Imagine of Paige & Lacy above.
"Wait, so your grounded?" Lacy asks in confusion as we walk down the high street the next Saturday morning. The clouds have vanished and a cool October wind fills the air.
"Yup," I nod in response to her question. "Mom won't let me leave the house unless I walk Jasper," I say, looking down to the furry ball of fluff weaving between my legs.
"Oh, but how come your grounded anyway?" She goes on to ask.
"Ethan," my voice is low and I glance down to the ground.
"Oh yeah, that graffiti thing you told me about. He's such a prick," Lacy scoffs. We both laugh in unison as I roll my eyes. "What. It's true!"
"Yeah, suppose."
"Awww don't be sad," Lacy rubs my arm rather vigorously. If it was supposed to be supportive it wasn't really working. She lets go and giggles, my lips crack up into a smile.
"It was just so humiliating how he dumped me though. I mean no one was on my side. Not even Nathan," I mumble the last part in hope Lacy doesn't hear. But I was mistaken as she pulls me to the side with a yelp of excitement.
"What about Nathan?" Her voice hitting a whole new level of peppy. She did a silent squeal whilst studying my eyes. "You like Nathan," she suddenly chirps over dramatically, leaping half a metre into the air.
My eyes enlarge in shock. "What? Nooooo," I shake my head in disbelief. Why would she even say that?
"Oh it's so obvious! You wanted him to defend you. Awww Paige," she gave me a hug then releases me to hold my arms.
"If you haven't realised but I'm trying to recover from a, very embarrassing, breakup. I don't want to be with Nathan," my cheeks filter red as she keeps wiggling her eyebrows in my direction.
"You can deny all you want, Miss Nathan Johnson-"
"That's enough!" I humorously smack her hand away from me and continue to walk Jasper on his leash. Lacy is grinning beside me the whole way to the park.
"But isn't Nathan like a jerk now? Why would you want to date h-"
"Lacy," I send her a warnful glare, subtly telling her to watch her step. But she responds with a giggle and a sarcastic surrender. We laugh some more.
"Ok, sorry. But you have to agree, Nathan is sort of a badass jerk now. I kind of miss when you two were friends."
"Yeah, same." She stares at me with her mouth partially open. "Don't."
"Fine!"
"But I have a plan," I begin, sitting down on one of the benches and I let Jasper run freely on the grass.
"A plan? What sort of plan?" Her eyebrow rose quizzically as she perches on the bench beside me.
That is when I explain the fact that I want to get Nathan to see who the real him is. That he has been a jerk lately and that is not his true self. I close my mouth once I am finished and wait for a response off Lacy. However she just stares at me as if I'd just told her I was adopted.
"Well... Say something!"
"Oh, sorry." Lacy shook her head. "But do you... Are you actually serious? Do you think you'll be able to do that?"
"If I made him this way I can change him back," I shrug, calling Jasper back over.
"Paige, you did not make Nathan act this way. His jerkiness is not your doing." She says solemnly, studying my eyes.
"I doubt jerkiness is even a word." I just stand to my feet. "Plus, I'm still going to try to get him back to his real self." I attach the leash back onto Jasper's collar and head for the park exit with Lacy walking by my side.
"Ok. But good luck," she laughs. "Oh my gosh!" She suddenly stops and screams.
"What? What?" I begin to panic. Lacy can be over dramatic about the most stupid of things, but this scream was so high pitch it made me nervous. "Tell me."
"Did you here that Josh and Courtney have broken up?" She tells me, over excitedly.
"Have they? Wow!" I don't know why I am so interested, maybe due to Lacy's over exaggeration. "How come?"
"He got bored?" She guesses. I scrunch up my nose with the shake of my head.
"Doubt it."
"Hey, isn't that Nathan's house on this street?" Lacy then goes onto ask, pointing toward the street sign we are about to pass.
"Yeah," I confirm. "Number 12," I tell her. "Why?"
"This is why," Lacy takes the lead from my hand and holds it in hers. Jasper weaves between my legs until he is in front of Lacy. "I'll hold Japer. You go speak to him."
"What, Nathan? Why now? It's not like I can turn up on his door step unexpected. I have no reason to go over there." I protest, still oblivious to her master plan or whatever she is scheming inside her head.
"I want to see if you can actually do it," she smirks challengingly.
"It's going to take more than one day to change him back," I fold my arms. Lacy just rolls her eyes with a long sigh.
"Just go," she nods towards his door. "I'll be waiting outside."
I stare over in the direction of his house, contemplating whether I should go or just make a run for it. But with one playful glare from Lacy, I knew I'm not getting out of this.
"Fine," I agree with a reluctant exhale of air.
"Great! See you soon," she winks then pulls Jasper to the side. Step by step I make my way over to the front of his house. I glance back at Lacy and she shows me an encouraging thumbs up. She's bonkers. I let out a giggle then walk up his drive. I knock on the door and wait for an answer.
