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4- Does He Still Care?

Emma

"Hey dude," greeted Emily who finished getting everything she needed from her locker. "You and Jeremy ready for the presentation?"

"I thought I was," I began speaking while opening my locker and digging through the mess that I'd been neglecting to fix. "But Jeremy screwed it up."

"Explain." Waiting for an explanation, her lipstick was being put to use.

"I don't know. He edited the first page. Nobody is going to know what sparked my interest in cars." The mess in my locker was going to have to wait until the last day of school. "This whole stupid paper was edited by that idiot." My fist began to slowly crunch up that paper and punch whatever could be punched. "Reading this paper, nobody would ever know that we're still trying to repair the car."

"When's the last time the two of you actually worked on the car together?" She asked putting the lipstick in her pocket.

My head couldn't help but smack itself against the locker once I closed it. "The end of this past summer." The temptation to tear up was growing. "I did most of the work, while he listened to his stupid music."

"Do you think it's possible that he doesn't care about the car like he used to?"

Taking a moment to reflect, it became apparent that Emily had a point. Jeremy seemed to never have time for the car anymore. There was always an excuse for him to do something else. In response, my butt was parked on the floor. Emily joined me with her arm over my shoulders.

"He promised that we'd finish it someday. He promised. Why doesn't he care anymore?"

With a sigh, Emily spoke with caution. "You guys are growing up and evolving. Neither of you are who you were ten years ago."

Was it possible that she had a point? That very thought bothered me.

"You know, I don't know where I'd be today if he hadn't rescued me against Ted back in second grade.

Jeremy stayed at my side my entire first day. Who knew being a new student would be a struggle? Nobody should have to go through their first day alone. At last recess, Ted had his sight on Jeremy. It became obvious that he wanted to hurt him. Were they now enemies? Was this all because of me? All because that special boy came to my rescue?

Once the school day ended, we both found out that the two of us were neighbors as we ended up taking the same bus home. Talk about something convenient. Getting off the bus, Jeremy dragged me past his backyard to an empty field that was close to an abandoned junkyard. Next to a tree, there sat a broken-down car. It was a '64 Shelby Daytona just like my Hot Wheel. The only difference was that my Hot Wheel looked better. Of course, with a little love, this car would see amazing days again.

"We can make a car like this," stated Jeremy. "And when we graduate, we can drive this car to our prom and graduation and everyone will love us. They'll think we're cool."

"We could've easily had this car finished this year. We could've driven it to our graduation. It was definitely possible."

Emily forced my head onto her lap and began stroking my hair. "I was always kind of jealous of you guys. Maybe I could help you with the car after school. Who says you and Jeremy have to drive in that car to graduation?"

Something about that situation killed all the tears that were building up. "Are you saying you want to ride with me in that car to graduation?" Her head quietly said yes. "That would mean Jeremy wouldn't be my walking partner."

"He can still be your walking partner. He just wouldn't ride with you in the car."

It was a beautiful idea. Maybe this idea could work.

"Speaking of Jeremy," commented Emily before I could agree to her idea.

Jeremy's head was soaked in toilet water again. Ted didn't hesitate to bang the boy's head against a few lockers. Something inside of me wanted to step up and save the boy as he did for me ten years ago. Of course, I've been wishing I could do something these last few years every time this happened. Today would be no different. Jeremy was just going to have to take it like a man until graduation. Things would change after graduation.

"Can you imagine what life would be like for you if Jeremy hadn't come to your rescue?" asked Emily.

Yes, my life probably would've sucked. The last thing I wanted to do was imagine what Ted would do to me. And thankfully, a distraction came in to distract me from imagining it. It was Hailey.

"What the hell babe!" she screamed. "You can't go one day without picking on freshman?"

Did she just call Jeremy a freshman? Ouch. Must suck for him to crush on her.

"Oh, come on babe," responded Ted. "I'm just having a little fun. And you should know by now that I would never dunk a freshman into the toilet. I only do that to seniors like me." With that, he let Jeremy go. For a moment, Jeremy and Hailey glared at each other. It seemed that both of them wanted to say something to each other. Of course, with the way Jeremy is, he began running to his first-period class. Hailey just stood there as pissed as ever. She clearly had a crappy boyfriend and it was apparent that she was aware.

"Like, I honestly can't take any more of this. Like, it's always the same. Seriously, you have to lay off and chill out." Her face was as serious as ever. She couldn't take his crap anymore. Today seemed different. And maybe it was. Maybe it was.

"Babe, don't be a buzz kill. Just chill out. You're probably just having your time of the month. You know how you are at the beginning of every month."

Where was the popcorn? Did that idiot just claim that Hailey was PMS'ing? No girl ever wants to hear that. Thank goodness Jeremy wasn't that stupid.

Bam! Without any hesitation, Hailey knocked the air out of her man only to cause him to fall to the floor to catch his breath. His nose bled a little. If she wasn't a girl, she'd likely get a beating. To nobody's surprise, a few obscenities left that innocent mouth of hers. Was the crowd actually cheering? They were. Not one teacher wanted to break this off. Sweet.

"Have fun at prom." Quickly and surely, his prom ticket left her pocket only for it to be crumpled up and thrown to his face.

"You can't break up with me!" The dude was as angry as ever. I felt bad for laughing.

"FYI, I can break up with you and I just did." That middle finger of hers had the last word.

And just like that, the bell rang and it was time to head to class. School hadn't officially started and it had been quite an eventful morning.

Another fine chapter! Don't forget to comment and vote!

Thoughts on Hailey and Ted?

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