Caught in the Middle

Part 29

Chappie 29 (Please remember to rate/comment/fan)

"Baylee?" I said, Monday morning. It was pretty early, I was planning to do everything in the morning, but since I only had about twelve minutes, more or less, some of it would have to wait. Hopefully today I was making everything right, and I was starting with Baylee, since she was my best friend, and I missed her.

"What do you want?" She hissed, looking me up and down, as if I disgusted her. I probably did, since I was dating her best friend's crush. Well technically, I wasn't dating, dating, him, but still.

"Baylee, I'm sorry." I whispered, looking down, feeling like if I looked her in the eyes, I might burn with the guilt she knew I had.

"No, you're not. If you were you would break-up with Luke." She snarled, I sighed, laughing a little. Baylee gave me a quizzical look, scrunching her eyebrows and slightly parting her lips.

"I can't even.... We're not! Oh god, why can't I just tell you?" I laughed at myself, turning around and putting my hand on my forehead, pulling it down my face and feeling like I was smearing it.

"What?" Baylee asked, now seeming to be more focused on what I had to say now.

"Me and Luke. We aren't dating." I blurted out, now knowing I had to just tell her. Everything was just coming out like vomit, tasting nasty, and there was no way of stopping it.

"What?" She asked again, a little more than frustrated, I couldn't tell if it was because of me, or the way I was saying it, maybe she was just stressed period.

"Me and Luke, aren't dating! We're just pretending. And you know why? Because he wants to get Grace off his back, and I want to make Zach jealous."  I huffed, feeling myself get annoyed, with myself. I guess this conversation with Baylee was waking me up, making me realize my reason why I went with the deal was so idiotic.

"Wait, what?" Baylee said again, more explaining.

"Okay, on Thursday, after math, I got out and Luke was there. So me and Luke were in the hallway, and he asked me for a favor, so I said 'Sure, what is it?' so he said, 'I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend.' so I looked at him, like he was mad, which he was! He still is! I just, I don't know! But I said yes, I know it crazy, but I guess I'm crazy!" I said angrily spinning around and smearing my face with my hands.

"Wait, if you knew it was bad, why'd you say yes?" Baylee asked, looking at me again.

I sighed, pushing my hair back and letting it fall in front of my face again, feeling really stressed, "I wanted," I looked down, then around me, "I wanted to make Zach jealous." I stated what I had earlier, was Zach really worth this all?

Silence, silence was all that was there. No staring at each other, it was just silence. And I could hear every thought that was going through my mind. All of them blocking everything, until finally:

"You like him that much, that you would be willing to risk everything?" She asked, looking at me now, searching for my answer, as if it was written in my face.

I started laughing, yes, laughing, I couldn't help it, when someone said it, it was like everything else clicked, so I said, "Yeah."

Baylee started laughing too, and that's all it was, for a good few minutes, we were just laughing, laughing at my stupidity, laughing at her misunderstanding, laughing at the world, for causing all of this. And it felt good, it felt good to be able to laugh at ourselves, for how dumb we were actually being. 

"You're so stupid." She laughed, and I nodded, still laughing too.

"I know." We both started laughing again, until eventually we stopped, we had to, because my sides were aching. "I'm sorry, Baylee. I'm stopping everything today. I'm apologizing to Grace, cutting the deal with Luke, making things right with Lindsey, and telling Zach how I feel." I smiled.

She rolled her eyes, "Okay, give me a hug!" I smiled and we hugged, rocking back and fourth as we laughed in each others ears.

"Okay, I need to find Luke." I said, and she nodded, letting me go.

**

"Corey!" I called, seeing him sunken up against a wall, head in his hands. He seemed so deep and thought, so full of gloom and it seemed what I was going to say may be hopeless, but I had to tell him.

"Izii, please, just leave me alone." He mumbled, not looking up at me.

"Corey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hurt you, I'm sorry that I made you feel, whatever your feeling." I apologized, pouring everything that I wanted to say to him, "I'm sorry, that I'm not the girl you thought I was."

He shooked his head, pinning a smile on his face, it may have been fake, but it made me feel like maybe he was trying, maybe he was going accept what I was saying, "You're everything I thought you were. No one's perfect Izii, and it's okay. It's my fault for giving everything up because I thought I needed something else." He sighed, looking up at me.

I quirked an eyebrow at him, "Wait, you miss Lindsey?" I asked, looking at him, trying to see his eyes.

He put on a faint smile, trying to hide the hurt in his face, "Everyday."

"Corey, she misses you too."  I stated.

"She does? I thought she hated me." He whispered, looking down again.

"I think she's over that. Go find her, and get on your knees. Apologize." I said, looking at him sincerely.

"You think she'll forgive me?"

"I know she will, now go!"

"Thank you, Izii." He said, getting up and I did too. He hugged me really quick before leaving, making me smile.

I watched him jog away, looking for his girl, "That's two, four to go." I mumbled, walking off towards first period, since the bell would be ringing soon.