A/N: Hi my loves! I'm back with my weekly update! I've been trying extra hard to get this chapter done! hehe. I'm almost on Thanksgiving break and just a few more weeks 'til Christmas break which means I will have a lot of time on my hands to write continuously and finish! I'm definitely loving the long reviews. haha They keep thinking because I love reading your thoughts on my writing process and the storyline. I am very blessed and very thankful for the wonderful reviews! I'm glad to see new readers. I hope that I will meet your expectations in the future chapters.
A few deserving personal replies:
Thank you keep the darkness for that long review - I'm love how you love pretty much everything in the last chapter. It makes me happy to hear that you (and others) not only love the main pair NH, but you also love the other relationships/friendships in the story. That truly makes me proud. I'm glad you love that "onion" quote. I heard it somewhere a few times and I thought I'd use it. Thank you again honey! Day Believer - YAY! I won you over! I know Julian and Haley are a pretty odd pair, but I like to do different things with my characters. It add a fresh approach just like you said. And yeah Nathan's mean,but you know he's a true softy in the inside. hehe. I'm glad that you will be reading some more. I want to hear from you again! Thank you for the precious review! :) KTxx - Aw! I put tears in your eyes! Yay! I don't mean that in a mean way, but "yay I brought out some emotions in my readers" kind of way. I'm glad you like the friendships in the story and the quote haha. I thought the Jake comment would fit since his characters is always in his own corner. Thank you for the review love! Haley Garcia - I'm glad to be back. I hope I can continue to come back with multiple chapters at a time. I'm trying so hard to reach that goal but school keeps getting in the way lol. I'm so glad to hear what you loved about the last chapter. Nathan's mood is definitely changing from hot and cold in this story huh? It's because of a certain someone. Thank you for the review!
And thank you to all the rest of the people who reviewed/read the last chapter/story.
Now I treat you with a brand new chapter! I hope you like it!
p.s.! If you haven't figured it out yet. The title of the song was inspired by the song "She's So Lovely" by Scouting for Girls. Give it a listen :)
Annie
Chapter 12
Vivian adjusted the pair of dark shades over her eyes and crossed the street after looking left and right. She skipped school during her lunch period to meet up with her friend Whitney at one of the beauty stores downtown. There was a big sale today and it was only during their school hours. She didn't think that was fair because a lot of girls that shopped at that boutique were in high school still. And since it was impossible to ask her mom for permission to stay home, she decided to do what she did best. Skip school.
She spotted Whitney waving at her from the store entrance and smiled. She removed her sunglasses and stuffed them in her purse. As she was doing that, she looked up and found Clay walking around the corner. Her eyes quickly widened and she hid behind the nearest pole. It wasn't the smartest thing she's thought of. But it was all that came up.
"Vivian!" she heard her friend call out.
Clay furrowed his eyes and observed the figure behind the lamp post. He chuckled, glanced at the blonde girl waiting at the store, and then returned his focus back at Vivian.
"Ugh. What's he doing here?" Vivian mumbled to herself.
He made his way towards her, being careful with his bag of food, and craned his head to see her face.
"Vivian?"
She gave him a nervous smile and waved. "Oh hi! I didn't see you there."
He chuckled. "What are you doing here?"
"Um." She glanced at Whitney who was looking at her strangely. "I was just getting something to eat."
"All the way downtown? Don't you have school?"
"Well the best food is here. I'm on my lunch break."
He looked at her curiously. "I didn't think you were allowed off campus during school hours."
"My school allows it," she lied.
Observing her outfit, he noticed that she was wearing a uniform.
"Aren't private schools strict?"
Even though Clay was super attractive and intimidating to the eyes, he really knew how to annoy a girl with all his questions.
"Yeah, but my teachers are pretty lenient."
"Vivian! Come on! The sale!" Whitney hollered.
She tensed up at the voice and tried to avoid any eye contact with the handsome man before her. Clay couldn't help but chuckle. He figured she was lying. He knew very well what she was up to.
"I'll be right there," she yelled back and returned her focus back on Clay. "Please don't tell Haley or my mom."
"Why not? Doesn't she have the right to know what her little sister is doing?"
"Please! I'm begging you!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together tightly and motioning it towards him.
Although he wanted to be loyal to Haley, he didn't want to let Vivian down. She didn't seem like the trouble maker and he really didn't want her to get in trouble. So he let her off the hook.
