The Tables Have Turned
Chapter 10
I frowned at the math quiz. Mr. Jack just gave us the papers back and I had failed the quiz. One point; that was what I needed to pass.
I sighed as I placed the paper in my bag. I thought that after my first tutoring session I would be able to pass that quiz.
“How much did you get?” Alex asked me and I looked down at my shoes guiltily. He tutored me for two hours yesterday and I failed.
“I didn’t pass,” I mumbled “Sorry.”
When I see the equations, I panic and I end up failing.
“It’s okay,” he said, his voice sounding soft – the same way it sounded yesterday during our tutoring session. “You’ll do better next time.”
“I just… I thought that I was going to do well and you spent two hours helping me yesterday…” I trailed off. He didn’t even want to tutor me!
“You won’t get better after one session only,” he said and I just nodded.
“Hailey,” he said and my heart skipped a beat. Wait, what? What just happened? “You will get better.”
Ignoring my stupid heart, I looked into his blue eyes and smiled.
“I will,” I said, nodding to myself “I will try harder.”
He grinned and his dimples showed.
Mr. Jack stopped our conversation as he started explaining.
I will get better, I thought with determination.
~~*~~
“Hailey,” Emily called as she walked into my room on Saturday afternoon. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” I replied as I tied my black converse’s shoelace. I stood up and looked at my reflection in the mirror. My blue jeans and black long sleeved shirt were good enough for a movie with my friends.
We’ve been talking all week about watching ‘Titanic’ together and Saturday is finally here. It is going to be very amusing, I though.
Emily suddenly took something out of my drawer and placed it on my head. I looked in the mirror and saw one of my black hair bands with a small ribbon on the right on my head.
I smiled at her and we walked out of the room.
“Chase!” Emily called out as she walked into her brother’s room with me behind her.
“Oh hi,” she then said quietly and I stepped in front of her to see who she was talking to. I saw Paul, Alex, and Josh there.
When did they come?
“Hey,” I greeted them as I jumped on Chase’s bed.
“I like your shirt,” Chase told me. Suddenly, everyone’s eyes were on my shirt.
‘You Love Me’ was printed on my black shirt in white.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling.
“We have to go,” Emily then said.
Paul groaned. “These are going to be the longest three hours of my life.”
“It’s okay, Paul, you can cry,” I told him “I’m sure one of the girls has a tissue box.”
“Haha very funny,” he said and I grinned.
“We have to split,” Chase said when we got outside “Someone should go with Josh.”
“Emily will go with Josh,” I said quickly and they all gave me questioning glances. Emily shot me a glare as her cheeks turned pink. I also noticed that Josh was looking at her with slightly red cheeks.
“Okay,” Josh said “Anyone else?”
“No, that’s okay” I said and he looked happy with my answer “We’ll go with Chase.”
Emily and Josh walked to his car and when Emily turned around to glare at me, I shot her a smirk.
“What’s going on?” Chase asked, making me jump.
I turned around to face him. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he was frowning at me.
I widened my eyes and gave him my best innocent look.
“Nothing,” I said innocently “Why?”
“Hailey,” he said warningly.
“What?” I asked.
“What are you hiding?” He asked.
“Curiosity killed the cat, Chase,” I told him.
“Thank God I’m not a cat, then,” he answered and I smiled. I used that line a million times.
“Yep,” I replied. “Are we going or what?”
“Not before you explain what just happened,” he said.
“You’re so stubborn!” I said “Nothing happened. You’re overanalyzing.”
“I saw you! You were having a secret conversation with Emily,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.
“It’s called a secret conversation for a reason, Chase,” I said, rolling my eyes at him “Besides, it’s not my place to tell you.”
“You are going to tell me,” he said confidently and I snorted.
“Let’s just go,” I said as I opened the passenger’s door.
“Thank you,” Paul said as he sat in the passenger’s seat. I stared blankly at him and he smirked.
“Get out,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Nope,” he answered “You’re sitting in the back with Alex.”
The smile he gave me worried me. It was as if he was telling me that he knows something that I don’t. Chase had the same smile on his face and Alex had a distant look on his face.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I looked at the three guys.
“Nothing,” Chase said, mimicking my innocent look.
“Chase!” I yelled at him and slapped the back of his head.
“If you tell me what that was with Emily, I’ll tell you,” he said.
