me what I want to hear

My phone vibrated in my pocket again. It was probably Paisley. She had been calling nonstop. I had forty-eight calls and fifty-six text messages from her. I pulled my phone out of my pocket for the forty-eighth time. I looked at the caller ID; Dad. That's a new one.

"Hello, Cambrey are you there?" he said in a panicked tone. He was whispering so Marsha is probably around. He is back in Iowa.

"I'm listening."

"Cambrey I'm sorry its not my fault." Not his fault? He can get rid of that mean wicked woman anytime he wants and its not his fault? That's a good one. I hung up, I didn't want to talk to him.

"I told you I wanted a pickle!" I heard Mallory yell from the kitchen a few seconds later. She has been having mood swings lately. Its driving Carter nuts but more importantly its driving me nuts; and I don't live with her! Poor Carter.

"Ok which top this one or this one?" Berkley asked as I pulled my chemistry book out of my locker. Yes Berkley and I have made up. We are beasties now.

"The purple its cuter." I closed the locker and started walking to fourth hour. She put her camera back into her huge purse. She went the opposite direction of me.

"Cambrey?" a voice asked me. I turned to see a tired Paisley.

"Can I help you?"

"All I want is my best friend back Cambrey." she stated.

"Maybe you should think about that before you do something mean like that."

"It's a learning experience." she walked closer.

"Your sure going to learn what I've experienced without anyone talking to you." I knew that was true. Berkley said she wasn't going to talk to Paisley again.

"Cambrey come on what about your belief in second chances?"

"I have exceptions to that Paisley you know that." She did I told her all ten of them.

"You gave Jace a second chance."

"Actually he gave me one. I broke up with him remember? Paisley are you sure you were my friend?" She didn't seem to be getting the facts straight. When you try and show someone up you should get the facts or at least remember them.

"Why won't you forgive me. I know what I did was wrong, learned from it, and now I want my friend back. My plan was for you to forgive me."

"But see Paisley the world doesn't run on your commands. You can't hurt someone then want it all to be better. And plans sometimes take an unexpected turn. Right now your at a dead end." Her eyes were mad.

"Cambrey!" she yelled.

"Now you know how I felt two days ago. I wanted my dad to chose his kids over his new wicked fiancé. Yet he didn't do as I wished now he wants it all to be better between us." I responded calmly as ever.

"Why is this about your dad? If being mad at me now is about your dad then you have some problems."

"Your right I do have problems. Life is full of problems and sometimes you never get them fixed." she looked at me weird. Wondering why I wasn't yelling right back at her. "Go find a different problem Paisley and a new friend." I walked to chemistry. As I was out of sight from her eyes I smiled.

Life is a very special thing. Everything and everyone is put for a reason. You are given obstacles to overcome and challenges to face. You can run in fear or you can stand right up and meet it face to face. People are the same in a way. Every person you meet is given a task, an impact they make on your life. Whether it be good or bad. They give you learning experiences. You make mistakes and learn from them. Yet you might come out on top after facing a person or a challenge. And if you don't, well, that person or challenge has gotten to you. To me that isn't a good thing. After that heartwarming insight on the topic you probably think I will stop and tell you something sweet and happy endingish. I won't, but I will tell you something else. I think of life as a video game. There is always a battle to be fought and if your that one lucky person, at the end of that game there will be a special word on the screen. It will be in yellow letters with an exclamation point at the end; that word is winner. I hope to be the winner of my video game.

"I'm not going to answer it." I said for the fourth time. I was talking to Jace five months later. It was the day of my dad's wedding and he keeps calling me.

"Cambrey just say hi the guy is sorry."

"I'm not going to answer it." that would be the fifth time now.

"Cambrey your dad is on the phone he wants to speak to you." mom said as she entered the room with the phone in her hand. Her right hand covered the receiver.

"Tell him I'm not here." Jace sighed and got up from the bed. He took the phone from my mothers hands and put it up to his ear.

"Hello Mr. Nicholson this is Cambrey's boyfriend Jace….. Yes I am a straight A student….four point oh…. Yes Cambrey is right here one second." he handed the phone to me. I could see my mom smile out of the corner of my eye, probably at what Jace was saying and doing. I pushed his hand away. "Cambrey Noelle Nicholson if you do not talk to your father right this second you will not be seeing me around here or at school for a long while." he made no effort to put his hand over the receiver. My mom just kept smiling. I grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Cambrey hi. Listen I'm sorry about everything. That is a real nice boy you have there though."

"Thanks I think so to." I smiled at Jace.

"Cambrey I'm sorry Marsha is tearing us apart but I will call you any free time I have." he said I could hear a door open in the background.

"Dad, Marsha is only half of it. You are the other half."

"Yes honey I know. Cambrey I have to go I'll call you later, love you." The line went dead. He didn't hear a word I said to him a second ago. He was too worried about the wedding starting.

My mom and Jace looked at me.

"If he loved any of us he wouldn't marry her." Yet my opinion didn't matter. At least not to him.

"He loves you." Jace said to me. We, well I, was about to fall asleep. We were on my bed and it was eleven. My dad was probably on his way to the reception by now.

"I guess."

"Well if he doesn't then I'll love you enough for the both of us." I smiled at him.

"Thank you Jace."

"You know Cambrey one day after college I'll be like that guy in the Kay jewelers commercial."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll take you to all the significant spots we had." I was caught up now.

"Good because I think that commercial is really cute." I closed my eyes and next thing I knew there was sunlight streaming through my window.

"Cambrey we are going to be late!" I got up and Jace and I went to school. We laughed through lunch. I saw Paisley out of the corner of my eye looking lost for a place to sit. I got up from our table.

"I still don't forgive you but I will let you sit with us." she walked behind me.

"What is she doing here Cambrey?" Berkley asked me as we sat down.

"I still believe in second chances." I stated. Paisley looked up at me and smiled at what I said. I guess I'll have to be the bigger person and make things better between us but hey, sometimes you have to do things yourself.