Promise Me? *DISCONTINUED*

Chapter 2: Movie Night

"Rachel, honey, how are you?" Jeremy's mom, Miranda, asked me.

"I'm doing great Mrs. F, how's it going at the office?" his mom worked as a receptionist for the best attorney in Princeton.

"Everything's great... but enough about me we haven't seen you in two weeks! Hopefully this one didn't scare you away" she said jokingly, gesturing towards her husband, Howard.

He gave her a playful glare and said, "No way! You know Rachel loves my cooking! She'd never betray me like that!"

I found myself constantly smiling and laughing whenever I was at the Fuller house, it was always so happy and welcoming.

Suddenly, the front door opened and shut with a slam. Jeremy's younger sister, Hazel stormed by and raced up the stairs, not stopping once to acknowledge the four people standing in the room. A few seconds later, we heard her bedroom door slam as well.

Sighing, Mrs. Fuller turned to me with a small, sad smile. "Rachel..."

I smiled brightly back at her, "I'm on it"

Since she and Jeremy were only a year and a half apart, her and I had become friends of sorts, and she would often talk to me about problems that she didn't want to go to her family with. I turned and started walking up the stairs, turning back partway up to see Jeremy giving me a slightly saddened grin. I couldn't bear to see him even the slightest bit upset so I dashed back down, gave him a quick peck on the lips, then scampered back up the stairs. Once I was at the top, I made a beeline for Hazel's room, third door on the right.

Knocking lightly, I slowly opened the door and took in the sight before me. The usually put-together Hazel had mascara running down her cheeks and her once-beautifully curled, light hair had been matted and mussed so bad that she had a small puffy ring of hair around the top of her head. She peered up carefully at me and whispered, "I didn't know you were here."

I came fully inside and closed the door behind me, "yeah I was downstairs talking to your parents. I'm staying for dinner and movie night tonight" I said softly.

She gave me a sad smile. Seeing something in her eyes I immediately walked over and sat next to her in the bed and brought her into a hug. That was all she needed to break down and start sobbing into my shirt. I started rubbing her back slowly, encouraging her to let it out.

"I don't know what I did to them" she managed to get out between sobs.

I wasn't sure what she was referring to, but I decided to wait for her to tell me on her own once she was calmer.

After a few minutes of Hazel's loud sobs filling the room, she pulled away from me and wiped her eyes angrily.

I looked at her cautiously, unsure of what her emotion was now that she's been heart-breakingly sad... maybe angry, "Hazel? What happened?"

Hazel sniffled and wiped her eyes once more, "My friends... I don't know what I did but they all h-hate me! I thought everything was fine but t-today they kept ignoring me a-and then people kept coming up and asking me if it was true that I s-slept with Bryce Taylor... this big senior w-who's known for sleeping with girls all the time. I-I couldn't figure out where they would've heard it from b-but some nice guy who asked me about it s-said that Bea was telling people that and s-since she's my b-best friend that everyone thinks it's t-t-true!"

I sat there, my heart breaking for Hazel. Sure, we didn't always like the crowd Hazel ran with but we didn't think she'd turn on her like this, "Hazel, you should tell your parents. If it gets any worse you should see if they can transfer you to Jeremy and I's school. It's bigger but the people are a lot nicer and I don't think many people would know anything about what's happening at your school now"