"I won't tell," he answered. She smiled in happiness. "But if I see you skipping school again, you're in big trouble, missy. You're too smart and pretty to be doing these kinds of things. I don't want to see you parading around the sidewalks, you hear me? "
Vivian found herself smiling at the "pretty and smart" comment and nodded her head excitedly.
"I promise to never skip school."
"Good," Clay answered. "Now hurry over to your friend. She's waiting for you."
"Okay."
He watched as she turned around slowly, blushing from his friendliness. Vivian couldn't believe that dream-boat Clay called her smart and pretty. She's never been so thrilled to hear such words from a guy before. It made her like him even more.
She dragged a brush down her long blonde hair and glanced at the pink bag that was hanging out on the corner of her vanity mirror. She couldn't believe that she even decided to bring it with her when she left the hospital. After arguing with Julian about their rocky relationship, she didn't even want anything to do with it. Even if it was a picture of a happy time in their past, she didn't want it. It was the last thing she wanted. She was over him. He was no longer on her mind until now. She was doing well without him. Or pretending to do well without him. She desperately needed to find some kind of composure.
Looking at her reflection, she stopped brushing her hair and remembered what happened earlier. Nathan barged into the bathroom while she was putting her towel on. She was pretty sure he saw everything. She was struggling to wrap the towel around her body at the time. And he just stood there with his hand on the door knob, dumbfounded by the sight of her nude body right before his eyes.
Immediately disgusted by the thought of that embarrassing moment, she grabbed her jacket to cover up her body, and marched out of her room.
She walked into living room and spotted her shoes laying around by the door. Rushing towards it, she picked one of them up and squeezed her foot inside. She did the same with the other one. Then she glanced up and found her mother working diligently on one of the debut dresses she had been concentrating on for the past week.
Lydia was a really hard worker. Even if she didn't have a stable job like a secretary at an office or a nurse at a hospital, she still worked just as hard as they did. She's busy from morning to night, sewing, patching, designing and hemming dresses. There wasn't a particular shift. She just worked on the time that was available for her. But she had a time limit since she had to get the dresses or suits ready by a certain date.
All of this was for their family. Ever since Haley's father died, they struggled with money. Lydia had to work harder to advertise her personal tailoring career to the neighborhood and the city so that they could earn enough money to pay for rent and the bills. It such a hard time and it still was a hard time for them.
Once Haley was old enough to work, she started applying for various jobs so that her mother wouldn't have to struggle by herself. She worked at a few places to help with the bills. But once Mr. Kim came in, offering her a job that met her artistic needs, she accepted it. And it definitely helped with their money struggles for a bit.
Now that Vivian was finishing her last year of high school, they both had to work twice as hard to get her into the school she wanted because they couldn't do that for Haley. She went to college for a year or two, but stopped because it was beginning to cost too much for them. So she quit and decided to work in order to get her little sister into the college she wanted. Haley didn't care about missing out on college because she thought that Vivian deserved that opportunity more than she did. She was just an artist after all.
"Heading out?" Lydia questioned, looking up from the sewing machine.
"Yeah. Nathan's about to pick me up."
"Be careful, okay? You just got back."
"Don't worry, mom."
"Just in case, bring some medicine with you."
"Mom!"
"Haley. I just want you to be in the best condition possible. Is that wrong?"
"No, but there is no need for me to take any medication right now. I'm fully recovered."
"I don't believe it."
"Well you should because I'm here."
"Haley, just do it if you want to me to stop bothering you."
Haley groaned and shook her head. "Okay, okay."
She walked down the hall towards the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. She searched around for the kind she needed, but the bottle was empty. Shutting the cabinet, she walked back outside and waved the empty container at her mom.
"We ran out of Tylenol."
"Vivian must've used it for her cramps the other day," Lydia mumbled. "Then buy some when Nathan picks you up."
"I don't want Nathan to drive all the way to the store to buy medicine."
"I'm sure he won't mind."
"Mom."
"Haley."
Again, she wasn't going to win this argument. Her mother was going to continue nagging her until she accepted her order. So she stopped and gave in.
"Fine. I'll tell him to bring me to the market."
"Thank you. I just want to make sure you're fully healed. Sometimes those doctor's aren't always right when they read the results."
Haley laughed and walked up to her mother. Leaning in, she gave her mother a kiss on the cheek and embraced her tightly into her arms.
"I love you."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Lydia responded, patting her daughter's warm hands.
As Nathan was on his way across town to pick up Haley, he drove past one of the bars by the art gallery. Possibly the one where Haley bought her bottle of liquor for that night he found her drunk on the sidewalk. It was already eight o'clock, a little early for the café to close, but they had a pretty good reason.
