I feel myself blush, “Maybe.”
“Does that also mean I was your first kiss?”
My face becomes tight, “Not exactly.”
“Well, who was?”
I probably shouldn’t tell him that I kissed Luke while he was sleeping. Or that Luke kissed me while I was sleeping. But that was on the cheek so it didn’t really count. And not to mention Lance trapping me and kissing me. And then kissing Zac, but that was after Hayden and I kissed. What do I tell him?
“Lance kind of took it from me remember?”
“Oh, right. What a dick.”
“Now he’s a dick? When you first found out you didn’t even care that much,” I remind him.
“Yeah, but that was before I had these feelings for you.”
My heart rate began to quicken again as I lift my head up and kiss him.
“So, where do you want to go tonight?”
Chapter 25: Feeling Replaced
“Here we are,” Hayden smiles as he opens the car door for me.
“Why, thank you,” I reply. I smooth out the back of my light blue, chiffon dress (another savior from Jessica) as I breathe in the cool night air. It is a beautiful night. It was one of those nights where you could actually see the stars in the sky and you could take a long walk in the park without ever shivering. It was perfect.
I take Hayden’s outstretched hand and he leads me to the crowded restaurant. As soon I step through the door the smell of garlic bread tickles my nose. The blonde girl standing at the hostess stand smiles warmly at us, “Reservation name?”
“Hayden Sharpe for two,” Hayden responds.
The hostess smiles and pulls two menus out of the stand, “Right this way.”
“I didn’t know you made reservations?” I whisper in Hayden’s ear as we make our way through the maze of tables.
“You have to at this place.”
We arrive at a small table in the corner of the huge room. The room itself was packed, with tables squished into any place they could fit. I can’t tell if there is music playing or not because all the chattering voices made it impossible to tell. I hated restaurants like this; the type of place where you can barely hear the person sitting across from you.
“Your waitress will be here shortly,” the girl smiles and hands us our menus in a black leather folder. I gulp as soon as I see the prices listed on the right hand side of the pages.
“You’re not paying for this, are you?” I ask, uncertainly.
“Yes. Yes I am,” he says without even looking up from his own menu.
“This is way too expensive.”
“Jenna, it’s fine,” he laughs. “I’m not really struggling with money.”
“Why is that, actually? What do your parents do?” I ask, realizing this was something we never talked about.
“My mom doesn’t work and my dad is some high placed business man, or something boring like that,” he says simply.
“How come I have never met your dad?” I ask trying to match his casual tone.
“My parents are divorced.”
I put my menu down. “How come you haven’t told me that before?”
He shrugs, his eyes still never leaving the menu. “Never came up.”
Thinking about it now, I don’t know much about Hayden’s personal life. And he definitely doesn’t know anything of mine. Does this mean something? That our relationship is more physical than emotional? Should I try to move it into the more emotional stage? But I don’t know if I’m really ready to tell him about my family yet.
A brunette girl in all black walks up to us. “Hi, my name is Rachel and I will be your waitress this evening,” she says like she has already said it a million times tonight. “May I take your drink order?”
After she leaves with our order, we continue to look over the menu. Being a particularly picky person myself, I knew what I would be getting as soon as I saw it. I laid my menu down and looked at the table for two squished in next to us. It was so close that you couldn’t even stand between the two tables. There was a fresh, bright red rose in a tiny glass vile in the center of the table. I glanced back at the plain yellow candle in the center of our table and realized that the table next to us was the only one in the whole restaurant with a rose on it. Aw, how cute. The couple who’s going to sit next to us must be having like a special anniversary or something. Or maybe, the guy just really likes her.
“Ready to order, babe?” Hayden asks looking up from his menu.
“Yup. Are you?”
”Yeah, I usually just get the flat iron.”
My eyes widen, “Me too.”
“Really?” he laughs.
“Is that surprising?”
“A little bit,” he nods. “Usually girls I take out on dates just order salads.”
I feel a stab in my stomach but choose to ignore it. “I’d rather not stick a bunch of leaves in my mouth.”
Hayden laughs again, “That’s what I say.”
A giggle escapes my mouth but not long after, I swallow it. Something- or someone- behind Hayden catches my attention. Another stab arrives in my stomach; one that I can’t ignore. I can feel my jaw hang as I watch his fingers entwine with another girl’s. His free hand reaches up to smooth out his sleek black hair causing my breath to catch in my throat.
Hayden catches my stare and turns around in his chair to look. “Zac?”
The surprised/nervous look on Zac’s face was almost humorous. I probably would have laughed, you know, if my heart wasn’t thumping against my rib cage.
“Hey, Hayden, Jenna. What are you two doing here?” Zac asks and I notice his hand drop from the punk Barbie in the black lace dress next to him.
“Just on a date,” Hayden explains. His focus narrows on the girl, “Who’s this?”
“I’m Emily,” she smiles, flashing her not-so-shockingly perfect teeth.
“This is your table,” the hostess says, pointing to the table right next to us. The table with the rose on it!
Hayden flashes me an annoyed look and I held back a laugh.
