crossways: a jack hughes story

chapter 22

the next day

you and carly decide to go shopping. you insist on driving, as you always do. you tell her about your conversation with quinn the night before.

"oh my god, are you actually gonna get revenge on jack?"

"yeah, carly he cheated on me! he's gonna get what he deserves."

"well what are you gonna do?"

you smile as you turn into the mall parking lot. "maybe do a little cheating back."

"WHAT"

you start to laugh.

you were only joking, but now that you think about it, it might not be a bad idea. if you did 'cheat' on jack, how would he find out, and who would you cheat on him with? your first choice is quinn, but that's too weird, quinn's more like a brother to you. luke's too young for you, but not a bad backup plan.

...

the next few weeks fly by, and before you know it, you're at the airport saying goodbye to carly and cole.

"thanks for letting me stay here. i really appreciate it."

"of course, it was really fun having you." says cole, and he gives you a hug.

you and carly are both flying back to school, you to wisconsin, and carly to florida.

"are you coming to visit during christmas?" asks carly.

"yeah i'll come down. just let me know when you play the lightning." your eyes shift to cole and he nods.

"december 27." says cole.

you say one more goodbye to cole and wait for carly to join you. you look over and see her hugging cole, and there's tears in her eyes, cole's too. you're about to tell carly to hurry up, but then you put yourself in her shoes. you would feel the same way having to leave jack; wisconsin and new jersey are just states away, florida and montreal are a whole country away.

you and carly are in different terminals, so you give her one more hug and wish her good luck on her first week back to school. you find your gate and grab an iced coffee from starbucks and sit down.

you start to play hay day when you get a text message. it's from jack. you roll your eyes and swipe it away, but you miss and accidentally click on it.

heard you're going back to school. good luck, i still miss you.

you almost type 'miss you too' back, but you delete it and send, thanks

he reads your message but never responds. you roll your eyes and continue to play hay day.

after landing and moving back into your dorm, you see you've been assigned a new roommate.

you can only see her id number and that's she's a transfer student.

you unlock the door to your dorm, and you're the first one there. you claim what bed you want, and start to unpack. about 15 minutes later, you hear the door unlock.

you turn around and hear, "oh my god, zoe?!"

you turn around and see her. chelsea. what is she doing here?!

"oh, hi!" you say in the fakest nice voice.

"i didn't know you go here."

"you didn't?" you say, tilting your head as your voice gets higher.

"no! i just transferred here."