When he glanced out his window, he found a familiar face sitting on the patio of the restaurant. It was Julian. From where he was, he could see that there was a shot glass in his hands and a bottle of liquor on the table.
"Hmm," Nathan let out.
The guy looked pretty messed up. He couldn't blame him though. He's done a few things that was really stupid and idiotic. Cheating was definitely one of them.
Nathan glanced away from the poor man and continued towards his destination. It took about ten more minutes until he finally arrived at Haley's house. Once he was there, he beeped about three times and waited patiently for her to step outside. He was busy tapping his thumb against the steering wheel when she finally opened the door. By surprise, Haley was actually wearing something decent. It wasn't wacky like her usual jumper, stockings, and patterned shirts she been sporting. And it wasn't slutty or revealing like the dress she wore at the club. She had a black v-neck shirt with a pair of jeans and a floral cardigan. According to Nathan, she looked really pretty. And a hundred times healthier.
"Hey," she greeted, climbing inside the Porsche.
As she shut the door, Nathan noticed the hair tie that he bought in her hair. He grew pleased by the sight and started the engine.
"Why are you smiling?" she asked, buckling her seat belt.
Nathan shook his head and turned away. "Nothing."
"Tell me!"
"Why should I tell you? I can smile when I want to smile."
She furrowed her eyes at him, observing the slight grin on his lips and turned away.
Why should that jerk be smiling? Was he thinking of me naked again? Oh my gosh. If that boy was thinking about that incident, I'm going to pull his eye balls out!
Nathan glanced at her one more time and noticed the expression on her face. She looked upset and in her own world. For a second, he thought he even noticed her lips moving as if she was mumbling things to herself.
"What's wrong with you?" he questioned driving out of their street.
"Huh?" she responded, turning to him.
"Why do you look so irritated?" he replied, his eyes now focused on the road.
"It's nothing!" she snapped.
"Are you still mad that I saw you naked earlier?" he asked, acting like it was no big deal.
Her eyes widened, shocked that he actually brought it up.
"I thought you were going to forget that ever happened!"
"Honestly? It's hard to forget those moments. My heart literally stopped for a second."
"You weren't the one naked!"
"Don't make a big fuss about it. There was nothing to see anyways," he stated.
Her eyes widened and scoffed. "I can't believe you just said that!"
She quickly punched him in the arm. "Ow!"
"That's what you get for being such an asshole!"
Nathan rubbed his free hand over the spot she bruised. "Geez, woman! You didn't have to hit so hard. I feel like I'm going to be the next one lying in the hospital. Especially knowing how dangerous you are."
She groaned and rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you knock first?"
"I didn't know that you were in there, okay?"
"You shouldn't have walked into our house like it was yours in the first place. I mean who does that?"
Nathan rolled his eyes, and heard his phone ringing from his pocket. He didn't want to look while he was driving down the dark roads, so he glanced at Haley on the side. She looked pretty unoccupied.
"Hey!" he called out.
She turned to him with a blank face. "What?"
"Pull my cell phone out from my pocket and see what it says."
Glancing at his pants, she panicked. "You want me to what?"
"Take my phone out of my pocket."
She made a face at his pants. "Can't you just check it at the next stop light?"
"Haley, it's not that hard to take my phone out. I'm driving and I don't want to be distracted. Just take the phone out of my pocket and tell me what the message says. It's not like I'm going to rape you if you put your hand down my pants."
Haley's eyes widened. "It sounds dirty if you say like that."
"Just do it!"
"Fine."
She rolled her eyes and reached over to pull the phone out from his pocket. It felt kind of awkward for her to putting her hand there. It felt so inappropriate and weird. After finally taking it out, she slid the screen upwards and opened the latest text. It was from Tim.
Hey! Are you guys on your way? We're slowly getting things together. But Clay keeps burning the pork chops. So no rush! I want this to be perfect for Haley.
She smiled at the message and imagined the boys setting up streamers and food around the house like it was her birthday. It sounded so nice to be able to have friends like them do something so generous and precious for her after being sick for days. Who knew she'd be so lucky to be surrounded by kind men.
"Now why are you smiling?" Nathan asked, glancing at her.
She looked up from the screen. "I can smile whenever I want to smile," she answered, mimicking his exact words from earlier.
Nathan chuckled. "What did it say?"
"It was from Tim. He was just wondering if we were on our way. He said no rush because Clay keeps ruining the food," Haley answered.