“Perfect,” Zac mutters under his breath.
The Emily girl gives a nervous smile at Zac as he pulls her chair out for her.
What a gentleman. He pulls chairs out for his dates and uses roses as a centerpiece.
“Your waitress will be right with you,” the hostess, whose nametag read Georgina, smiles at them like she had at us and walks away.
What followed after that could only be described as some of the most awkward moments of my entire life. There was no way the rest of the night would be normal since our two tables were practically connected. If my life was a TV show and I was watching it right now in my bedroom at home, I probably would be laughing.
Being one who can’t deal with awkwardness very well, I ask the first question that pops into my brain. “So are you two on a date or something?”
I feel Hayden flash me a questioning look but I can’t tear my eyes off of Zac to look back at him. Emily looks down at the cotton napkin in her lap and Zac gives me a look that probably was a mirror to Hayden’s. He clears his throat, “Yeah.”
“Oh really? It’s weird that we’ve never met before Emily. What grade are you in?” I take a big gulp of my ice water that Rachel had just set on the table in front of me.
“Okay,” she interrupts. “Are you two ready to order?”
“Yes, we’ll have two flat irons, please,” Hayden tells her, raising his voice to be heard over the noise.
Rachel jots it down with a black pen, her curly hair falling over her slouched shoulders. “How would you like that cooked?”
“Medium-rare,” he answers and then looks at me.
“Medium.”
“Gotcha,” she says and snaps her notebook closed. “I will be right back with those.”
As soon as she leaves, I turn my attention back to Emily. “So, what grade are you in?”
“I’m a junior,” she smiles.
“How did you and Zac meet?�
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Zac chimes up, “In detention actually. Friday.”
Emily laughs, “Yeah. Zac and I both climbed out through the window when the teacher went to go pee. Probably was a stupid idea since it just landed us another week in detention.”
Zac laughs with her at the memory, “It was a stupid idea.”
“It was your idea.”
They both laugh at each other for a few moments before Hayden joins in the conversation, “What got you in detention in the first place?”
“Got caught putting ‘graffiti’ on the school,” she shrugs and uses her fingers to put air quotations on the word ‘graffiti.’ I notice a dark purple streak in her all black dyed hair.
“Of what?” I ask, knowing it came out a little meaner than I intended it to be.
“You know that tree in front of the back wall of the gym? Well, when the sun shines just right at around five o’clock, it casts a perfect shadow of the tree on the wall. I was painting the outline of it to look like the shadow would be there all the time. I really wish I could have finished it.”
“Why?” I ask instantly.
“I like to paint things that people can talk about. What’s the point of painting in my garage when there is no one there to see it?”
“But why destroy public property?”
“I wasn’t destroying anything,” Emily explains, narrowing her eyes at me. “Our school is so boring, it needs something new. And that wall was just a plain, white wall. I wasn’t covering anything up.”
“Alright,” I say slowly.
“There is a long, extremely awkward silence.
Hayden claps his hands together. “I am so excited for our steak,” he says, clearly trying to release the tension. Aren’t you, Jenna?”
I sit back in my chair, “Ecstatic.”
“Well, that was… Fun,” Hayden says, closing his bedroom door behind us.
“Wasn’t it?” I ask sarcastically. I flop down on the bed, headfirst. The grey bed sheets up against my face make everything black and I close my eyes, allowing myself to watch the purple swirls on the inside of my eyelids.
“Parts of it was,” Hayden says from somewhere in the room. I hear the rustling of clothes and I tell myself not to look up. “Especially the parts where you just attacked Emily with questions. That was hilarious.”
I groan, “Why is she so annoying? You don’t think he actually likes her, do you?” Her bright green eyes flash into my head.
“Who knows,” he replies as I feel the mattress move besides me. I look up slowly and see he had changed out of his fancy attire and into red plaid boxers and a white v-neck. “And I didn’t see how she was annoying?”
“You didn’t think she was annoying at all? You’re kidding.”
“She’s just very artsy.” He shrugs.
Oh God. Am I jealous? Why would I be jealous?
“But, she’s so weird.”
He chuckles, “Just because you don’t agree with everything she says doesn’t mean she is weird. Why do you care who Zac goes out with all of a sudden?”
I feel the temperature in my cheeks rise, “Because he is my friend and I don’t want him getting hurt.”
Hayden chuckles again and gets into the bed, “Zac’s a big boy. I think he can take care of himself.”
“I’m freaking out, Jessica.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” she says as she shoves textbooks in her locker. “It’s simple; you have feelings for Zac, which is stupid because you are dating Hayden. Beautiful, sexy Hayden.”
I laugh, “Don’t tell me you are going to try to make a move on my boyfriend now?”
“Well if you keep this thing with Zac up I might have no choice. Hayden will need a shoulder to cry on.”
“No he won’t, because I am not leaving Hayden for Zac.”
She smiles, “Now there’s the Jenna I know. Don’t pay attention to her and Zac. They won’t last.”
“I know,” I sigh. “I just thought he liked me.”
