It Happened Last Year

I can’t help but watch his lips as he talks. He is like the forbidden fruit, and I just can’t have him. Jana nudges me and I zip back to life. “What?”

“We’re talking about fall break if you want to participate in the conversation. I was thinking a road trip, that would be fun.”

Taylor rolls her eyes. “Jana, you keep saying road trip, but a road trip to where?”

She shrugs. “We have time to decide that.”

“Oh, I don’t know if I can go on a trip. I might go to Canada and visit my Dad,” I tell Jana and she frowns.

“That’s too bad,” Daniel joins in, “because I know a guy who will let us stay at his cabin up north. I’ve been before, he’s friends with my dad. The place is insane.”

“Seriously?” Jordan asks and Daniel nods. “This is going to be great, we have to go.”

Taylor looks to Jana. “What do you think? A few days up in the dense forest, in an apparently amazing cabin?”

“How could I say no?”

I watch as they talk on and on about the cabin. I sink down in my spot. My phone vibrates in my backpack, and I fish it out. It’s my mother calling. I stand up and rush to the door.

“Where are you going?” Jana calls to me.

I point to my phone and she nods.

Slipping through the doors, I wander down the hall and press ‘accept call’. With my phone to my ear, I answer, “Mom?”

“Hi, Hailey. I’m just calling to say that I’ll be home late again tonight. We’re really cracking down on this case and I just can’t leave until I get a confession.”

I sigh. “That’s fine.”

“There’s food in the fridge for you to heat up, and I left money on the counter if you want to order in or something.”

“Okay. Oh, is my trip to Canada written in stone?”

There’s a pause, she must be thinking. “No, not yet. Why? Are you having second thoughts?”

“I don’t know. I’ll talk to you later, you’re probably busy.”

“Alright. Have a good day, keep the house clean, please,” and with that, she’s gone. Most of our conversations lately have been over the phone. Usually, she gets home when I’m asleep, and when I leave for school, she’s asleep, then, when I get home, she’s at work. I feel as if I’m living by myself.

Just as I turn to head back to the cafeteria, I panic when I catch Harrison walking down the hallway. He’s talking with Bradley and Daphne, to makes things better. Quickly, I try and walk away from them, in the opposite direction, but it’s too late. They have spotted their target.

“Hailey,” Daphne sings my name. “I haven’t seen you in a while. I thought maybe you actually left.”

I avoid Harrison’s eyes and look at the floor. “I’m in your Economics? I sit two desks away from you.”

She theatrically thinks, placing her fist under her perfectly sized chin. “Well, maybe you just blend into the background. I suppose that’s what you have to do nowadays to survive in this town, huh?”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

I step to the side to walk past her, but she mimics me.

“I’m just trying to get back-”

“To your friends, right?”

I nod, then they split like the Red Sea. Taking the chance, I walk through them, past Harrison, worried that they might trip me. Once I’m through, I don’t look back.

“Bye-bye, Hailey,” Daphne calls, and I say nothing in return. Laughs come from them, mostly her, but they are cut off by the cafeteria doors as I engulf myself in new sounds.

Every day I wonder if I’ll run into him. I know there is a chance, we attend the same school, we’re in the same grade, and it has happened more than five times now, and all of them were unsettling. Sometimes I wonder how he faces me. Doesn’t he feel guilty? Doesn’t he regret what he did? Maybe acting like the devil is the only way he can communicate with me.

“You okay?” Jana asks as I sit back down. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

No ghost. Only the devil. Since my run in with Harrison and Holly in the locker room, I’ve been keeping my torments from Jana, and I am not sure why. Maybe I am tired of being the downer.

“I’m fine,” I mumble.

“Okay, well, are you sure you have to go to Canada? I mean, I know it’s your Dad and all, but it wouldn’t be the same without you. I’ve grown too used to your weirdness to be without you,” she says then turns to the group, “we all want you to come. What I’m saying is, choose me, Hailey, not your Dad-”

“Jana, that just sounds terrible,” Taylor interrupts. “But, yeah, choose us.”

I smile. “Well, it hasn’t been carved in stone. But it’s nice to know that you guys want me there. Who else is going?”

“Us, maybe Trent, maybe Bradley-”

I cut Daniel off. “Bradley?”

He nods. “Why? Have your feelings resurfaced?”

Jana turns to me. “Bradley? You like Bradley? Since when? I thought you liked Mr. Mystery?”

Taylor leans in. “Who’s Mr. Mystery?”

“Mr. Mystery is no one. And I don’t like Bradley.”

Daniel shrugs. “So it won’t be a problem then.”

When the bell rings, Jana and I walk in the direction of our fifth-period classes, which happens to be opposite of everyone else. When we’re far enough, Jana wonders, “So what’s with the Bradley thing?”

“Don’t ask. Taylor almost told Daniel that I like him so I had to cut in and replace Daniel with Bradley.”

“So, you don’t want him coming because of that? I mean, I know he’s friends with Harrison and all-”

I look up at her. “And that’s why I don’t what to be around him. I saw him with Harrison and Daphne in the hall. They messed with me, but he didn’t do anything to stop it, so I’m not sure if he’s like them or not. The last thing I need is for someone like Daphne or Harrison to follow me on Fall break.”

Jana nods. “I’ll talk to Daniel about it. I’ll talk in code so he won’t know the actual reasoning.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Don’t worry,” Jana places her arm on my shoulder, “I’ll do anything to make sure this vacation goes perfectly for us, even if that means bumping out someone like Bradley.”

“You’re hardcore,” I jokingly say, “like a bouncer kicking someone to the curb.”

“What can I say, I protect the people I love.”

We continue down the hall, smiling and rambling on about what we’re going to do at the cabin, and for once, I feel perfectly fine.