"Figures."
"Since things aren't going so well over there, can you drive me somewhere?"
Turning the corner, he looked over at her curiously. "What?"
"Can we stop by the nearest drug store? I have to buy some medicine."
"You don't have any of your own?"
"We ran out. I honestly don't need them, but my mom wanted me to get some just in case I wasn't fully healed yet."
"You're out of the hospital, isn't that enough proof?"
"Well my mom is sort of paranoid right now about my health," she answered. "I'm pretty sure she wants me to come back with some kind of medication. So can we go? It will only take a few minutes."
Nathan sighed deeply and turned away to glance at his side mirror.
"I guess we can go since the food's not ready yet."
"Thank you!" Haley responded, clapping her hands happily.
Nathan parked at by the sidewalk at the nearest drug store.
"I promise I won't take long," Haley stated as she climbed out of the car as quickly as she could. He couldn't even get a word. She had already shut the door. He sighed deeply and leaned back in his seat.
Haley stepped inside the store and glanced at the minimum amount of people who were browsing down the aisles. From the looks of it, the cashiers and employees were absolutely dreading these hours. She couldn't blame them. She would be too if she had to sit behind a counter waiting on nobody for the next three or four hours.
Craning her head, she found the medicine aisle. She quickly made her way there and observed the boxes of medication. There were cramp medicine, cough syrup, diet pills, and other needed essentials. It didn't take long for her to finally find the particular one she needed. So she picked it up and rushed towards the counter where a girl who looked like she was around Vivian's age was standing.
"Is this all?" the blonde questioned, smacking loudly on her piece of gum.
Pulling out her wallet, Haley nodded. "That's all."
She watched as the girl scanned the price off the box and started typing on the cashier. While she was doing that, she glanced outside the window and found Nathan outside his car. The door was open and he was observing his tire. She smiled at the sight of him concentrating intently at the wheel. It was still his baby. Probably always will be.
She laughed.
"That's going to be $4.15."
Haley turned away from the window and pulled out the exact amount from her wallet. Then she placed it on the counter and took another glance outside. When she did, she found a familiar image across the street.
"Have a nice day," the cashier said, dropping the Tylenol into a tiny plastic bag.
"You too." Haley flashed her a smile, grabbed the bag, and quickly walked out of the store.
"Did you get what you needed?" Nathan asked, looking up from his tire.
Haley ignored his question and focused her attention on the sluggishly moving figure across the street. It was man with a bottle of alcohol in his hands. At first, she couldn't figure out who it was, but once his face appeared under the street lights, it was pretty obvious. It was Julian.
"Haley," she heard him moan.
Nathan quickly turned around at the sound of his voice and furrowed his eyes.
"Haley," he moaned again.
"What the hell is he doing?" Haley questioned, looking at the ends of the street to see if any cars were coming.
"I need you," Julian stated. "I want you back."
"Julian get out of the road right now!" Haley panicked. She stepped closer to the sidewalk and tried to force him over with some kind of imaginary rope. That's what it looked like to Nathan.
"Haley, please forgive me."
"Julian! I said get out of the road!" she cried out.
Her ex-fiance stopped dragging his feet on the gravel floor and stood still. Lifting the bottle up in the air, he shook his head. "Not until you forgive me!"
Haley scoffed and tightened her jaw. She couldn't believe Julian was doing this. He was blocking a few of the cars driving by. But they swerved around him. A long line of cars were all waiting at the stop light at the end of the street. If he didn't drag his ass on to the sidewalk, Julian was going to be a dead man.
"Get out of the road, man!" Nathan yelled.
"You butt out of our business!" Julian cried out.
Nathan chuckled in disbelief. He just saw him moping at a bar earlier which was only a couple of blocks away from the drug store they were at now. And here he was walking around the city drunk making a total ass of himself.
"I'm just trying to be nice here. So get off the damn road!" Nathan called out.
"Please!" Haley begged.
"Not until she forgives me!"
"WHAT?" she exclaimed.
"I'm not moving from this spot until that girl forgives me," he answered, pointing at Haley sleepily.
"This is sad, man! Don't force the girl to forgive you by threatening your life!" Nathan called out.
"She said she didn't want me," Julian slurred. "And that hurt. But I'm going to get her back anyways. I'm going to try really hard. Because I love her."
Haley closed her eyes and bit her lip. "Please don't do this."
