common ground | hayes grier

3

Hayes

"Well I'm gonna go get the car cleaned because of the mess you guys made," Nash huffs before walking out the door with Ethan trailing behind him.

"Um.. do you mind if I um.." Allie begins trailing off with her words.

"Take a shower?," I ask and she nods shyly. "It's fine Allie, you don't have to ask," I chuckle. She's been coming here since she was 5 and has taken many showers here before.

"Alright," she gulps. She starts heading up the stairs in her sugar-stained clothes.

"Want me to get you some clothes?" I ask her quizzically. She nods her head awkwardly then continues up the stairs.

Things are so different with us then how they were when we kids. We used to be the best of friends but then we hit puberty and the whole boys and girls being best friends thing was frowned upon and we kind of grew apart. She started being distant and awkward, and now I'm pretty sure she hates my guts.

It's awkward when the girl you're in love with doesn't want anything to do with you. It's actually a pretty peculiar situation that I never thought I would find myself in. I've liked her since we were 10 and now we're almost 15. It's been quite a while.

Today reminded me of old times with her when we were growing up. She was so care-free and it was the first time in a while that I just saw her let loose which honestly wonderful to watch.

When she's enjoying herself, and I mean really enjoying herself, her face lights up in a way that she cannot fake even if she tried. Her eyes open wide and her smile is so large that she can't contain it.

After a hear the water turn on, I head upstairs to go and pick out some of my clothes for her to wear.

I grab her one of my old superman t-shirts  that's two small for me but will probably be a bit big on her and a pair of soccer shorts. I also get her a black Hollister hoodie, just in case she's cold.

I walked over to bathroom door to set the clothes right outside it. As I'm there, I hear that Allie's singing in the shower. She's always been a great singer. When we were little we used to put on little shows and perform in front of our families,

"Hayes, come on, pay attention," Allie huffs at me. I forgot that I need to be playing the piano while she sings and kinda just went into my own world of listening her singing.

"Why do I have to play anyway?" I whine. "If you haven't noticed I suck."

"It's true, you do suck," she giggles scrunching up her nose. She grabs a piece of her brown hair that was falling in front of her face and then tucks it behind her ear. "But, if you don't practice you'll never get any better and besides, I can't do this alone. We're a team,"

"And we'll always be a team," I announce making her smile.

"Forever and always,"

Those were the days, man.

Why can't we be as close as we were when we were five? That's all I really want. All we cared about was each other and our friendship, our genders didn't matter.

"I left some clothes outside the door," I call out to her. I stand there for a while wondering if she'll respond with a 'thank you' or something but she never does so I just walk back over to my bedroom.

//

Allie

As I walk up to Hayes' door, I'm quite unsure of what to do. Do I knock? Do I just barge in? After about 2 minutes of contemplating what would be the best choice in this scenario I finally decide on knocking.
"Hey," Hayes breaths as he opens the door
for me.

"Hi," I mumble awkwardly. "Do you mind if I just chill here?" I ask him nervously. I don't know why I'm nervous. I think it's more if an awkward feeling than a nervous one. Hayes motions for me to come in.

We all decided to just stay home today because after we all got cleaned up, school was already half over. I didn't know what to do for the remainder of the time as Ethan and Nash locked themselves up in Nash's room as usual.

I wasn't sure what else to do except go and see what Hayes is doing. I'm not sure why I thought that would be a good idea though considering he typically doesn't enjoy my presence. He was acting uncharacteristically nice today.

I walk over to Hayes' bed then take a seat at the edge. Hayes walks over to the other side of his bed than sits down on his pillow. He kicks his feet up and makes himself comfortable.

He stares at me seemingly in deep thought for a few moments before speaking up.

"Do you hate me now or something?" he blurts out, his voice filled with hurt. I look up him and see his crystal blue eyes staring back at me.

"Hayes..." I begin. I struggle to find the words but I eventually find them, "I could never hate you. I'm sorry if I've given you that impression but believe me it's not the case.... things are just different," I sigh.

"Yes," he agrees, "Definitely, different." I nod agreement. "Is there a chance things could be normal again?"

"I don't know, but I guess we could try,"

//

short lil chapter