See you again

Chapter 28

"Did you tell?" Aaron cautiously asked me after English class. "Tell who what?" I asked eyebrows scrunched together."The Cancer Awareness club came up to me and asked me to be their poster child. What the hell is that?" Aaron doesn't get angry very easily, but I could tell he was definitely more than perturbed at the moment. It was his first day back since his surgery and somehow his having of cancer slipped out to the whole school.

"I didn't tell anyone. Was it your friends?" I ask, starting to walk towards my Econ class."They told me they haven't spoken a word." I was getting the feeling that Aaron was implying that this whole ordeal was my fault. My brain churned and I suddenly realized that Olivia was the only other one that knew of his cancer. "I'll find out, okay?" I say as I peck him quickly on the lips. "There's nothing wrong with people knowing the truth, Aaron."

"You know I don't like people prying into my life." Of course I knew. It was the reason why I was with him in the first place. I shrugged my shoulders and placed a longer kiss on his lips in attempt to rid the frown off of his face. It worked. And a group of girls behind us gasped. Everyone was slowly starting to realize that we were dating each other; either through gossip or through witnessing it themselves. I realized my 'nobody' label would soon be removed. As I walked away from Aaron, I pulled my phone out and sent a text to Olivia.

'Okay who'd you tell?' She replied almost immediately. 'I didn't tell anyone, I swear! But I think I know who did it.'

'Who would that be?'

'Hailey.' I arrived at my class and put my phone in my pocket. Hailey? How on earth would she know?  And why would she spread something like that? And who would she spread it too? The girl hardly had any friends. I was pretty sure she didn't have any friends at all actually. The girl just so happened to be in my Econ class. I stared at her as I walked to my seat. She had her notes open and she was diligently reading away. Maybe Olivia typed the wrong name or something, I thought.Sitting in my seat, Liam immediately questions the rumor.

"So Aaron really had cancer?" I nodded, not really wanting to talk about it. It's not like I could deny it and continue on with the car accident lie. By the time lunch time came around, which was right after our period, the entire school would know."Why didn't you tell us anything?" Kris asked."It wasn't my place to tell you anything," I said, glancing at Hailey again. She had her pencil in her hand, but she wasn't writing anything. She was just simply holding it there to make it seem as if she was doing something.

Almost as if she was trying to hide the fact that she was doing something else, like listening in on someone else's conversation...So maybe Olivia did type the right name. But why would Hailey feel the need to tell people about this? Things just weren't really clicking into place like they usually did in my mind. At lunch time, I found Olivia and asked her how she found out that Hailey was the one that started all of this.

"I heard people talking about Aaron and I asked them who told them. And I kind of just followed the chain of people until it reached Hailey. I was gonna ask her who told her, but I realized that no one would have told her because no one talks to her. And then I realized that she sits in front of us in homeroom, so it obviously had to be her." I nodded my head, impressed with her research.

I glanced behind Olivia's head and noticed Hailey sitting at her usually spot by herself. I followed her gaze and it landed on Aaron."I think I'm gonna go talk to her," I said, returning my gaze back to Olivia.

I propped an elbow on the table and rested my chin on my hand. "So, uh, I'm just gonna get straight to the point." She slowly lifted her head and gave me her full attention. "You're the one that started the whole cancer thing, right?" She stayed silent and I figured that was a yes. "I'm not mad at you or anything because it's not like it's a bad rumor or anything, but Aaron didn't want this spread anywhere."

"That's the whole point," she said, hostility dripping off her voice. My eyebrows lifted in shock. I've only heard her speak during class when a teacher would ask her for an answer and her voice never sounded like that before. "Um, okay, so obviously you have a problem with my boyfriend... But I'm sure it's something that can be resolved, right?" I said feeling uneasy.

The shy girl seemed to turn vicious in a matter of seconds. "Not really. I mean, my cousin is dead because of him," she said, glaring at Aaron from across the room. "I-I'm sorry, what?" I knew the girl had a lot of bottled up feelings, but I never knew something like this would come out of her."Figure it out yourself," she said, standing up, picking up her stuff, and walking away.

She placed her head down as she walked away and turned back into the shy girl I thought she was. I stood up, feeling confused about the whole situation, but I did have somewhat of a grasp on the whole thing. I figured her cousin must have been Elina, but I have no idea why she would be pinning her death on Aaron. Unless there was more Aaron hasn't told me, and that idea wasn't so farfetched at all considering his secretive habits. All I knew was that I wasn't done with this Hailey girl at all.

I walked back to my usual lunch spot and the guys were in a deep conversation about Star Craft. I quietly ate my food and noticed people constantly walking up to Aaron, saying something to him while placing a hand on his shoulder as if they were consoling him. Aaron would fake a smile and they would walk away. He caught me watching him and he shook his head at me as if the whole thing was my fault. I shrugged my shoulders at him. It really shouldn't have been that big of a deal.