My Heart CH.9

My Heart: A Joshayley Story CHAPTER9

Hayley and Josh stared blankly towards Jaelyn. She smiled quickly as she looked at who just came in. Josh hastily walked towards the secretary before Jaelyn could open her mouth.

"I have doctor's notes!" He said, out of breath.

Jaelyn eyed him, completely on-edge. "What?!" she almost screamed. "Hayley and I had the same doctor's appointment. You see...our...our parents are..." he panicked.

"Our parents are friends!" Hayley said, chiming in. "Yeah. We are totally friends. I mean Mr. Farro said...they have...um..."

"A really great doctor," Josh said, completing that sentence.

"Yeah! I mean...the doctor was really, really good. They reccomended him for me, and we ended up in the same office." Hayley agreed. She exhaled a quick breath, glad that was over with.

Jaelyn' face was a fiery red.

"So you're just going to believe them?" she asked the secretary in annoyance. "I mean...seriously...uh..." she was at loss for words. For once she had no idea what to say. "Never mind." She walked out towards the door, her head still up after that blow.

During lunch, Josh and Hayley sat together with his friends. Luke was there, and so were a few people she knew from Ms. Stoke's English/History class. She found that she had a lot in common with this shy girl named Kelly. She was really quiet and into reading. During lunch she had a novel in her hand as she drank out from a smoothie, multi-tasking. It was like she didn't care about anything else around her, she was so engrossed in her novel and nothing else mattered. Kelly had long, brown hair that hung straight and wore no make up. Very different from the rich kids around here, very simple, which Hayley admired about her.

"So what did you think of that whole caveman thing during History? Messed up, right?" Josh asked.

"Yeah. I felt like...a caveman, of course," Hayley replied with a hearty smile. They laughed along. "Well I had to endure this long, boring lecture in math. And it wasn't even about math, it was more about how math is all around us. Like we've never heard about that before," Luke added, a groan in his voice.
"Yeah, same here! I have Mr. Carter third period. He's a crazy nerd," Hayley replied. "Almost everyone thinks he's boring," Luke agreed.

Hayley laughed. "Yeah he's a freak...no offense."

"You are such a goodie two shoes. No offense?" Josh asked.

"What? I don't like talking crap about teachers, no matter how horrible they are, and if I insult, I say no offense...even though sometimes it doesn't make it less offensive." Hayley countered, defending herself. "God, I really need a soda. I'll be right back."

She walked over towards the lunch counter, grabbing a soda right when Jaelyn approached her, seeming uncomfortable and tense. Their eyes met; Hayley's narrowed. "I think we got off on the wrong foot...more than once," Jaelyn said with a smile plastered on her face. "Why not...you know, be friends?"

"You...you want to be friends with me?" Hayley asked skeptically, paying for her drink. "Jaelyn, we don't have much in common."

"That's never stopped anyone from being friends before. We probably have tons in common but we don't know about it. Tell you what, why don't you come to a party I'm throwing this Saturday? I throw parties all the time. Josh and all his friends are invited too, if they want to come." Jaelyn nodded over at Hayley's table to add emphasize to her statement. "Come on, it will be so much fun. All my parties rock, I promise. You can even tell me what music you want me to play. Maybe we can find what we have in common by doing that. We might be into the same music. Come on Hayley. Have some fun."

She smiled, her large eyes glowing. During that moment she seemed genuinely excited and willing to become friends with Hayley, which surprised Hayley a little. Never had she expected Jaelyn would invite her to anything.

"Well..." Hayley began, "I don't know. I'll have to ask Josh first."

"Of course. Why, are you guys...dating?" There was a hint of jealousy in her tone, her voice suddenly going high as she said the last word.

"No. It's not official, and we're just...pretty good friends now. I just don't want to show up alone."

"Oh okay, well that's cool. Let me know, okay? It's only Monday. You've got the whole week to decide. See you around, mmkay?" Jaelyn told her her voice so nice and sweet that it was hard to believe this was the Jaelyn Hayley knew. "Sure, sure." Hayley replied, a bit creeped out at Jaelyn's attitude, pondering why she was being so sweet.

She took her seat by Josh again when she got back. "Jaelyn's invited us to this party. Saturday. Wanna go?" Hayley asked, her puppy dog eyes applied to her face, trying her best.

Josh looked at her as if she was crazy. His face crumpled up as he thought about Jaelyn. "Jaelyn's parties...they aren't something you'd want to get involved with. She's going to get you to do something horrible during parties, Hayley. I know how that feels like."

"Why? What happened? I know you guys used to date..." before she went on, Josh stopped her. "Forget it. We don't need to go."

"Josh, she's being super nice to me in a super creepy way and I don't know...she's giving me this whole let's be friends and find out more about each other act. I want to see if she means it. If it's true."

Josh laughed at her words, acting like what she said was incoherent and completely absurd. "Seriously, Hayley. Jaelyn? Come on, you can't be stupid enough to believe that whole act. She's so good at what she does. She should be a damn good actress, really." He chuckled again, already seeing the idea of Jaelyn as an actress in his head.

"But let's say, for argument's sake, that I am stupid. Why not, Josh? She's really...being different. Maybe she does want to be friends with me. Please. Come on, she said your friends are invited too. We could all show up, you know, as a group and mingle and do all that stuff they do at parties."

"Hayley, I don't know if you are doing this to be noticed or to really be friends with Jaelyn. Do you want to be like her? She will corrupt you."

"And how do you know that?" Hayley argued, her eyebrows pulling together.

An angry scowl flickered on Josh's face, and he took a breath to compose himself. "Because I know how it feels to be with her. I've dated her, Hayley. And I never want to go back down that path again."

"Well if you'll be more specific and tell me what the hell happened with you two maybe I'd agree and get your point. Josh, you need to let me know. I thought we were friends."

"Hayley...we are."

"Then why won't you tell me?" Just then the bell rang.

Josh exhaled. "I'll tell you after school, okay? Just don't know how you'll take it."

"You can tell me anything." Hayley assured him with a smile, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. The two got up and Josh nodded. They walked to sixth period together.