the only exception

chapter 37

Phoebe went back to the messages, reading them over and over until a voice called out to her. She looked up, scanning the crowd until she spotted Jay walking over to her.

"Hey, did you enjoy the game?" He asked, smiling excitedly.

Phoebe nodded slowly, a little stuck in her head, "Yeah- yeah you played really good."

"Thanks," Jay grinned before furrowing his brow, "You okay?"

"Trying to find a ride home," she hummed, raising her eyebrows with a sarcastic smile, "Not going great."

"Oh, I can take you." He offered quickly.

"Really?" Phoebe asked, willing to jump on just about any offer she could get right now. Even though she was scared to go home, she felt it was better to get there sooner rather than later and just get it over with.

"Yeah, for sure. I was about to head out anyway," Jay shrugged, earning a relieved smile from Phoebe as they started walking.

"Thank you so, so, so much. My parents are kind of losing it right now," The teen laughed nervously, feeling her phone buzz in her hand. She turned the screen to look at it and sighed, "Speaking of."

"Do you need to take that? I can go get the car real quick." Jay offered.

"No, it's alright." Phoebe shook her head. She's already missed quite a few calls and texts, what's one more? Even though she was trying to get home as soon as possible, she was still dreading whatever conversation was going to come and would like to put it off as long as possible.

They piled into Jay's car and he began driving while Phoebe looked back at her messages, seeing a new one from Hayley and Taylor each.

Taylor
2:17am
Can you answer one of us before Hayley has an aneurysm please?

Phoebe felt a pang of guilt before she switched over to Hayley's contact.

Hayley
2:16
I know you're seeing these, don't forget your read receipts are on.

Phoebe slumped back in the chair, not really wanting to deal with it all and get in trouble, but knew she couldn't ignore them anymore. Her hands shook as she held the phone, but before she could make the decision on if she was going to call or not, Hayley was already trying again.

"Okay, it's my mom again, I gotta take this." Phoebe told Jay apologetically, interrupting some football story he was telling that she wasn't really paying attention to anyway.

"You're good," he assured, turning down the music.

Phoebe reluctantly brought the phone to her ear, shifting her body and looking out the window as Hayley's voice flowed through the speaker.

"Phoebe? Are you okay?" She asked instantly, and the teen could easily hear the fear in her voice, which only made her feel worse.

She hummed in response.

"Where are you? Why weren't you answering your phone?" She asked, but this time her voice held something closer to anger, making the teen sober up just the slightest bit.

"Sorry," Phoebe mumbled, curling into herself.

"Sorry?" Hayley asked in disbelief, "Where are you?" She asked again.

"I'm on my way home now," Phoebe told her softly, "You can go to bed if you want. I should be home in like ten minutes." She told her nervously. She hoped it came off as feeling bad (which she really did feel) but knows the real reason is just because she didn't want to deal with it tonight.