☆Jake☆
I wake up to several different things all happening at the same time.
First, I come to the conclusion that Ms. Lysel needs to invest in curtains. It feels like someone is standing in front of me pointing a flashlight straight into my eyes.
Second, I wake to the hazy memory of last night, and what had happened. What I had said, what Hailey had said. It feels like a dream, but considering I can hear her hissing at me to wake up and shut the hell up, I'm assuming it's not. That she's actually here with me, and what happened last night is real.
Oh, and the third, probably the hardest to ignore, is the insistent, violent pounding coming from the classroom door.
I'm so fucked.
Hailey isn't on my lap anymore, but she's sitting next to me, covering my mouth, aggressively whispering at me to not say anything. I continuously nod, but panic begins to creep up on my lungs, and it becomes harder to breathe. The fact that Hailey is also blocking my airway does absolutely nothing to help.
I grab her hand and pull it away from my mouth so I can inhale the sweet relief of oxygen, but the pounding continues. What do I do? What do we do? Is it a teacher? One of my friends? Lia? Oh hell no. If it's Lia my life is officially over. She'll burst through the door and see me and Hailey, and lose it.
How the hell does she know I'm in here? Did she secretly plant one of those dog-trackers in my shoelaces ? I wouldn't put it past her.
It has to be Lia. It's the only plausible conclusion. She's the only person I know who's stubborn enough to pound on a classroom door to find her boyfriend at..what time is it? I shift my body to look at the clock. It's five thirty-seven in the morning.
What the fuck. She could have at least slept in. It's way to early to be strutting down the school hallways searching for your unfaithful boyfriend. I need to find a way to break up with her. What happened last night was cheating, and it isn't right. I love another girl, and I no longer have feelings for Lia.
She needs to move on. We'd both be so much happier with other people. She could be with Aaron. Yeah, they'd be perfect for eachother. He used to like Lia, so maybe he'd go for it. Not long term, of course, Adam doesn't do long-term relationships, but I bet it would boost his ego to be with Lia for a short period. He'd probably think it'd be a "turn on" that he stole her from me. Gag. The mental image of that makes me want to dry heave into the palm of my hand.
The knocking stops for a second, and I'm momentarily relieved before a male voice says, "Hailey, I know you and Jake are in there. Don't even try to fucking deny it. I'm so pissed at you right now. If you don't get off your ass and open this door right now, I will kick it down."
Hailey lets out a mortified gasp before I finally realize who's standing outside the door right now, and my blood goes cold. Oh no. He might be just as bad as Lia, because he HATES me. The first time I met him, I was making a homophobic joke to make Aaron happy. I didn't know he was behind me, and considering his reaction, I'm guessing he's anything but straight.
One loud bang sounds from the door, but Hailey doesn't move. She's frozen with her eyes wide, and lips parted. I normally would help her out and go answer the door myself, but if Zander sees me instead of Hailey he may assume some things. Those, "some things" will probably be that Hailey's not answering the door because she's not clothed.
This, this is absolutely terrifying. What should I do? Should I answer and risk being brutally murdered, or should I wait for Hailey to snap out of her daze? I'm scared that if we don't do something soon, Zander will quite literally kick down the door.
Hailey finally seems to get it together, and slowly stands. I can see her visibly shaking as she takes small, tentative steps towards the door. This is beyond stressful.
She can't open the door because of the barricade she requested I build last night, but she gets as close to her brother as she can, and says in a very shaky, unsure voice, "I can't open the door, but I'm right here."
I think...I can actually hear Zander's head explode.
"What the hell were you thinking?! You and Jake planned this, didn't you? You two somehow found some way to escape the gym and decided, "oh, instead of staying home and smashing eachother's brains out in the privacy of our homes, we'll do it in a dark classroom at school event!"
He sounds so pissed, and I wince. I was right, Zander is jumping straight for, and assuming the worst case scenario.
Hailey gasps, indignant and embarrassed, and a loud, "No!" explodes from her mouth.
She clears her throat, and in a calmer voice, she says, "We didn't do anything Zander. We didn't plan this. I snuck out to fill my water bottle, and Jake followed me. A teacher caught us, and we decided to hide in Ms. Lysel's room, because it was the only classroom with an unlocked door."
"Lies," Zander bites out through gritted teeth. "You've had a stupidly obvious crush on him for months. Do you think I'm an idiot? There is definitely something going on between you two. The tension was almost suffocating when he entered the tent."
I turn beet red, but Hailey just says, "We didn't have do...whatever you're assuming. Calm down. I can't open the door because I made Jake set up a barricade in case someone decided to waltz right in, and assume the things you're assuming!"
"I'm assuming it because it so obviously happened! Knock down the fucking barricade so I can come in and slaughter your...I don't even know. Crush? One night stand? Gods help me if he's your secret boyfriend." Zander pauses for a second and my heartbeat picks up when he says, "Oh, and does Jake have anything to add to this conversation, or is he too busy sleeping off the blow job?"