Nathan glanced at her, observing how she was slowly breaking again. What the hell was he doing to this girl? Loving her. Cheating on her. Breaking her. And then begging for her back? It was unbelievable how one man could do so much damage to a fragile being like Haley. She's been through enough already. And it was because of Julian. It was always because of Julian.
"I LOVE YOU, HALEY!" Julian cried out, waving his arms in the air. As he was doing that, he lost his balance, and fell backwards on his ass. As he did, his bottle broke into pieces beside him. And at the end of the road, appeared a bright light. Haley glanced at it, and then quickly moved her eyes at Julian who was still struggling to get up from the ground. Without even thinking, Haley rushed towards Julian and stood before him, spreading her arms out in attempt to stop the on coming car.
Nathan couldn't believe what she was doing. He couldn't let her get hurt because of someone's irresponsible actions. So he quickly ran after her so that she wouldn't be the one who got hit first. So he wrapped her tightly in his arms, his back to the car, and waited for whatever happened next.
As he held her close, Haley could literally feel his heart pounding against his chest. He was holding her so near, it was impossible for her to not feel it. She wasn't sure what was going on with her or why she was suddenly feeling some kind of strong connection when Nathan was around. But she could tell at that moment that Nathan was scared for her. She felt it. She literally felt it.
From the continuous screeching sounds and loud beeps from around them, they stood in the middle of the street, expecting to get hit. But after a while of holding each other, they opened their eyes to the bright lights and angry drivers.
"What the hell are you ass holes doing!" someone called out from his window.
"Get off the road!"
"PSYCHOS!"
"Sorry!" Nathan called out, his arms still wrapped around Haley.
She slowly looked up at him, stunned to still have him so near. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she started to feel something flicker inside of her chest and pulled apart from him.
Nathan felt their sudden distance and furrowed his eyes at the girl. He watched as she bent down to lift Julian off the street and walked him back onto the sidewalk. He sighed deeply, stressed with worry, and followed them. He waved at everyone again, apologizing for getting in their way.
Haley placed Julian gently on the nearest bench and shook her head at him in disbelief.
"You still care," Julian slurred, struggling to keep his head up.
Haley observed him, unable to respond, when she felt someone pull her by the arm strongly. Twirling around, she found Nathan looking at her with fury and concern.
"Are you stupid? Why the hell did you do that?" he questioned, roughly. "You just got back from the damn hospital! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"No," she answered.
"It sure looked like it back there."
"I'm sorry! But Julian wouldn't get off the damn street," she snapped, her eyes set on his dark blues.
"You should've just left him there," Nathan mumbled, roughly letting her arm go.
She scoffed in disbelief. "Are you kidding? Why would I even do that?"
"Isn't the answer obvious? That son-of-a-bitch cheated on you and broke your heart. Now you're going to risk your life to save him?"
"He's still human, Nathan. He still has a family. I'm not going to let him get hit by a car just because he hurt me."
"You're an idiot."
Haley quickly looked at him in shock. "Don't be heartless."
"Have I taught you nothing?" She appeared confused. "You're supposed to get over him. You're supposed to let him go so that you wouldn't have to hurt anymore. You're so up and down. You can't make a damn decision."
"Nathan. Why does it even matter? You heard me at the club. I said that I was done with him. I'm just trying to save a life here and you're making it out to be something completely different."
Nathan sighed in frustration. He couldn't deal with this. It was hard enough dealing with her being stupid about her health, but now he had to worry about her getting killed by a car. He was never going to get a break with this girl. She was selfless. Completely selfless and didn't care about what damages were done to her body.
"You are obviously not over this jerk. You wouldn't have stood right in front of the car for him if you were done. You could've at least pushed him out of the way. But you didn't."
Haley blew out a breath, distraught by his words. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to agree with him or deny everything he just said. She wanted to be done with Julian. She really thought she was. But when she saw him on the street like that, so close to getting hit by a car, she panicked, like she was afraid to lose him. She wasn't completely over him like she thought she was.
Nathan waited for her to respond, but he could tell that she was in her own world. He figured that was her way of saying that she wasn't fully recovered from her heart ache. It was still there. Deep down, he really wanted it to go away. Because he was tired of seeing her so broken. Not because of work, but because it killed him to see her that way.
"Whatever, I'm done talking about this. Let's just go to the house." He looked away and stepped forward to his car. When he reached out to grab the handle of the door, he realized that Haley wasn't following him. He turned around and found her sitting down next to the jerk who caused such a mess. "Are you coming?"
"We can't just leave him here."
Nathan's jaw tightened as he glared at the drunken idiot on the bench.
