They Said That I Had Changed - Book 2

Chapter 8 - Hayden

I take out my phone and see I have over ten missed calls, every single one from Ben.

I had hated him so much in high school and yet now, he's one of my closest friends. It almost appears that Rayna and him have swapped places, not that I loath her as much as I did with him to start with.

'What do you want?' I growl after ringing him. He laughs, his voice mechanical sounding through the phone.

'How's it going?' He asks which slightly irks me.

'You ring me god knows how many times to ask me how I'm doing?'

'Yep,' he says though he falters slightly, making me wonder if he is actually lying.

'Cut the crap,' I shake my head but chuckle lightly.

'Come on, can't I just call to ask how you really doing without you assuming it's for something else,'

'Because it usually is about something else,'

He hesitates for a moment before producing a nervous laugh.

'Okay fine, I heard you were involving yourself with Rayna again,' he says, 'why?'

'Hardly, you haven't even seen us together so how can you judge?' I pause, 'and who told you that?'

'No one,' he says quickly, 'I can just tell this isn't going to end well for you,' He complains and I can just imagine him shaking his head in this moment.

'Are you kidding? I can handle this,'

'This is Rayna we're talking about here, the girl you were obsessed with for god knows how long,' he says matter of factly, 'how do you know that's still not the case?'

'Because I've spoken her and to be honest, she's a bitch. I don't even want to even look at her,' I pause for a moment, feeling the tiniest flicker of guilt since I don't actually agree with my own words, 'And I was not obsessed with her. I didn't even like her that much,'

'Yeah whatever,' he says dismissively and I decide to ignore his comment rather then start an argument. This seems to be his intention too as he suddenly goes silent before inhaling.

'Is she fit?' He asks and I feel my eyes widen in shock.

'What?'

'I said is she hot? Like good looking?'

'Why do you even want to know that? You have a girlfriend,'

I don't need to see him to know he's shrugging right now. He seems to be unconcerned for this fact and I don't even know why I bother commenting on it in the first place. It's obvious he doesn't give a damn either way.

'Well?' He presses, 'is she?'

I glance to the side for a moment and sigh in frustration at his obvious demanding tone.

'I suppose so,' I say, 'but don't say it like that, I hate referring to people like that,'

'What?' He laughs, 'hot? Hayden you've passed the age of thirteen now, I'm pretty sure you can stop cringing at that word,'

I become uncomfortable at this.

'I just don't like it,' I simply state and he's silent for a moment.

'Just get over it,' he finally snaps. I hate the way he feels like he can lead me around and make me do everything he says yet I make no attempt to stop it. Unfortunately, it does seem like he is one of my only friends so I don't like the thought of arguing with him. Just to add to this, I feel like he knows this and uses it to his advantage often to take control of my life.