I opened my mouth to tell him the crush Emily had on Josh so that he would tell me because I was curious but I was able to stop myself.
I should really start thinking before talking.
I shouldn’t be the one to tell him about Emily’s crush. She trusted me with that and I can’t tell the guys about it.
“I don’t want to know anymore,” I replied.
“I know you do,” Paul said, giving me a teasing smile.
I didn’t reply. I just hopped into the car, thinking why they were acting like that. I couldn’t come up with an answer so I gave up.
After having a little chat outside, Alex and Chase opened the car doors and went in.
Chase started driving to the movies and I glanced at my watch to make sure that we won’t be late.
I felt Alex staring at me and I glanced at him once before turning my attention back to the buildings we were passing. I tried to ignore his lingering stare but it was making me uncomfortable.
“What?” I finally asked him.
Chase glanced at me in the rear view mirror and Paul turned around in his seat to look at me.
“Nothing,” Alex mumbled and he shifted his gaze to his window.
“Really?” I muttered sarcastically as I, too, looked out of my window, ignoring that annoying smile Paul was giving me.
Soon, we arrived to the movies and met the rest of our classmates there. Of course, we called and reserved our seats beforehand because we wouldn’t have been able to find more than twenty seats.
I laughed when I saw Mariah carrying a tissue box with her.
“Don’t laugh, Hailey or I won’t give you tissues,” She said jokingly.
“You wouldn’t!” I gasped, faking horror and everyone laughed.
We went to buy snacks and being more than twenty people, it got crowded.
“I’ll buy for you,” Chase offered when he saw me struggling “What do you want?”
“I got it,” Alex’s voice surprised me. I glanced at him but he was already talking to the guy at the counter.
“One medium sized popcorn and two cherry lollipops,” he said. The guys gave him the food and Alex paid.
He took the popcorn and gave me the two lollipops. I was shocked that he remembered this.
“T-thanks,” I stammered and he smiled.
For a second, it felt like we were back to two years ago on a date. I stared into his blue eyes and he stared back at me.
“Hailey!” I jumped when I heard Emily’s voice and broke eye contact with Alex.
She walked over to us and narrowed her eyes as she looked between Alex and I.
“What’s going on?” She asked, skeptically.
“Nothing,” I said, shrugging and trying to act casual.
“Mmhmm,” she said, not buying it.
“What did you want to say?” I asked her.
“I’ll tell you later,” she replied before walking away and I did not miss the secretive smile she gave me.
I turned to Alex but I didn’t find him there. I frowned at the empty spot where he was a few seconds ago. I then found him talking to Carson. I ignored this and went to talk to a few girls.
We then went into the movie theater and started sitting. We had the last two rows reserved for us. I saw Josh sitting next to Kyle and I immediately pushed Emily and she fell into the seat next to him with a yelp.
She scowled at me and I feigned innocence.
I scanned the seats and saw Mariah already sitting between Pauline and Carson. I took seven tissues from her box and she chuckled.
“Thank you,” I told her, laughing along with the girls.
There were only a few empty seats left and I scanned them to decide where to sit. I saw an empty chair next to Chase and decided to sit next to him.
I sat in the comfortable red chair and put the tissues in my lap. I put one of the cherry lollipops in my mouth and enjoyed the cherry taste. The other one was in my lap as well.
Alex sat in the chair next to me, much to my surprise. He extended his arm so that his popcorn box was in front of me. I smiled as I took a bit and ate them. I love the taste of popcorn with cherry lollipops and Alex did too.
Two years ago, he used to kiss me, claiming that he wanted to taste the cherry lollipop with his popcorn too. I knew that he wouldn’t kiss me this time so I offered him my other lollipop. He didn’t take it though, saying that the popcorn was enough.
The lights were turned off and the movie started.
My tears started spilling when the boat started sinking and like every other time I watched this movie, I cried the most when the old couple on the bed in one of the rooms looked so terrified yet they held onto each other.
Surprisingly, Chase and Alex didn’t comment on my crying and I was glad they didn’t.
When the movie was over, the lights were turned on again and I blinked a few times. I rubbed my eyes and looked around. All the girls were crying along with a few guys. I just wished that Paul was one of those boys but no such luck. He wasn’t crying.
I smiled when I saw Josh holding Emily’s hand. They are so cute!