"I'm not going to bring him anywhere. Let him sleep on the bench."
"Nathan." She gave him the eye.
"You're always getting me into difficult situations, you know that? I just saved both of your lives back there."
"Let's just bring him back home."
He glanced at the sleeping figure on the bench. "He looks pretty comfortable right where he is."
Haley sighed deeply. "I'm not going to feel good if we just leave him here. He could get mugged or something."
"Since you didn't let him get hit by a car, just leave him here," Nathan answered.
"I can't do that."
"Well I can," he stated, reaching out to open his car. "Make a decision quick because I'm ready to go."
Haley groaned, pretending to poke Nathan's eyes out and turned to observe Julian's unconscious state. She scowled at her cheating ex and mumbled a few curse words at him. A few seconds later, his head fell on top of her shoulder causing her to feel immediately disgusted. But seeing him this way was actually very sad. He missed her. Still wanted her. And now that she doesn't want him, he's drowning in his own sorrows. It was like revenge. And she had nothing to do with it. But she felt guilty for making him act this way, making him risk his life like that. She thought it would make her feel better to finally have him regret losing her, but she didn't feel good at all.
"You can go," Haley called to Nathan before he climbed into his car.
He stopped and furrowed his eyes. "What?"
"I said you can go."
"Haley, the guys are waiting for you at the house. You can't let them down."
"Well tell them that I'm sorry."
"Are you serious right now? You're ditching us for this guy?" Nathan questioned angrily, pointing at the sluggish figure beside her.
"I can't leave him here by himself," she answered, propping Julian's head up with her shoulder. "Leave us here or bring him home."
Nathan observed her as she let the guy who hurt her lean against her shoulder. It made him feel uneasy to see her this way. To see her want to protect another man. After all those times he's saved her, rescuing her from danger, and keeping her from being so sad all the time, she decided to stay with the one guy who broke her heart. It was unfair. Ridiculous. Heinous. Stupid.
Truthfully, Nathan wanted Haley to pick him over Julian, but she didn't.
"Fine. I'm leaving because I pity you," Nathan stated before getting into his car, slamming the door shut.
Haley's jaw clenched as she felt something hit her like boulder in her chest. She couldn't believe Nathan was going to leave her there like she didn't matter to him. But when she saw him drive off, it was pretty obvious that he wasn't kidding. And that hurt more than anything.
"Hurry! Put the banner up!" Tim ordered, motioning his hands up to the wall.
Jake stood up from his knees, holding the poster that he had been working on for the past thirty minutes. He wasn't an artistic one, but it was good enough for his eyes. It wasn't good enough for Tim though.
"What the hell is that!" he heard Tim cry out.
Stapling the banner on the wall, Jake looked over his shoulder to see what Tim was talking about.
"What?"
"That 'B' looks like an eight."
Jake observed the poster and tilted his head. "It looks fine to me."
"Well not to me!"
"I think she'll know that it's a 'B' when she reads it."
"She's going to wonder why it says 'Welcome 8-ack!"
Jake rolled his eyes. "What do you want me to do about it?"
"At least try to make it look like a 'B'. Add a straight line."
Clay watched them in amusement from the back yard. He was busy cooking the food on the grill. They were having steak, corn and some links. It was usually what they always had when they came over to Nathan's just to hang out and have a few drinks. The only difference today was that they were putting up excessive decorations for Haley.
"Why are you so serious about this, Tim?" Clay hollered from outside.
"It's for Haley and I like celebrations."
"How come you didn't give me a celebration for my epic performance on open mic night?"
"You're not that special."
Clay scoffed. "And I call you one of my best friends. Ass."
"Shut your trap!"
Right after he said that, the door bell rang. And all three of them turned to it in curiosity.
"Is that them? Jake didn't fix the 'B' yet!"
Jake shook his head.
"Chill, son," Clay called out as he turned off the grill for the moment. "I'll get it."
As he made his way to the door, he swung it open, revealing a pissed off Nathan. He marched right past Clay and threw his keys on the coffee table, startling everyone.
"Where's Haley?" Clay questioned. "And why the hell did you just door bell to your own house?"
Nathan ignored him and stormed to the kitchen, grabbing himself a beer from the fridge.
All the guys looked at each other in curiosity, wondering why Nathan was acting so strange. He was obviously pissed off. It definitely had something to do with Haley since she didn't come in with him.
"I thought you went to pick her up!" Tim shouted.