"Whoa, that's going a bit too far," I say, finally finding my voice.
"Excuse me?!" Hailey splutters.
"Look who's finally woken up. Tell me Jake, when exactly did you and Hailey organize this little escapade? Was it during chemistry last week? Jake kept leaning over to whisper stuff in your ear, but it all makes sense now-"
"Zander. I can promise you me and your sister didn't do it. We were just hiding in here. Give me a second to take down the barricade, and we can have a conversation face-to-face."
"Fine." Zander mumbles, and I walk over to where Hailey stands. She stares up at me with fear in her eyes, and I give her a small smile, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.
"Scoot over, princess, so I can get the door open before your brother breaks it down with a sledgehammer."
"How romantic," Hailey sighs, and moves to the side.
Once I'm done with unstacking all the tables and chairs, I say, "Okay, you can open the door now."
I'm not even finished speaking before the door slams open, and Hailey's brother is staring daggers at me from the hallway.
"You look like shit." He says to me.
Hailey facepalms and I raise my eyebrow.
"Well good morning to you too."
Zander walks straight up to me, and points his finger in my face.
"If my sister gets pregnant so help me I'll-"
"Zander, stop. Please." Hailey pleads, and Zander takes a step away from me, dropping his hand.
"I promise Zander, we didn't do...yeah um..that last night. Neither of us planned this and he nearly scared me half to death when he showed up in the hallway."
Zander takes one last long look at me, then turns to face his sister. "What were you thinking?! I spent an hour last night running around the gym trying to find you!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't plan this!"
"Me, Luke, Sean, and Milly went from tent to tent looking for you. We went to Lia's tent expecting Jake to be there, but instead I find out from his girlfriend that he's barely spoken to her all night! I put the peices together pretty quickly when a chaperone walks into the room and announces that she caught two students having a "moment" in the hallway, and that if anyone tries to pull what they did, the detention sentence will be longer. I wait until five-AM in the fucking morning so I can go track down my sister who somehow escaped the gym with her pain-in-the-ass boyfriend. I call her phone, but it turns out she left it in the gym. She's wearing her bracelet with her location in it though, so I sneak out and enter through the back entrance and track her all the way to Ms. Lysel's classroom. Then, when I confront her about her obvious escapades because both of them look like they've...experienced something, they both deny it."
Me and Hailey stare at Zander, taken aback by his speech.
Zander sighs, rubs his temples, closes his eyes, and then pinches the bridge of his nose. "I don't care if you do stuff like that...it's just..." he pauses to look at me, and scrunches up his nose. "It's just...you're so pretty, and smart, and unintentionally hilarious, so why him?"
"Because he's funny, and sweet, and...really hot." Hailey blushes at her words and looks away.
"So you admit it then? You guys did do that?" Zander asks, voice deceptively calm.
"No, we're just...I don't know. Not friends but not dating...we're in "like" as people call it."
"Oh joy."
Hailey cracks a smile. "You said I should tell him how I feel."
"Yeah well, I never thought you'd actually get the words out."
"You told Zander that have a crush on me?" I ask, bewildered.
"No." Hailey rolls her eyes, and narrows her eyes at her brother. "He figured it out, and I suck at lying so here we are."
I grin.
"I'm scared to say this, but Zander is wrong. You are extremely difficult to read." I tell her.
"No, she's just hard for you to read because you're retarded." Zander says, calmly, like he hasn't just insulted me.
Hailey clasps her hands together.
"All right, you found me, we cleared up that little misconception, and now I think it's time to get out of here before that teacher comes back." She reaches out her hand to me, and I take it, lacing our fingers together.
"I have the sudden urge to drop-kick you off a cliff." Zander says to me.
"I get the urge to jump off a cliff as well." I say. "That's what stress does to me."
"If you don't shut the fuck up I will-"
Hailey kicks Zander in the shin, and he yelps, turning to glare at Hailey. She smiles sweetly back up at him and says, "Be quiet, I'm planning on you being the best man."
Zander's jaw drops in horror, and I double-over laughing.
Hailey flashes me a genuine smile before tugging me down the hallway with Zander following close behind.
We make it to the back double-doors in two minutes, and I hold open the door for Hailey and Zander. He raises his middle finger as he passes.
I snort and let the door snap shut behind us as Zander leads us around to the doors that lead to the roof. We climb up a never-ending staircase, and reach the top. I gasp and point at how beautiful the dawn sky looks, and Hailey playfully rolls her eyes at me, while Zander throws a few more threats at me. I think I'm almost getting used to it.
We climb down another staircase that leads to the auditorium, and through there, we squeeze our way into the gym through a door in one of the backstage rooms. We all make a plan. We can't be seen going in together, so one of us will enter every five minutes. Hailey will go first, Zander will go second, and I'll go last.
Me and Hailey instinctively drop our hands at the same time. We both know we can't be seen like that together. It would only end in disaster.
She gives my hand one last squeeze, and in an almost practiced motion, we unlace our hands. She smiles tentatively at me, and then disappears through the door, into the darkness.