It Happened Last Year

“I have no idea what to bring,” I say to Jana as I stare at my open suitcase. I called her over to my house to help, and she joins me at my side, also staring down.

“Well, you’ll need pajamas for sure. Bring cute pajamas, something sweet, maybe a little girly. He’s probably going to see you in them so-”

“Jana, I can’t base this trip around Daniel. I’ll drive myself insane. What is suppose to happen anyway? It’s just a schoolgirl crush.”

Jana rolls her eyes. “That is the understatement of the year.” She walks over to my dresser and rummages through my pajamas, pulling out a matching top and shorts set. The top is a blue fitted t-shirt with white polka dots and the shorts are white with blue polka dots. My now stepmother bought them for me when I was in Florida. “These are cute,” Jana says before folding them and placing them in the bag. Then she returns to the drawer.

“My stepmom bought me clothes every now and then. She said mine looked too depressing,” I tell Jana. “She thought wearing cute pajamas would make me feel happy before falling asleep, so I hopefully wouldn’t have nightmares about Harrison. You’ll find more sets like that in there.”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Next, she pulls out two more of the same set, but different patterns. “I like them. Did it work?”

“Some nights, along with the soft music, essential oils, forest sounds, waves sounds, journaling, and meditation.”

Jana places the other pairs in the suitcase. “The nightmares were that bad?”

I nod. “My dad would have to wake me up because I would be begging Harrison to stop in my sleep.”

Jana sits down on my bed, more affected by the story than I thought she would be. “How do you stand to look at him at school? How can you be in the same room as him? That’s not fair, Hailey. He can’t just ruin you and get away with it! W-We have to do something-he traumatized you!”

I place my hand on her shoulder. “Calm down. I don’t get those kinds of nightmares anymore. I haven’t had one in a while.”

“Still, you shouldn’t have had to go through that in the first place.”

I shrug. “Life isn’t fair. Now let’s focus back on this,” I motion to the suitcase, “no more sad stuff.”

“I know I just, I hate him,” she grumbles and saunters to my closet. “I wanna punch him, hard, over and over.”

“Don’t worry, karma will come for him one day.”

Jana pulls out clothes from my closet and I watch her as she mentally constructs outfits. I’ll have to ask her what goes with what when we’re at the cabin, but she seems to enjoy packing things up. Everything is neat, organized, and fits together perfectly. I offer to help, but she tells me she has a system going, and it’s better if I step aside.

I sit back on my bean bag chair and watch her. “We’re up there for four nights, right?”

“Yeah. We drive up tomorrow, have that night to get settled in, then we have three full days, and we leave on Wednesday.”

“Where is the cabin, exactly?”

Jana pauses her packing to think. “I’m sure Daniel said it was up at Hauls Creek. You know, where all the nice cabins are?”

My brows furrow. “Hauls Creek? Like, as in, Lovers Creek?”

Jana’s smile fades. “It’s not called Lovers Creek, that’s a different Creek.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure it’s the same creek.”

“I know why you’re worried, because Daphne’s family has a cabin at Lovers Creek-but I’m telling you, it’s not the same creek.”

Worried, I snatch my phone off the bed and search it with shaky fingers. Then, I read out loud what the webpage says for Hauls Creek. “This serene spot nestled between two national forests is home to many campsites and cabin rentals. With the nickname Lovers Creek, it is a perfect spot to bring your special someone.”

Jana swallows. “Who said she’s gonna be there?”

I cross my arms. “Yeah, let’s just forget about the annual vacation her family takes, the one we went on for five years in a row. She’s going to be there, and we better pray she doesn’t see us through the trees.”

“Daniels fathers friends cabin could be on the opposite side of the creek from hers. We don’t know anything until we get there anyway. The probability that Daphne will see us there is very low, very, very low.”

I run a hand through my hair and toss my phone back onto my bed, and it slips between the pillows, hiding itself. “I know, I just really wanted this to go well. I’m finally feeling happy again with you, Taylor, Jordan, and even Daniel. I belong somewhere now, and I don’t want Daphne’s hate for me to ruin the vacation for everyone.”

“I know, but let’s not think ahead. We’re working for no reason right now,” Jana says, and she’s right. “On the bright side, I’m done packing for you. All you need now is toiletries and such.”

Together we go to my bathroom and get everything ready to be packed up. Jana is staying the night, then in the afternoon Taylor, Jordan, and Daniel are going to pick us up. Jana’s suitcase is downstairs, ready to go as she is always ready before I am.

“So is Trent coming?”

Jana shrugs. “Don’t know. All I know is that Bradley is definitely not. He said he had other plans anyway so I didn’t even have to kick him out myself.”

“So it’s just the inner circle then?”

“The inner circle?” Jana questions, amused.

“I’ve been watching too many T. V. shows lately,” I mumble. “But I consider you, me, Taylor, Jordan, and Daniel to be the inner circle.”

“Sounds, cute,” she laughs and I playfully smack her.

“I’m just trying to live my high school dream, Jana. You don’t have to shut me down. Every high school T. V. show has a friend group. Now, we have ours.”

“Wait,” she sets everything down, “Taylor and Jordan are together, you and Daniel are bound to happen, what about me? I’m just the fifth wheel on your double date.”

“When you find someone, he can join the inner circle. And you need to sink your ship of me and Daniel. Don’t get your hopes up, for all I know he has a girlfriend.”

“How could he have a girlfriend?”

“I don’t know,” I say, “we don’t really have anything in common but secrets, and we don’t even share those with each other. He could have a secret girlfriend, and then suddenly, I turn into the fool who thought she had a chance.”

Jana sighs. “And you call me dramatic?”