by Leah Laurens
Chapter 9: A True Friend
It’s Hailey’s first day back at work since being in the hospital, and she’s happy to see that the office has been running smoothly during her two-day absence. She’s ready to really finish the month with a big push to get their numbers as high as possible.
She works tirelessly, only stopping to grab lunch and bring it back to her desk. She checks on each employee's progress, providing some positive reinforcement for each one.
One of the women looks at her. “You seem different? You’re just radiant!”
Hailey smiles. “Thanks!”
Hailey walks back into her office, knowing the difference is that she’s started to root out the anger she’s been dealing with. When she sees it’s the end of the workday already, she’s stunned. The day really seemed to fly by. She remembers how long the days seemed when she was busy trying to punish Jimmy for what he did to her so long ago.
Today she gets off work and plans to go for a walk and try to get her health back on track. She’s on her way home when she feels her phone buzzing. Her Bluetooth picks up the signal, and she hits the answer button on her steering wheel.
She hears a crowd of people on the other line. She hears her mother in the background laughing and swearing. It’s clear her mother has accidentally dialed her, and can tell her mother is at a bar drinking.
“So much for rehab,” she mumbles out loud as she hangs up. She’s filled with a mixture of sadness and rage as tears well up. Once again, her mother has failed her. Tears fall as she pulls into her driveway, and she looks in the mirror, seeing that she’s a mess.
She decides to call and make arrangements to see a counselor to try to manage her emotions. As she searches for a local counselor on her phone, she realizes that her mom may never change, but she can if she wants to.
She calls the first name on the list of local resources and a kind voice answers.
Hailey says, “I just wanted to speak to someone about stuff.”
The woman replies, “I have a cancellation this evening, if you want to come by.”
“Oh, that would be great.” Hailey puts the address in her GPS and heads toward her first therapy session, hopeful that she will find a way to control these emotions that seem to be controlling her.
***
Jimmy gets off work, wondering if it might be time to finally tell Hailey what happened between him and Theresa at the end of high school. He knows one of the main reasons Hailey is mad at him is because he never told her why he let the rumors continue.
When Theresa had threatened to tell everyone Hailey wrote Jimmy’s college essays, Jimmy knew it would ruin Hailey’s college scholarship. Anyone accused of cheating would be disqualified for scholarships, and he knew she wouldn’t be able to afford college without it. He let her go to college confused and upset.
He decides he will write a new letter, explaining the situation and apologizing. But this time, he will leave out the part about how much he likes her. He doesn’t want to make this about him.
He gets home and sees Hailey’s car is not in her driveway. He hopes she’s still feeling okay. He heads to the treehouse to write the letter. He really takes his time trying to explain why he made the decision he did and telling her how guilty he felt. He was ultimately trying to protect her. He finishes the letter saying he felt like he had no other option. He thought he was choosing the option that would hurt her less. But in hindsight, he admits he was probably wrong.
Before he can change his mind, he seals the letter in an envelope and walks across the street. He opens Hailey’s mailbox but knows she might not check the mail for days, so instead, he sticks it between the door frame and door just above the handle, so she will see it tonight.
He walks away, feeling he should have done this a long time ago. He wonders if it’s too late for apologies and whether he’ll ever have her back as a friend.
He goes to his room and decides to again try to get over her. It’s painful to love someone who doesn’t want you back. He messages a few girls on the dating app to see if they want to get together soon. He’s determined to let Hailey go, no matter what it takes.
***
Hailey has a good first session with the therapist, who is kind and makes her feel supported. Hailey drives home; hopeful therapy is going to help her. Her stomach growls, and she remembers she still has half a pizza in the refrigerator.
She parks and grabs her bag to head inside. She’s glad she decided to take that step to help herself. Already, some weight has been lifted, since hearing her mom at the bar just a few hours earlier.
She sees a letter in the door and curiously grabs it.
She immediately assumes it’s from Jimmy and takes a deep breath as she heads inside and puts down her things. She places the letter on the table, afraid it might stir up her anger again. She’s not sure if she wants to even open it.
She opens the refrigerator and grabs slices of pizza and heats it up in the microwave. She watches it spin and she considers her options.
She decides to go ahead and read the letter. She needs to face her emotions and not avoid them. She takes her food to the table and reaches for the paper. As she eats her food, she reads the kind words he wrote. She’s shocked to find out the truth about Jimmy’s actions and what Theresa did.
She realizes that Jimmy wasn’t the mean guy she thought he was. He didn’t know what to do. She suddenly stops eating, realizing she was completely wrong this whole time. She thought he did it to hurt her and didn’t care about her.
Hailey went through great lengths to make him feel bad, and suddenly wonders if she hurt him unjustly. She’s a little in shock. She doesn’t know what to do. She decides to just let all this news process, while trying to relax with a light-hearted movie.
***
Jimmy peeks out his front window through the blinds to see if Hailey is home. He sees her car in the driveway and that the letter is gone from the front door. He’s glad she will finally know the truth, and his heart aches for her.