My smile dropped when I saw Alex holding Nora’s hand. She was sitting on the other side of him.
“I hate you for making me watch this movie.” I shifted my gaze from their hands to Chase who looked like he had cried as well.
I chuckled and said, “I told you that you would cry.”
“Whatever,” he muttered embarrassedly.
My second lollipop was still unopened because I forgot about it during the movie. I removed the red wrapper and shoved it into my mouth.
We went out of the movie theatre talking about how beautiful that movie is. We then said our goodbyes and walked to our cars.
Emily – once again – went with Josh and Alex, Paul, and I went with Chase.
“I told you I wouldn’t cry,” Paul said arrogantly when we got into the car. I removed the lollipop from my mouth the reply.
“Chase cried,” I pointed out and Paul shot him a look.
“Shame,” Paul said dramatically, shaking his head at his friend.
“At least he has feelings,” I muttered loud enough for them to hear.
“I have feelings!” Paul said, offended and Chase smiled arrogantly.
“I’m sure you do,” I replied and he scowled at me as I put the cherry lollipop back in my mouth.
“Did Alex comfort you?” Paul teased me.
“He was busy comforting Nora,” I said, without thinking and I silently cursed myself.
Think before talking, I scolded myself. Think!
I smirked at Alex, trying to hide my jealousy. Paul on the other hand frowned at him.
“He was?” Paul asked, still looking at Alex.
“She was crying so I did what I had to do,” Alex said, shrugging.
“Hailey was crying too,” Chase pointed out and Alex shrugged again.
“I don’t need anyone to comfort me,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I should’ve sat next to you,” Paul muttered but I heard him.
“Why didn’t Chase comfort her?” Alex countered.
Paul opened his mouth to reply but I cut him off.
“Does it really matter?” I said “I already said that I didn’t want anyone to comfort me.”
Why were we even talking about this? It’s useless.
“Whatever,” Alex snapped and then he looked out of the window.
I ate my lollipop as I stared out of the window as well.
When we got home, Emily and Josh were already there. I opened the front door and walked in. I gasped when I saw Josh and Emily kissing in the kitchen.
I heard the guys’ footsteps as they walked closer to the kitchen. If Chase saw them he would kill Josh on the spot. I panicked so I shut the kitchen door and the couple jumped away from each other when they heard the sound.
“Hailey?” Emily said and I spun around to look at her. Her cheeks were red just like Josh’s cheeks.
“Chase is coming,” I hissed and realization crossed her features.
They both panicked when Chase opened the kitchen door and walked in with Paul and Alex.
“What’s going on?” He asked, looking at us.
“Nothing,” the three of us said a bit too quickly.
“Alright spill,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Emily sighed and ran a hand in her long blond hair.
“Can we talk to you Chase?” Emily said.
“Who is ‘we’?” Chase asked, confused.
“Josh and I,” she said and he looked even more confused.
“Okay…” he said and they walked out of the kitchen. I winced, thinking of Chase’s reaction. He is so protective.
“What happened?” Paul asked, taking out a bottle of water out of the fridge.
“You’ll find out soon,” I told him and added in a lower voice “If Chase doesn’t kill Josh.”
“Why would he…” Alex started but stopped when he realized what was going on “Oh. Josh and Emily…”
“Yep,” I answered, nodding.
“He finally got the courage to tell her;” Paul said “He’s been crushing on her for years.”
I laughed, thinking that Emily had a crush on him for a while too.
“You smell like cherries,” Paul said randomly when I passed by him to get some water.
“It’s the lollipop,” I said, referring to the one I was eating earlier.
“Mmmm,” he said, walking closer to me. What’s going on? I thought as I saw the mischievous look in his eyes. I knew he wouldn’t kiss me but why was he still moving closer? I narrowed my eyes at him and he gave me a look that clearly said ‘play along’.
I heard the kitchen door slam shut and I jumped. Confused, I looked around the kitchen. Alex was nowhere in sight.
Paul smirked and said something that sounded like ‘he is so jealous’ but I can’t be so sure.
“What’s up with him?” I muttered to myself.
“Jealousy,” Paul said, smiling, confirming what I heard.
“Yeah, right,” I snorted and Paul shook his head at me, still smiling.
He is not jealous. He doesn’t like me anymore although I wish he did. For a moment I allowed myself to believe that he was jealous and that thought made me so happy.
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