Have Hope, Hailey

Chapter Eight

In response, he smiled again and spoke, "I guess you are then." I rolled my eyes. "Do you want me to take you to the nurse's office? I don't really know where it is but you can guide me and I'll help you get there." The guy offered.

I smiled back and replied, "Yeah, thanks. How come you don't know where the nurse's office is at?" I asked. He outstretched a hand to me and I took it for support.

"I'm new at this school, it's my first day. Believe it or not, meeting you isn't the strangest thing that's happened to me today." He obviously teased.

With his help, I hopped on one foot as I walked. "You know what? I'm not even going to welcome you to this school because you're a meanie. How dare you call meeting me strange?" I asked, with an offended voice.

"Well, you are strange," he remarked with a short laugh.

"You're the strange one!" I responded.

I couldn't believe how ridiculous this guy was. Here he was going on about how monsters were real, and he dared to call me the strange one? I wondered where the hell he came from because where I was from, we didn't believe in monsters. They were merely fictional beings in movies used for jump scares. Something in bedtime stories to frighten children at night. That was all.

"I never said I wasn't," he reminded me, a playful smile on his face. I had no comeback to that, so I stood quiet. "My name's Liam by the way," he told me, quickly breaking the silence. Liam. The new guy who believes in monsters. Got it.

"My name's Hailey," I replied. I then began to guide him to the nurse's office.

—

Later that day Mae and I decided to have a girls night. We prepared food, movies, activities, etc. It was hosted at my house. The two of us had a lot of fun. We didn't spend any time on our phones and made sure to turn them off, in fact. It was easy to get lost in the virtual world of social media and we wanted a break from it. We painted our nails, went out to have a random water balloon fight, sung— very badly might I add— karaoke, and even baked.

Afterward at about eight at night, Mae and I were laying down on my living room's carpeted floor. We decided to settle down after all the activities we did and had been laying there for a good half hour. Our heads were supported by pillows and our legs were propped against the couch.

"Do you ever wonder what's going on in people's minds?" Mae asked me out of nowhere. I sat up, and looked down at her.

"Yeah, all the time." I answered. "Why?"

She sat up from her position, looked at me, and then spoke, "Tristan is always... well, he's Tristan. I feel like he's always thinking about something... I don't know what it is though." Mae explained to me with a shrug.

I smirked and told her, "He's probably just thinking about you." Almost instantly a pillow came flying to my face. "Ow, what the hell Mae!?" I exclaimed, as a result of having slow reflexes.

"What?" She innocently asked, batting her eyelashes at me.

"You know what," I stated and rolled my eyes, "I'm serious though— he likes you," I informed her.

She shook her head defiantly and responded, "It's too soon for that... I think. I know I'm amazing and everything," Mae paused to flip her hair, "But it's too soon for him to like me. And I wouldn't want him to be a rebound from Gerald."