He decides to go out with his buddies to try to stop worrying about it. He joins them for dinner, and realizes how they have all let themselves go since high school.
One of them says, “Damn Jimmy, you somehow haven’t aged at all.”
Jimmy laughs. “Well, I had to work out a ton in college, and we were so busy, I didn’t really have time to party.”
He decides not to talk about himself and what he has been going through, because he really wants to just forget about it for now. He asks the guys how they are doing and tries to show interest in what’s going on in their lives.
He is relieved to hear they’re all dealing with stuff in different ways, and that he is not the only one struggling with things. He realizes he should be hanging out with his friends more, trying to be there for them. He’s been so caught up with Hailey, he’s forgotten to have a healthy social life.
When he gets home after dinner with the guys, he’s not even thinking about Hailey anymore. He feels a lot better. He’s able to sleep, knowing that he is a part of the community even though he’s single and suffering from a broken heart.
***
As the credits roll on the movie Hailey was watching, she decides to take a hot bath to relax before bed. She pours soap in the tub and watches as bubbles fill the space. She pulls some of the flower petals off of the flowers she brought home from the hospital and snaps a photo of the bathtub to post on social media.
She realizes she’s become the typical single girl at home posting pictures because she wants someone to pay attention to her. She wonders what it would be like to sit in this bubble bath with someone she loved. Is she broken because she’s never had a real boyfriend? She sits down, feeling like she needs to have a real relationship. She can’t let her mom’s actions control her; she has to choose to let love into her life.
She glances at the photo she took as she scrolls through other photos of people with their friends or partners. She doesn’t have to try to be s
o strong all the time. She needs to just let people in her life, as it’s meant to be shared with someone.
Maybe it was the movie or perhaps loneliness is finally getting to her, but she’s determined to find love. When she goes to sleep, she imagines someone holding her. That makes her smile, and she knows that she will find a way to let love in.
Just before she falls asleep, she pictures Jimmy holding her. She imagines his lips on her neck and his arm pulling her close. She imagines he wants nothing more in the world than to be right there, and she envisions what it would be like to have that every night. Would that ever be a possibility, or if she is just dreaming? She falls asleep wondering what the future might hold.
***
Meanwhile, Crystal is still awake at her house. She’s scrolling through social media and searching for Jimmy. She finally finds Jimmy’s face and decides to follow him online. She scrolls through his college football photos and is overwhelmed with attraction.
He’s hot when he isn’t in his football uniform, but the pictures with his shirt off are even hotter. She decides to message Jimmy and see if he wants to hang out sometime. She’s excited because she hasn’t had a crush on a guy in a long time.
She has no idea that Hailey and Jimmy have a long, complicated history and that she may come between them. She innocently sends a flirty message, inviting Jimmy to join her at a concert this weekend, because she has an extra ticket. She ends the text with a kiss-face emoji and feels a rush of excitement as she hits send.
She heads into her kitchen and pours herself a glass of wine as she puts on some slow jams. She’s feeling extra romantic and considers inviting Jimmy over to her house tonight, but doesn’t want to come off as easy. She anxiously watches her phone as she sips her wine, hoping he’ll accept her concert invitation.
She hops up and rummages through her closet to find something sexy to wear. She hears her phone ding. Jimmy replies, saying he’s shocked she has tickets because that’s his favorite band.
She jumps up in excitement and messages him back, telling him she even has backstage passes because of a friend with connections.
Jimmy quickly responds that he thinks that is awesome and that he really wants to go.
Crystal assumes she has a date with the hottest guy in town, but meanwhile, Jimmy is oblivious. He just assumes Crystal didn’t want to go to the concert by herself and that another friend must have bailed last minute.
He’s so excited he’ll be able to meet his favorite band; he doesn’t stop to think that Crystal may think he has feelings for her.
As Crystal lays out her outfit for the weekend, she imagines holding hands with Jimmy and getting close to him in a dark backstage corner. She doesn’t care if it’s only their first date; she is ready to show him she is very interested.
***
Hailey wakes up and looks at the clock. There’s still an hour before her alarm is set to go off. But she’s not tired, so she gets up and makes herself a nice breakfast. She decides to make some fun plans for the weekend, so she looks up events around town. There’s a sold-out concert, a festival for knitting, and a car show.
She considers for a moment what Jimmy might be doing this weekend and remembers the bar where she saw him on a date. She decides she’ll go to some of the nightspots in town, and if she runs into him, then it will just be by chance.
She sips her coffee and remembers the time her mom made her drive her to a dive bar, and decides she will definitely not be going to that bar. She doesn’t want to become an alcoholic and she certainly doesn’t want to attract the same types of abusive men her mom used to bring home.
She remembers the guy from the bar and how Jimmy stood up for her. She needs to meet someone who isn’t going to just use her and leave. She sighs. How in the world will she go from single to being in love?
Still, she’s optimistic and decides to go shopping for some new clothes on her lunch break today. She gets dressed and heads to work early so she can take a longer lunch break. She realizes how focused she’s been on work and how depleted the rest of her life is.
