More Than Friends - A Hayes Grier fanfiction

Chapter 46 - Nash's surprise

School the next day is a weird experience. I walk alone again, taking in the Autumnal atmosphere and letting the cool breeze whip my hair into curls. I pull my white scarf from my bag and wrap it round my neck.

I arrive at school a half hour early so I head to my locker and shove everything I don't need to the back. Avoiding the glances of my worried classmates, I head for the library. I have never found a use for it until now but I find a cosy corner and pull out a book I have been meaning to read.

Here is everything I know about France: Madeleine and Amélie and Moulin Rouge. The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triompe, although I have no idea the function of either actually is

I lose my train of thought, thinking about how nice it would be to visit Paris. I look out of the window I am leaning against and see a steady trail of my classmates stream in. I continue my book and find myself engulfed in the world of Anna Oliphant and her new friends. I hear the bell ring for first period and I pull myself from the story, tuck my book away into my bag and head towards the corridors.

I don't see any of my friends as I walk towards homeroom so I keep myself hidden conspicuously. I don't need anymore rumors of me saying I have no friends of something stupid like that. I smile at a few people and stop to chat to someone who wants to know about Hayes.

"Did you visit him?" The girl, Monica, asks.

"yeah, I saw him yesterday."

"How's he then?"

"The doctor said he might wake up in the next few weeks."

"That's great. You must be ecstatic!"

"yeah, ecstatic is certainly something..." I trail off and she puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Stay strong Sophie." She smiles and I return the grin. She turns back to her locker and I arrive for homeroom. I sit down in my seat and wait for Alyssa and Kaitlyn to arrive.

"Sophie!" I hear Alyssa and see my fiends coming to join me at my table. We are about to start chatting when someone shushes the class.

"Hey, where's Megan?" Someone yells from the back of the class. I turn round and everyone seems to realise that I know something.

"Well um..."

"Spill the beans Sophie."

"She's moving back home." I say cautiously.

"So she's going back to Texas?"

"Yeah..." When I say this a slow but sure roar erupt from the class. They are cheering?

"Wait I thought you all liked her?" I am completely confused.

"We hated her!" Someone yells. I am, on one hand, completely relieved, but on the other, completely annoyed.

"Why did you let her do all that to me?"

"She was going out with Hayes. Who would go against him?" Someone shouts and they all agree. I can't help but agree myself. When Hayes is mad, he is very terrifying. I sit back in my chair and slowly the conversations come back. They all know that they broke up too? How many secrets was Hayes planning on keeping from me?

...

I arrive home to a quiet house; mom and dad are working late and Molly is doing some work at her friends house. Deciding to get some school work done, I head upstairs to my desk. I neatly lay out all my books and start work on some Biology. I am about halfway through when a text message pings through. It's Nash.

Look outside.

I push aside my homework and run to my window. Peering out, I see Nash waving up at me from the sidewalk.

"Come down!" He shouts so I obey, running down to him in seconds.

"What's the matter? Is Hayes okay?" I worry but he holds my shoulders, calming me down. I look up at him and see he has a huge grin spreading over his face.

"What are you so happy about." I laugh.

"I had an idea. To take our minds off everything, I think me and you should go do some stuff together. Fun stuff." He says.

"Like what?"

"It's a secret. But, I've got something planned for right now so..." he holds out his hand and I take it. It'll do both of us good.

I drop mom a text telling her where I am, then follow Nash to his truck. We drive out of our neighborhood and head for the highway. We arrive to the center of the city and Nash turns towards the mall. We drive for ten more minutes until we pull up outside the zoo.

"The zoo? I haven't been here since I was a kid?" I say confusedly.

"follow me." Nash says and he leads me to the reception. I browse through some leaflets whilst Nash has a hushed conversation with the woman sitting at the desk. When they are finished a zookeeper joins us.

"Hey guys! I'm Jim. Follow me." He says and we are lead through a passageway behind the reception. I am beginning to get curious. We obviously aren't going inside the actual zoo.

"Here we are." We have arrived outside a door. Beside there is a sign reading "Lion Cubs." I gasp and stare at Nash.

"Seriously?"

"Yup!" he says and Jim opens the door. We are inside the cage where the lion cubs are and from what I can see... there aren't any.

"Um, where are the babies?" I ask. Jim beckons us with his fingers and, behind a tree, I spot three cubs curled up against one another.

"Will they bite?" I ask nervously.

"No, they're perfectly harmless." Jim reassures me. I walk up to them with Nash and Jim and see their big eyes blink open. They wake slowly but once they are playing, it seems like they won't stop. They chase after stray butterflies, or the cat toys Jim offers us, and run around crashing into each other. I laugh as the smallest one runs at Jim, crashing into his ankles in the process. Nash and I watch them being fed from the safety of a hay bale in the corner of the cage. A few groups pass by the cage, including a group of girls my age.

"Oh my gosh! Is that Nash Grier?" One whispers, though not inconspicuously.

"Do you want a photo?" Nash offers. He must get so sick of seeing fans everywhere he goes, but the look on his face says otherwise.

"Hey, you are Sophie aren't you?" one girl asks and I nod.

"I just want to say, you and Hayes are my otp. Sayes forever." She giggles and I give her a smile. She snaps a picture with the both of us then they head off and we turn back to the cubs.

My phone pings and the girl who we met not two minutes ago has tweeted to Nash and I, alongside the hashtag #sayesforever. Nash sees the tweet and sighs.

"This is going to be hard." He says. My phone is now pinging off the hook and, in less than ten minutes, #sayes is trending. I turn off my phone and hang my head. I see Nash is doing the same.

"I can't deal with this right now. They need to give your family some privacy." I say.

"You deserve privacy too Sophie. You were just as affected as I was."

"It's inconsiderate..." I say.

"They just care about Hayes Sophie." Nash says and I know he isn't lying. It's hard for me to realise how many people all over th world actually do care as much as I do about Hayes. Millions of fans all over the world. I should count myself lucky that I, out of all those millions, gets to know Hayes like I do.