In Her Favor

Chapter Two: The Dos & Don'ts of a "One-Night-Thing"

I was right—he looked taken aback, his handsome face struck with shock. His big, blue eyes were wide, and he couldn’t help but contain a laugh. I had to quiet him, so not to wake mom and Eric. Another laugh escaped his lips, “You? At a club? Wouldn’t you be at Henry’s house, watching Pee Wee’s Playhouse, or something?”

The sudden mention of Henry sent my heart throbbing with pain. I set my bag down on the floor, feeling my face go numb with sorrow. Ryan seemed to notice something, and he furrowed his brows and set his jaw in a line. I hadn’t yet told my family the news about my break up with Henry, and I didn’t really plan on telling them the means of it. If I was to tell Ryan he cheated on me, he’d personally be the one to shoot him from point-blank in his sleep. And while I was still mad, I didn’t have the heart to hurt someone who’d been so very close to me.

“What’s wrong, Hal?” He asked, putting a tentative hand on my shoulder. I could sense in his voice that his brotherly instincts had taken over, because he sounded caring yet abrasive, as if he was ready to run around the world for me.

I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly feeling rather dry all of a sudden. “We, um…” I said softly, averting my gaze from his intense stare, “…we broke up.”

There was a long moment of silence before I looked up to see Ryan, looking shocked as ever. His eyes practically bugged out of his head, and his mouth dropped what felt like a hundred feet. “You did what?” He asked, blown away, to which I was not surprised about. Henry and I were always inseparable—the type of high school sweethearts you thought would leave school together, get married, and start a family. Apparently not, though.

I sighed, “We just figured it’d be best if we split. It was…” I looked for a word to dismiss his prying nature, “…mutual.”

Ryan grimaced, not convinced, “I don’t buy it. Did he hurt you, Hallie?”

I blinked, wondering how he could’ve inferred that. I stammered, “N-No, of course not! I wanted it too,” I lied, feeling my heart crack just knowing how untrue it was. “We just grew apart.”

He frowned, looking rather disappointed. With a sigh, he ruffled his hair with a free hand, “you mean just like mom and dad did?” He said, sounding peculiar.

With a frown, I looked up. Why did he sound so sarcastic? “What do you mean?” I asked. It was true, mom had said—the reason she and dad broke up was their mutual differences.

He let out a grim laugh, like it pained him to do so, “You really buy that crap? You’re smarter than that, Hal,” he said, and shoved his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants.

A creeping doubt crawled into my mind, but I didn’t want to believe it was true. With a frown, I bit my lip, my canine digging into the soft skin, “I don’t…” I trailed off, unsure of how I wanted to end the sentence.

Ryan rolled his eyes and began to walk off, his slippers slapping against the hardwood floors to his room, “Read between the lines, Hallie. Mom and dad didn’t split because of just any fight.”

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“I’m so excited!”

I traced Carlee’s eyesight to what she was staring so fixatedly at as she leaned dreamily against her locker door, holding her books to her chest. I looked to see what exactly she was gazing at, only to see that it was a boy from my English class, Drew Clarke. I glanced at Carlee as she closed her door, raising a brow.

“For what?”

“The match maker surveys,” Carlee told me, looking at me as if I was dumb. “We get to take them today.”