She knows how to make money, which is great, but when it really comes to being happy, it’s not nearly enough. She sets out everyone’s work for the day and goes into her office with a second cup of coffee, hoping to break by eleven. She hears her team come in, and she pops her head out just so say hello. Everyone is getting into a flow at the office now that they know what they’re doing, so she doesn’t feel like she needs to babysit them.
Hailey finds herself thinking about Jimmy with that girl at the bar, and she’s angry she didn’t know the truth sooner. She could have avoided losing her best friend. Maybe they could have even become a couple.
She shakes off the idea of Jimmy with that girl and gets back to work. She realizes it won’t be fun to bar hop alone, so she messages Crystal to see if she wants to join her.
Crystals says, “Oh man, I’ve made plans to go to the concert already. Actually I invited your neighbor!”
Hailey is confused, wondering who her friend is talking about. Hailey messages her back, “Jimmy?”
Crystal says, “Yeah! I saw him leaving your hospital room, and we exchanged numbers to give each other updates on how you were doing. I mentioned I had tickets, and he said it’s his favorite band.”
Hailey feels left, out but plays it cool, not revealing how she really feels about Jimmy. “Oh yeah, he is probably so excited. He loves that band.”
Hailey realizes that going to bars, hoping to run into Jimmy isn’t going to work if he’s at that concert. Still, she decides to go out and just socialize. She gets some fun clothes on her lunch break and feels excited to get out.
She keeps thinking that she should mention to Crystal that she doesn’t want her to date Jimmy, but decides not to say anything. She doubts Jimmy will want anything to do with her now after treating him horribly at work.
Sure, he came to the hospital and got her pizza in the treehouse, but he probably just feels bad for her because she doesn’t have anyone. Hailey thinks about the letter. He apologized and said he hopes they can be friends, but he really didn’t say anything about being interested in her.
As Hailey pays for her clothes, she realizes Jimmy just wants to be friends like they were before they kissed.
He would have been flirting with her now if he wanted more. Hailey sighs as she lifts her bags of clothes and puts them into her trunk.
She goes back to work and when she walks in, she sees Jimmy’s friend on the phone. He appears upset. He hangs up when he sees Hailey.
“Everything okay?”
He shrugs. “I found out my girlfriend is dumping me.”
Hailey looks at him. “Oh no. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, and now it’s going to be awkward because both of us are on the apartment lease.”
Hailey can tell he is really upset. “Well if you don’t want to be home tonight, you’re welcome to come bar hopping with me tonight. I could use a wingman.”
He throws his pen at the floor. “Yeah, anything to not be at home. Thanks.”
Hailey goes into her office feeling bad for him. She looks up his report for the month and notices he did really well and is actually the only one to receive the extra bonus.
She goes back out and tells him, “I just checked the numbers, Tom, and you are getting the extra bonus this month. Thought you’d want to know since that money might help you get a new place.”
Tom looks relieved. “Oh, okay. Yeah that will definitely help. Thanks, Hailey.”
He still looks upset, but Hailey knows that’s only normal after a breakup. At the end of the day, Hailey changes into one of her new outfits in the bathroom and comes out.
“Ready to go, Tom?”
Tom is just closing his laptop. “Yeah, I just need to relax.”
Hailey laughs. “Me too.”
They drive in separate cars to the pizza sports bar and walk in, feeling relaxed. As they sit down at the bar, Tom says, “So, what’s u
p with you and Jimmy? Seems like you were really mad at him.”
Hailey explains everything to Tom, and he listens, shaking his head.
“Man, you both are really good people, and it’s like you just got fucked.”
Hailey nods. “Yeah, it’s quite a mind fuck.” Hailey looks at him seeing how bummed he still is. “What happened with you and your girlfriend?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. Everything seemed fine to me. She just called and said she met someone else and that we needed to break up.”
Hailey makes a face. “Man, that sucks! I’m so sorry.”
He picks up his beer. “Cheers to being fucked over.”
Hailey laughs until beer almost comes out of her nose. “Cheers,” she says, clicking his glass.
***
Jimmy is pulling out of his driveway on his way to the concert. He’s so excited, he feels like he’s back in high school. He’s been listening to this band for years and plans to buy their new album and ask them to sign it.
He gets to the concert venue and sees the line is already really long. He follows the parking attendants as they wave him down for the next parking spot. After a ten-minute walk, he finally gets in line. The opening bands are already playing, and excitement is in the air.
He texts Crystal that he just arrived, and she messages him right back. She just parked. He tells her he’s holding her a spot in the line and.
He holds his phone up to snap a picture of the long line and posts it on Instagram.
Crystal runs up shortly after. “Hey!” She has a big smile on her face and she reaches into her bra. “Want to smoke this before we go in?”
He laughs. “Um, okay. How much do I owe you for the ticket by the way?”
“Oh nothing. My treat.”
He raises his eyebrows, finally realizing she might be thinking this is a date. “Wow, sweet. Thanks!” He wasn’t really even planning on hanging out with her at the concert, but now realizes that she probably was. He doesn’t want to be rude or hurt her feelings, so he decides to just go along with it.