puppet (remastered) • @mmkay_maya

chapter nine

"you don't mean that"

"why wouldn't i?"

"i'm not worth your love"

"but you are because i do love you!"

i didn't want to ask him if he loved me back or not because i didn't want to be 'that' person.

but i did wanna know.

i looked anthony in the eyes, him looking back into mine.

was he gonna say that he loved me back or was he gonna reject me?

he seemed to be leaning towards the 'didn't' side.

"say something" i whisper.

"i don't believe it"

"come on anthony!"

"it's very hard for someone love me, i mean who would?"

"me! not only do you shut down your own feelings, you shut down everyone else's too! i love you anthony! that phrase is really special and i've said it three times in the past two minutes!"

"i don't know" he says, trailing off.

i felt the blood in my face starting to boil.

"you know what! maybe i should get some sleep to get away from my problems right now the only problem i have is you!" i say.

"hailey, come on. come back"

"goodbye anthony, we're over and it's sad because we never even got to start!"

"hailey, please. let's talk about this!"

"no, i'm done talking! you said you never wanted hurt me but here i am, all hurt because of you!"

"i open the door and see everyone move from pressing their ears against the wall.

"i hope you guys heard what you wanted to hear"

i storm downstairs, the girls and sam following.

sam takes off his sweatshirt and hands it to me to wear over my bikini.

"you must be hurt so let your feelings out! we're here for you" avani says.

sam held on to my right hand as talia held on to my left.

i explained how overwhelmed i felt because of how quickly my emotions changed. i was happy, excited, relieved, worried, angry and then upset in a span of 15 minutes.

"you must feel terrible but you gotta just get over him. even though we really wanted you two to get together, this is about whether yous would be happy" sterling says, which was probably the best advice i got.

"i mean, he's bipolar towards me. one day he says he really likes me and the next he ignores me. he just asked me to be my girlfriend and was afraid that i was gonna leave him when in reality it's him that's gonna leave me the next day!"

josh comes downstairs and smiles.

i smile back until he turns to sam.

"bro talk. upstairs anthony's room"

sam tells me to stand up and pulls me into a hug.

"love you hails"

"love you sam"

he goes back upstairs with josh and once he reaches the top, he blows a kiss.

i smile and 'catch it' as he grins and walks away.

i continue to spill my feelings to the girls, who were super supportive and listened to me.

we then decided that we should cook to cheer me up.