Down The Highway

Chapter Twenty-Five

It was my first step inside the arena and colorful lights immediately greeted me. Wearing the blue gown I bought at the online shopping mall, I was confident to enter and observe the whole place. I tried to look for Jannet but I could not find her. I turned left, right, in front of me, and even behind me as well but she wasn't there.

I thought she was just late. I found Dylan sitting on a chair, lonely and not looking like his usual self. Whenever there are events like that one in our school, he would try to get my attention but that time, I found him looking lonely on a suit and tie as he was just staring on the floor.

There was an empty chair beside him and so I decided to sit on it. I took a deep breath. He looked at me but just after a few seconds, he looked away immediately like he didn't even see me. "I know you always wanted to dance with me" he acted like he didn't hear anything from me and just kept his eyes on the floor. "Come on, let's dance" I offered him my hand but he didn't even look at it.

I already knew the reason why he did that. And the reason why he has been ignoring me the whole time. "Look, sorry if I don't believe you for saying that Travis is the one who sends me those letters. But I just can't. Because I don't see any reason for him to do that. Besides, I see that he is kind, nice, and loving" I said while he finally looked into my eyes straightly. "Sometimes you have to believe what you can't," he said and then walked away from me and I tried to chase him. "Dylan, wait!" But he didn't stop and just kept on walking away from me.

I sighed, knowing that he was being cringe and trying so hard to accuse Travis of sending me those letters. I didn't believe Dylan and I chose to do that stupid thing because those days, I was secretly loving Travis in every way. Even if we were not that close yet. I couldn't believe it but I found myself crying after seeing Dylan run away from me.

Many danced in the middle but I kept silent in the corner. I noticed that I needed a hair clip to fix my hair and get it a little out of my sight. I decided to go to my locker where my clips were located. My gown was too big so I held it high to be able to walk.

Once I was a few steps away from the locker, I noticed someone in front of it. Someone on a red familiar hoodie. "Hey!" I called but because he immediately ran away, I didn't see his face. I knew that he was putting a letter in my locker. I was too desperate to know who Xanny was so I tried to chase him. He ran so fast that I wasn't even able to catch him.

He was so fast like an expert in running. "Hey, you!" I screamed. We reached outside the school and kept on running despite the rough road. Because I couldn't run right, I took off my high heels. I knew it was my last chance to figure out who Xanny is, I did all that I could to figure it all out. I ran as fast as I could even if I thought I was going to die after catching my breath infinitely.

I didn't expect that I would be able to reach him. I grabbed his hoodies while he still kept on running away. "Got you! Xanny" I said to let him know I knew he was the one giving letters to me hiding by the name of Xanny. I was still chasing my breath and I wasn't breathing right. But I was so excited so I immediately took off the hoodies on his face.

I thought I would faint after I realized who was in front of me. Tears fell from my eyes when I couldn't believe who it was. I wished that I believed Dylan when I saw Travis standing on a red hoodie with his jaw-dropping on the floor. "Travis?" I said while he bit his lips and looked down on the floor. I threw away the heels I was holding because I couldn't control myself anymore.

I was a little annoyed that I was stupid for not believing what Dylan told me. And I also couldn't believe that for the first time he was right. "You're Xanny?" I asked again to confirm it. He held his head down while tears dripped down from his eyes. "I'm sorry, I... I... I didn't mean it" I heard him speaking underneath his tears.

"You didn't mean it? What? Tell me! You didn't mean to make me believe that Xanny exists? You didn't mean to make me nervous each night, thinking that I could die at any time? You didn't mean to make me cry? You didn't mean to make me love you when you don't love me?" I gave out a sermon.

"Jade, I love you... please listen to me" he said while unexpectedly, he kneeled in front of me and held my knees. His tears ran through my gown as he said. "Please, I want you to hear my explanations," he said once again. I was so hurt that I didn't even want to hear anything from him.

"I didn't want to do this to you. But do you remember the guys we met at Starbucks?" I knew he was referring to the bullies on the day we went to Starbucks. The ones who bullied him. "I refused to embarrass our teacher during class like what they told me to do. As a punishment, they gave me letters and assigned me to give those to you and used my name to refer to the guy that Xanny was referring to. But the truth is, there is no Xanny"