Nathan walked back into the living room, flopped on the couch and turned on the television to ESPN. He was not in the mood to talk about Haley. He was so frustrated that she would risk her life for the man who completely ruined her and then choose to stay with him instead of spend time with the people who practically became her family.
"What's going on, Nate? Where's Haley?" Clay questioned, walking over to him.
He opened his beer bottle and took a swig from it. "I don't know."
"That bastard. I can't believe he just left! And I thought he was finally going to be nice from now on, but I was wrong."
Haley remained sitting at the bench in front of the drug store and glanced at the drunk figure leaning against her shoulder. She sighed deeply at the sight and gently removed his head off from her shoulder. She scooted to the side and placed his head on the bench. His head weighed a lot. And she was tired having him lean on her for help.
"This is all your fault, you know," she spoke. "If you hadn't cheated on me with that slut, Alex, I wouldn't be in this mess. I wouldn't have wrecked a car - that was supposed to be yours by the way- and owe a strange, arrogant man over a hundred thousand dollars. My family wouldn't have to suffer. I wouldn't have to live with this wound you caused me. I wouldn't be sitting on a bench in front of a damn drug store with your pitiful drunk ass by my side."
A few mumbles could be heard from Julian's lips. She was glad that she was able to say those words to him and have him not remember it the next day. It gave her a release of freedom to be able to talk to him and criticize him without getting a response back.
"Don't think just because I'm sitting here with you means that I want you back. Because I don't," she began, turning to him. "People pity me because of you. You caused me so much pain and I don't know how many times I have to tell you that to get it to your head. You know it hasn't been easy for me since we broke up. But you keep rubbing it in my face. Appearing every where. I thought that you didn't want me anymore. You chose someone else. But you kept coming back. You were not considerate of my feelings at all. You're an idiot for cheating on me!" she poked him hard on the head.
"Ow," she heard him moan.
She laughed.
"You're a bastard lawyer." Poke. "You're a dumb ass for threatening your life to get me back." Poke. "And you're a huge dick for making feel like shit." Poke!
"Stop hitting me!" he complained, covering his face with his hands.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm the nice one," she added, pointing to herself. "You should've been proud to have me as your girlfriend because you'd be the only guy I want. Unlike Alex who wants to be with every guy possible. I still can't believe you two morons fooled me for so long. " She sighed deeply. "I didn't want to agree with Nathan when he said that I wasn't completely over you, but he's right. I'm not. I'm slowly getting there though. I don't cry at night. And I'm smiling more." She quickly thought of her family and her co-workers at the café. "So maybe that's why I'm here. Because I still have some kind weird of attachment to you. After all that you've done to me, I don't know why I decided to stay. But don't think much of it. I still don't want you back."
Haley stood up from the bench and decided to wave for a taxi. After a few passed, one finally parked at the curb. She hurriedly grabbed Julian and wrapped his arms around her. Then she gently placed him inside and she followed.
Tim sat across from Nathan in the living room, glaring at him for the past thirty minutes. He wanted to try to eye him down to get the details out of him but Nathan wouldn't budge. It was obvious that he was pissed off. Something happened between him and Haley and he wanted to know what it was about. Tim set this whole thing up for her and she wasn't even there.
Nathan took a sip from his beer bottle and took a second to look at Tim.
"Why are you still sitting there?" he questioned. "Your guest of honor is not going to show up so clean up the mess you made in my house."
Tim slammed his fist on the coffee table, startling everyone in the room. "Where is Haley? What did you do?"
Nathan's eyes widened. "What did I do? I didn't do anything!"
"Yes you did! You were supposed to pick her up, but she's not here!" Suddenly Tim thought of something. "Did you murder her and throw her in a river!"
Nathan groaned and placed his bottle on the coffee table. "Yes, Tim. That's what I did. Now leave!"
"Seriously, Nate. What happened to Haley?" Clay questioned by the glass door.
"Didn't I say leave?"
"We're just wondering why Haley's not here. So why don't you just tell us?" Jake demanded from his place against the wall.
Nathan's jaw tightened. "If you guys are so worried about your precious Haley then go find her. She's somewhere downtown."
"You left her downtown by herself?" Tim exclaimed.
"Did I say she was by herself?"
Jake furrowed his eyes. "Who is she with?"
The vivid picture Haley sitting with Julian on the bench came to mind. "A drunk."
Clay's eyes widened. "You left her with a drunk! Are you an idiot?"
"She's the idiot."
"Well you're the asshole," Jake commented. "I'm going to go find Haley." He turned around to grab his jacket from the couch and headed towards the door.
