It Happened Last Year

Instead of slipping through the side gate, this time, Jana and I walk through the front door of Trent Watts’ house. Jana calls out, “we’re here,” and she leads me inside.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

The lights are dim and we join Taylor on the couch. Sitting across from her is a couple I had seen around school before. They seem to be in a deep conversation with each other, looking into one others eyes, holding hands. The girl plays with the guys, drawing pictures on his palm.

Taylor smiles. “Finally, you’re here. For a moment I thought you two weren’t going to come.”

“Diddo,” I mutter and crash down beside her. She has a glass set on the table in front of her. I can tell it’s hers because her berry lipstick is smeared on the rim. I wonder what it is. I wonder what it tastes like. “How many times a month do you guys come here?”

“Too many,” Taylor says, “it’s only because Trent’s parents are never home. They leave him weeks at a time for work.”

Interested, I ask, “what do they do?”

Taylor shrugs.

Jordan walks in with Daniel, holding many drinks. He sets them all on the coffee table. “If you want one, grab one, I’m tired of you two asking me to make them whenever you want,” he says to Taylor and Jana, but they simply laugh.

Jana shrugs and grabs one. “Sounds good to me.”

I lean back against the couch, distancing myself from the alcohol.

Daniel looks to me. “You don’t swim, you don’t drive carefully, you don’t drink, tell me, what else don’t you do? So far none of it seems to connect together. It’s all very random, isn’t it?”

I watch Taylor as she tugs drinking Jana from the couch. “I want to take a picture by the pool, come with me.”

The couple from earlier, the touchy one, has drifted off into the house, and I can only imagine what they’re doing.

I know what Taylor is doing, though, she’s getting me alone with Daniel, but little do they know that he has no interest in me whatsoever. The only times we talk happens to be at Watts’, which isn’t an achievement. I am simply a person to cure his boredom.

“Yeah,” I murmur, “it’s all random.”

Little does he know it is very connected, but I am not about to spill my deepest, darkest secret with Daniel, the guy who doesn’t find me interesting enough to hold a conversation with. I’m sure our current one is about to end now.

“When you walk in the room,” he continues, “everyone stares, they all whisper.”

My eyes find him again. “Do they?”

It is odd how I have known him for hardy two weeks and he is already stumbling around the truth.

“I know you see it. It bothers you,” he states.

Daniel sits across from me on the other couch, the coffee table full of drinks between us. “Does it? It’s just high school gossip.” I can’t tell if he has heard about my rumor spreading. It doesn’t sound like he has. “You haven’t heard the gossip though. You just watch them whisper.”

This feels like a game.

“Are you sure I haven’t heard?”

“Yes. If you have heard, then you would know the connection between the swimming, the driving, and especially the drinking. Well, you’d have to pick a side first.” I feel mysterious, sneaky, intriguing, things I haven’t felt in a while. “Are you going to go find out what they’re saying now?”

He shakes his head. “No, I’d rather hear it from you.”

A small smile flashes on my face. “Well, you’re not going to.”

Just before Jana and Taylor come skipping back in, Daniel looks directly into my eyes, as if he has already begun tearing down the wall. “I won’t. Not, yet.”

Jana appears suddenly. “Wow, it’s quiet in here. Sounds like you need me!” She cheers and tugs me off of the couch.

Taylor laughs. “She is already gone.”

“Let’s swim, I want to swim.” Jana pulls me towards the back door and outside. Daniel follows behind us, and soon enough the four of us are the only ones by the pool. Jana tosses her shoes to the side and turns around, her back to the water. “Swim with me, Hailey.”

I shake my head. “I don’t swim, and you aren’t going to either.”

She frowns. “Oh, come on, Hailey. You’re not in a bikini, no one can see your body, just-”

Immediately, I push her into the water with red cheeks, shutting her up. Taylor is standing beside me, she doesn’t say anything. I don’t even want to think of the ideas floating around in Daniel’s head.

Taylor touches my arm. “Hailey, are you okay?”

Jana surfaces, laughing. “You pushed me in!”

I plaster on a fake smile and turn to Taylor. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Trent and Jordan appear at the back door, seeing Jana in the pool. A devilish smile stretches onto both of them. “Everyone’s going in!” They cheer.

The two charge at us like bulls. Jordan tackles Taylor into the water, and before I can register what is about to happen, Trent’s arms trap me, pulling me in with him.

All I see is a quick blur then darkness. My eyes have squeezed shut. The pool engulfs us, but I don’t care, I just want Trent to take his hands off of me. Under the water, I wiggle out of his grasp, pulling at the water until I surface. Jana’s laughs fill my ears, then everyone else’s but two. Mine and Daniels.

I trudge out of the water like a drowned dog, my dress sticking to every unflattering dip and curve of my body. I don’t like to dress like this, but it makes Jana happy, so I let her choose my outfits. It is about the least un-comforting thing I can do. I don’t drink with her, I don’t swim with her, so I dress in what she likes.

Once out, I move my hair back and look for a towel. Painfully enough, Daniel walks up to me and hands me one. I wrap it around myself and grab my phone off the lounge chair. It’s almost midnight.

“You can go, I’ll take her home,” Daniel offers.

“I can-”

“I’m already talking Jordan and Taylor home, it’s really no problem.”

I hesitate. “Well, do you know where she lives?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, if you don’t mind. Thanks,” I give him a small smile before grabbing my keys. As I go through the back gate I can’t help but wonder, does Daniel feel bad for me? Is that why he’s now driving Jana home?

What Jana said about the bikini-that was embarrassing. Walking out of the pool like this was also. Maybe I’m right, Daniel must pity me.

Poor, weird Hailey, the least I can do is drive Jana home so she can leave, that’s what he’s thinking, I know it.