Crushed

Chapter 17

The entire weekend I kept receiving messages from Troy. All in all, I think I got 55. It was Sunday, I was wearing my grey crop top and brown tracksuit pants, doing my designing project on the couch listening to music. I was choosing the next song when I heard someone knock on the front door. I stared at the door, then back at my phone, played Work from Home by Fifth Harmony the loudest I could (I was wearing earphones) and carried on with the project ignoring the door. I was looking round the room when Anna came down from the stairs and looked at me. "You are not going to answer that?" she asked requested. I took one earphone to hear what she said. She rolled her eyes swing her hand from up to down telling me to forget it. I lifted then lowered my shoulder and put the earphone back on. When I heard her pull the handle down, I remembered what Jason told me a while ago. 'Rebecca, I need you to promise me that you will never let Anna answer the door. She's still too young'. I threw my notepad and book to the side, got up and rushed to the door. When Anna was opening it, I was standing behind her with my arms on her shoulders looking down at her. I looked up when she opened the door and saw Hayley. Anna smiled widened, she ran and squeezed Hayley. When she let go, Haley and I stared at each other while Anna who was in the middle staring at both of us. "Hey, I was wondering if you would... I don't know. Do you want to go out for lunch?" I looked at Anna as we past glares and nodded agreeing to Hayley. I went upstairs quickly to change clothes. Once I'd arrived down wearing a skirt, pumps, same crop top with a jacket on top, I heard them talking. Hayley got up, walked up to the door and we both waved bye to Anna. When Hayley left the house, I told Anna to not answer and that I'd call Mrs Rubenson (from next door) to watch her then left.

We went to the café downtown and sat in silence, with her juice and my coffee, as we waited for our food to come. I was stirring my coffee when she voiced, "Have you told Nick? About you and Troy?" I stopped stirring the coffee, looked up at her and shook my head. "This isn't the only thing I'm keeping from him. I know he means well, but I think it's safer that he doesn't know" I responded. She nodded her head and was about to take a sip of her drink but paused. "Is the other thing about Sean talking to you?" I looked up in shock wondering how she knew. "I noticed how off things were, and when I saw you walk away with Troy and a few minutes later, Sean got out the girls' bathroom. I also stood up to get a drink at the party and saw you standing in the middle of Lucas and Sean." I was so confused after that. I was about to speak, when our food arrived. I changed my mind after and changed the topic. In the end, I actually enjoyed myself, and it was refreshing to talk to her again. I know she was planning this, so we could become close again, but things were working themselves off already, so it was okay. That night in bed, I was about to sleep when my phone rang. I was 50% already asleep so I didn't focus completely. I answered the phone and heard Troy's voice. I listen for a few second as he was apologising and explaining before hanging up, muted my phone and fell sleep.

Nowadays Nick, Hayley and I became as close as we were in the beginning of the year. We all hung out more and spent time with each other after school and during weekends sometime. I still haven't told Nick about what happened with Sean and I, or what's going on between Troy and I, but I could tell he was getting irritated and depressed for being left in the dark. Luckily, he didn't know I saw Sean at the party so that wasn't as bad. Soon Hayley and I were back to being besties. She always sat with Nick and me during break now instead of with her step brother. Not only that, but Troy tried to talk to me every chance he could get to try and 'fix things between us' and explain. It ended up becoming difficult to ignore him since we are in two classes together, including Spanish where we are partners, but so far, I'm good.

It was the first day of the week and break time. I was sitting at our table, eating and saw Hayley and Nick walking my direction. I glimpsed and smiled at both of them as they sat down. When I turned to Hayley, I noticed a bruise on her wrist which she was trying to hide because she was wearing a heavy, long sleeved jacket in summer. My smile wiped away when I looked back up to her face, but I faked it, so Nick wouldn't realise that something was wrong. I faced down and looked at my food but shifted my eyes at Hayley. Hayley finally noticed that I was looking at her. Her smile faded away and she avoid making contact with me from then on. The table was quiet. All of us swapped glares, Nick looking at me more though. I established that Hayley was getting worried. She stood up, said she was going to the bathroom and speed walked away. I stood up and was about to follow her when Nick called me. I turned to him and we stared at each other. He gave me a serious look then tilted his head down afterwards up telling me to sit down. I turned to look as Hayley exited the cafeteria, after I sat down, and Nick and I look intensely at each other. He questioned me about what happened at the party once again. I rolled my eyes, turned to look at the clock to view how much time I had left. After I turned back to him and we were back to the staring challenge. "Rebecca I am serious. If you don't tell me what happened at the party, then I'm going to Troy to ask him myself because I can see you're avoiding him." he spoke. I rotated my head to Troy and spun back to Nick and he continued. "Well it's your choice." we stared at each other for a short while before he got up and began walking Troy's direction. I arose up, walked towards him and stood in front of him, placing my hand on his chest. I shifted my head to my right to check if Troy was watching and he was. I turned back to Nick and told him I would tell him. We passed glares again. Once he finally believed me, he walked back to our table and sat down. I shifted again to verify if Troy was still staring before I went back to sit down. "You know Troy sent me a message asking me to be his girlfriend. Well at the party while you were talking to Hayley, he sent me another message saying that I should go upstairs because he had a surprise for me. So, I went up and then I found the room, I saw him making out with your step sister. In the end I threw his gift at him and walked away because I wasn't in the mood, and I'm still not in mood to hear his explanation. Now that you know, I need to look for Hayley." I got up straight after, sprinted out and went to search for Hayley. The moment I opened the bathroom door, the bell rang. I sighed, closed the door and walked off to my next lesson which was designing. It was time to see the wicked witch from the west again.