"Oh hello Paige," I am greeted by a very happy looking Bailey, opening the door with sparkling eyes. "Come in." We sit down on the sofa and we exchange smiles.
"I see your leg is getting better," I grin, looking down at the fresh skin healing over her knee. I would hate to see her in as much pain as she had been in.
"Yes! It's better now," she beams. "Nathan's not in at the moment, if you wanted to see him." She goes onto tell me.
"Oh, ok. I wasn't expecting him to be in but I thought I would pop by." I am secretively glad Nathan isn't home. I am completely unprepared on what to say to him and frankly have no reason to come by. It would be really awkward if-
The front door suddenly opens with a hum of voices behind it. Nathan enters, talking behind his back. Well, this is just great.
"Oh, he's back," comments Bailey. I watch the door as Nathan steps in, still not acknowledging I was here. I'm sure I heard a girl's voice; Laura then enters.
"Oh, hi Paige," she waves at me as she lets go of Nathan's hand and comes to sit down beside me.
"Hi," I greet her back with a smile I hope doesn't look too fake. She smiles back in return and Nathan comes over, Bailey running upstairs.
"Weren't expecting you to come by," he starts, staring directly at me. "What's up?" His voice isn't sharp or demanding and his posture is relaxed. I loosen up at the sight of his friendly attitude.
"Oh, I only came to see Bailey and catch up on how her leg was doing," I manage to lie smoothly. He takes it without any further questions.
"Awww that's nice," comments Laura, Nathan's arm snaking around her shoulders. My eyes are unknowingly fixated on their proximity. I can't find myself to look away at how close they are, how they touch each other and look into each other's eyes. I'm not jealous... Am I?
"You want a drink?" Nathan stands to his feet and steps in the direction of the kitchen.
"Yes please," me and Laura both say at the exact same time. Nathan shifts his eye contact from Laura to me. Oh, he was asking her. Well, this can't get any more awkward.
"What would you two like?" He asks slowly, averting his eyes back onto his girlfriend. He scratches the back of his neck, tilting his head to the side.
"Orange juice please," Laura asks with a sweet smile.
"Same, please." I reply to his question then watch as he disappears into the kitchen, shutting the door behind him.
"So, what have you been up to?" I turn to Laura as we sit on the couch. She puts down her phone and looks at me.
"Me and Nathan just went to the movies and had lunch. Nothing much but a date's a date," she giggles. Yeah, a date. "How about you? We haven't hung out in a while. You haven't been sitting with us. Is it because your break up with Ethan last week?"
"Mine and Ethan's break up has had no effect on our friendship," I let her know truthfully. It's more about my rekindled friendship after the break up, being with a friend other than Laura.
"Oh, ok. I only asked because you haven't been sat at our table at lunch for a while. You been ok?" She glances down at her phone to scan through her texts. Is she even bothered about my answer? I try to speak but her attention is far from me.
"Yeah I've been fine. I've been sat with Lacy at lunch," I tell her. At the mention of Lacy's name, Laura's head sprung up as if alerted.
"Lacy?" She questions, a spit of disgust on the end of her tongue. I nod, my eyebrows crossed with confusion. What does Laura have against Lacy?
"Yeah, how come?" I watch as Laura snorts whilst simultaneously flipping her hair over her shoulder.
"I thought you two aren't friends anymore. I mean, you updated your friend status and now you're telling me you've decided to drop back down to her level?"
"Her level? What do you mean? Me and Lacy have been best friends for ages," I say matter of factly, not gathering why she felt the need to insult my friend like this. Correction: best friend.
"Come on Paige. That girl chose Jace over you. She changed to be like that-"
"That girl, has a name!" I stand up harshly, raising my voice to meet my temper. "Lacy has been loyal to me for over two years. Yes she made a mistake, but my best friend hasn't changed," I look out of the window to see Lacy holding Jasper on the other side of the road. Laura rises to her feet and follows my line of sight.
"She's changed alright. Being with Jace has made her kinda slutty, you've seen them in the corridors, not nice," she giggles.
"That's enough!" I yell. Laura's eyes expand in shock of my rage. I hear a creek from the door behind me and tense up as I realise Nathan is standing behind me. Stiffly I turn around, trying to obtain the embarrassment about to filter up through my cheeks.
"Everything ok in here?" Nathan asks, looking from me to Laura.
"Nathan, maybe you can answer this question for us," Laura walks over to him and links her arm with his. She flutters her eye lashes and strokes back his hair. "You agree with me, don't you?"
"Agree with what?" He asks.
"People do change, don't they."
I stare at Nathan with big eyes. I felt my lip tremble.
This will determine whether he thinks he has changed or not. His response will also be the answer to if he truly believes he has changed, that this is not the real him. His next few words will tell me if he really believes that the real him is still in there, somewhere. His eyes connect with mine for a brief second before answering.
His mouth opens; my heart beats rapidly.