." Pogue said, Kate couldn't help it, a blush rose in her cheeks. "I love you Kate, and if I have to yell it from the roof of the school I will. If I had to give up my bike to prove it to you, I would. I would do anything for you."
"Then let me be happy." She snapped back, and walked away. Pogue watched her leave, desperate for some way to get her back.
"Do you know you're a walking contradiction?" He yelled after her, it did the trick; she stopped, and turned around.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"You cry when you're happy, you walk away when you want to stay, you yell at me when you're really grateful that I care, and most of all you tell me you hate me when you know it's a lie." Pogue whispered the last part, but Kate heard it anyway.
"At least I know enough to choose my boyfriend over my friends." She snapped.
"At least I would never ask you to.
"Wow, Jay, you were amazing!" Patty squealed. She hugged her friend tightly. Jaleen pulled away from her.
"I can't believe you set me up." She said looking at her friend completely appalled.
"We're sorry, but you two are just so perfect for each other that we didn't want to see you relationship end like this, when there was something we could do to fix it." Charlie whispered, Patty's eyes were pleading for forgiveness. Jay's anger quickly faded.
"I forgive you, just please don't do any thing like this again." Jay could feel the tears wailing up in her eyes. "I just can't look at him, not yet."
"Seems we have a problem then." Reid's voice said from behind her. She turned around and faced him. "I need to talk to you."
Jay took a deep breath and whispered "fine."
Sloan looked at her reflection if the full length mirror, she wore a forest green evening gown. It complemented her figure exquisitely. The low cut back laced up like a corset. She had absolutely loved this dress when she found it in the store, she was sure that Caleb would too. A knock came from the door. Sloan took one more look at her reflection and then answered it to find Caleb standing there as handsome as ever. He looked dashing in his tux.
"You ready?" Caleb asked with a smile. Sloan tried to return it but she had so much on her mind she found it difficult.
"Sure, lets go." Sloan grabbed her purse and linked her arm through his. "So, where are we going?"
"It's a surprise." Caleb answered mysteriously.
"You know I hate surprises."
"Have an open mind."
Kate bit her lip trying to hold back her tears. Pogue didn't move, afraid any action could break the moment. Slowly Kate walked towards him. He didn't move until she was only inches away, and then he brushed a strand of her long black hair out of her face.
"I don't know what to say." Kate whispered.
"You don't need to say any thing." Pogue whispered to her, kissing her cheek.
"Aren't you with Charlie?" Kate asked.
"No, and I never was." Pogue told her as he kissed her other cheek.
"I'm sorry." She whispered, burrowing her face in his shoulder. "I shouldn't have given you an ultimatum."
Pogue lifted her chin, looking into her brown eyes.
"But I should have chosen you anyway." Pogue admitted.
Kate smiled, but her lips were soon busy with another occupation.
"Jay I'm so sorry. I never meant for you to see that." Reid said sadly. Jay looked at him her eyes full of pain.
"But I did." She choked.
"I'm so sorry." Reid pleaded.
"You hurt me, Reid. And apologies can't erase it. You proved to me why we wouldn't work."
"We can work. Don't give up on me."
"Being without you hurts like hell." Jay admitted.
"I know, I feel the same..." Reid's face lit up.
"But being with you will kill me. I'll take Hell over death any day."
"Jay."
"If you care about me, if you've ever cared about me. You'll let me go." Jay whispered. Reid stood dumbstruck as she walked away.
AN/ Kind of short, I know, but I promise that the next chapter will make it up to you. I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter, like what you think is going to happen. Please review, I love to hear all of your opinions!
Midnightfarie