“So, what? You have a boyfriend. You expect him to just sit longingly on the sidelines while you make out with his best friend every night?”
“Yup,” I nod.
“In your dreams, kid.”
I laugh, “I’m kidding. It just sucks to know that I can be replaced that easily, you know?”
Jessica sighs, “No one knows better than me.”
I mentally slap myself, “I’m sorry.”
She shakes her head, “It’s fine. But it was one date. I guarantee you he hasn’t completely gotten over you. And if you were really his friend, you would be happy he has moved on.”
“Yeah I guess,” I shrug. “I guess I just liked the idea that-”
“That two hot guys like you at once? Anyone would; it’s a dream come true.”
Just then, I feel a gust of cold morning air as the hallway doors open, revealing Daisy. But only, she didn’t look like Daisy. Her usually straight hair was curled at the ends and hanging from her ears were white feathers. Black skinny jeans clung to her legs and a floral bando stuck out of her grey v-neck. She looked gorgeous. And for once, she was wearing clothes that Jessica and I would actually wear.
“Speaking of dreams,” I mention to Jessica. “Am I in one?”
“Very funny guys,” Daisy says, her black boots clicking against the tiled floor.
“Daisy what happened? You look-”
“Hot!” Jessica interrupts me.
She laughs, “Aw, thanks.”
“No seriously, what happened?”
She shrugs, “Is it a crime if I wanted to dress up today?”
Jessica shakes her head, “Not at all. But, why today?”
But Daisy wasn’t even listening. She was too busy staring at someone behind us. I follow her gaze to see Nolan walking towards us.
“Hey, guys,” he nods in our direction. He walks past us and up to Daisy, “Hey, Dais.”
“Hi,” she says, staring back at him.
He nods his head towards the door and entwines their fingers together, “Come on, I’ll walk you to your class.”
And just like that, they were gone.
I stare after them for a few seconds and then turn to Jessica who was smiling from ear to ear.
“What the hell?” I question. “When did this happen?”
“Aren’t they adorable?” she asks in awe.
“You knew about this?”
“Of course! I’m the one who gave Nolan the courage to finally ask her out! Ugh, they are so cute I could die,” she slumps against the locker.
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Nolan told me not to tell anyone until it was official,” she squeals.
“When did it become official then?”
“Well, they hung out at the party Saturday, thanks to me of course. And then they went on a date yesterday,” she explains.
“That’s so weird. I thought he liked you.”
Jessica laughs, “Of course not. He’s liked her for years.” Her tone changes, “You know what this means?”
“What?”
“Now I am the only single one. Ugh, I need a boyfriend. Now.”
“Maybe you could call Tom Stephens.”
Jessica glares at me, “Not funny. I’m so sorry about that Jenna, you know that right?”
I nod understandingly, I was only teasing her. “I know. I just don’t get why you wanted to get drunk at that stupid party.”
“I just,” she starts. “I just wanted to try to forget about Lance. I saw him there with Kelsey and, I don’t know. I am sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
We walk down the hall in silence before she starts to laugh, “Changing the subject randomly here, you have detention today, don’t you.”
I roll my eyes, “Yeah.”
“With Zac.”
“And Emily,” I mention.
“Oh, that’s rough.”
Yeah, it will be.
Chapter 26: Stuck in Detention
I gather my books off my desk and follow the herd of students outside the classroom. As I turn to walk down the hallway, I hear a whistle from behind me and I turn around to see Hayden leaning against the pale wall.
I feel myself smile and walk up to him, “Hey. What are you doing here?”
He pushes himself off the wall and wraps his arm around my waist, “I’m here to walk my little juvenile delinquent to detention.”
It actually takes me a few seconds to realize he was referring to me. “How nice of you.”
“I know, I’m the sweetest,” he says, bending down to kiss my cheek.
I want so badly to sigh in awe but I hold it in. He is too good for me. And I don’t know how I can be so in love with him, and then get so jealous when I see one of his best friends with another girl. Speaking of his best friend and that other girl, I’m going to have to spend the next 40 minutes with them in a small classroom. I’m gonna be sick.
“Let’s leave,” I say urgently as we walk into the cool outside air.
Hayden laughs, “What?”
“Let’s just leave and go somewhere else for lunch.”
“Did you really forget that fast that you have detention? Didn’t I just mention it?” Hayden asks me sarcastically as we stop walking and stand next to the brick wall that made the back of the main building.
“No, I just don’t want to go.”
“Why?” Hayden asks smirking. “Are you scared?” He pokes me in the stomach causing me to giggle. I smack his arm away.
“No I’m not scared. I just don’t want to go.”
“You’ll have Zac to talk to,” Hayden says trying to poke me again. I smack his arm away.
“Zac will be with that Emily girl.”
“Oh?” Hayden’s eyebrows rise and the dimple on his left cheek appears. “That’s why you don’t want to go, isn’t it? You don’t want to get annoyed by Emily again?”
That’s partially the reason.
“Um, yeah,” I say out loud, feeling guilt take over my stomach.
“You’ll manage through it,” he says grabbing my wrist. “Come on, you’re going to be late.”
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