"I'll come with you," Tim called out, following him.
Nathan waited for Clay to do the same thing, but he stayed for a bit to talk to him. They heard the front door shut and Nathan returned his focus back on the TV screen.
"That Jagielski kid really knows how to be a super hero," Nathan mumbled, grabbing his bottle from the coffee table. "If he calls me an asshole again I'm going to fire him."
Clay shook his head at his best friend and took a step forward. "Why the hell are you acting like this, Nate? Did something happen between you and Haley to make you leave her like that?"
"It's really none of your business."
"We're best friends. We're supposed to tell each other everything. But lately, you've been holding back. Why is that?"
Nathan took a swig from his beer and fixed his eyes on the TV screen. He looked like he was paying attention to it, but in reality he wasn't. The reason why he's been holding back was because his mind was focused on something else. Something that he wasn't quite clear or positive about to tell anybody. Haley. He was starting to feel guilty for leaving her like that on the street. He should've stayed with her and brought Julian home. But he didn't want anything to do with that guy. He hurt Haley. And Nathan didn't want to help the guy who damaged her. He couldn't let himself do that. Because anybody who did any harm to him or to anyone he cared about, deserved to be punished.
That's what Haley wanted, right? To make Julian pay for what he's done to her? She had the chance to give him the revenge that he needed. So why did she decide to help him? He hurt her the most. She didn't want to punish him. I don't understand that.
"Just go find her," Nathan ordered.
"Nate."
"I said go find her," he snapped.
Clay looked away in disbelief and nodded his head. "Whatever it is man, tell me soon." He walked out the door, shutting the door behind him, and left Nathan alone with his own thoughts.
Haley held her coat tightly to herself as she walked to wherever she needed to go. Home? It was too early. The café? No one was there. Nathan's? Who knows. She was just a couple of blocks away from Julian's house where she dropped him off on his porch. There was no key in his pockets or hidden under a rug or vase. There was no way she was going to bring him home. He wasn't worth it. So she thought about what Nathan said - leaving him at the bench. It was revenge. Something that he deserved. Placing him right in front of his house door was close enough.
She kicked a few rocks out of the way and drew out a long breath, the air appearing like smoke. Then she heard her phone ringing. She stopped and pulled it out of her pocket to see who it was.
"Vivian?"
"Where are you?"
"Why?"
"Because . . ." Vivian looked around her and smiled at Clay who was standing beside her. She was downtown at the time eating with her friends and Whitney when the guys spotted her. "The guys from the café are wondering where you went."
Haley furrowed her eyes. "How do you know that?"
"Because there here with me right now."
"At the house?"
"No, I'm outside of a restaurant."
"What are you doing there? You haven't been home all day! Don't tell me you're spending money again!"
Vivian groaned at her sister for being an old grouch. "Don't worry about that. Just tell me where you are. The guys want to know if you're fine."
Haley sighed heavily. "I'm fine."
"Ask her where she is!" Tim begged, jumping beside Vivian.
"Get off me!"
Haley let out a soft chuckle at the commotion in the background. "Tell them I'm fine and not to worry."
"She said she-"
"No. We're picking her up and bringing her back to Nathan's to have her welcome back party. We're not taking no for an answer!" Tim shouted.
Vivian scowled at Tim and pushed him away. "You heard him," she said, returning back to the phone call.
Why would I want to go there and see that jerk off's face? He left me on the street like his precious Porsche. Why would he do that? He was willing to help me when I was drunk on the sidewalk, but not for Julian? He hated me then. What was the difference now?
She sighed deeply and glanced at the street signs. "I'm near Julian's house on 32nd street."
"Why did they choose Clay to cook?" Nathan questioned himself as he picked the burnt pieces of meat off the grill. He peeled them off and placed them in a plastic bag.
The whole place was set up with streamers that Tim bought himself and Nathan didn't want it there anymore. He figured they weren't going to come back, so there was no point in having decorations up. So he spent his time cleaning up all the clutter that was left in his house.
While putting each piece of meat into the bag, he heard the door bell ring. He stopped and placed the bag on the patio chair. Then he walked over to the door, wondering who could be visiting him at this time.
Once he swung the door open, he saw Haley being shoved into him by his best friends. Fighting for balance, they both stumbled on their feet and fell on the floor. Haley landing right on top of him in shock. Not only did she land on top of him, her lips accidentally found their way on top of his. Surprising everyone, including themselves, in the process.
What did you think? You like? Keep me inspired!