Stuck Between Them

Chapter 17 - Private

Sarah stitched me up pretty nicely, I expected her to force me to call the cops or at least be mad at me for getting involved in a fight, but to my surprise, she didn't. She was proud of me for holding my own in one verse three contest. If I called the cops, that meant I would have to involve mom and dad. It was better that they wouldn't know. My wounds would be healed till the semester break. As I neared the entrance to the university, Mike and Shawn were both waiting for me.

"Dude, I told you it's true!" Mike slapped Shawn on the back of his head and continued. "Max learned how to fight from his father."

Shawn touched my face with more pressure than he should have. "Dah fuck Shawn!" I yelped at the sudden pain.

"My bad, Max," Shawn said, examining my injuries again. "Jeez, she wasn't kidding when she said you took a beating."

"What?"

"The head wound and knuckles are still wrapped too," Mike pointed at them.

"What the fuck are you guys talking about?"

"What do you mean?" Shawn asked. "It's all over the school how you beat up three guys to protect Heartbreak Hailey. Or is it not true?"

"N-no, it's true. I did get in a fight to protect her; I guess I'm just surprised you guys know about it."

"Dude, she's been talking about it nonstop, all morning. There's even a rumor going around that she will ask you out, man. You're totally in!" He went to give me a high five, but I held my hands up, and he corrected himself immediately and switched to a thumbs-up.

I looked at both of them suspiciously, "Is she talking about me?"

"Yeah," Mike wrapped his arm around me, "Follow me, man, she's probably in the same spot."

With a questionable look on my face, I let him guide me into the school, rounding corner after corner until we arrived in the cafeteria where there were at least fifty kids huddled Hailey as she retold the ending of the story.

"-and then the guy hit him with this gigantic block of wood, and I thought for sure that that would finally knock him out. But he got up again!" The crowd looked, and we'd as Hailey reenacted the scene. "He was like totally cool and calm even though he was bleeding all over. Finally, he looked at the guy and asked him where he got the piece of wood. Can you believe that? He was like, not mad at all, and the funniest part was that the guy started running away! He was so afraid of Max that he didn't even want to fight him anymore."

Mike nudged me, "This is how you remember it?"

"Pretty much," I said truthfully.

"Hey, Hailey! Hailey!" Shawn shouted abruptly, waving his hands up and down as if trying to flag down a passing ship. "Max's right here!"

"Shawn, what the fuck," I hissed under my breath. "Why'd you do that?"

"Dude, she might ask you out! Why are you getting mad?"

I opened my mouth to tell him, but the masses swarmed me in the cafeteria as they fired questions one after another. Shawn disappeared in the crowd, but Mike helped keep them at bay long enough for Hailey to wiggle her way through everyone and get to me finally. As if her standing in front of me was in a queue to silence everyone, the cafeteria fell deathly silent.

"Hi," she greeted me as though I didn't just witness one of the craziest things I had ever seen. "Are you feeling better?"

"Um, yeah. I had a friend of mine patch me up, and I spent most of the weekend in bed."

"You poor thing," the way she shook her head so sorrowfully almost convinced me that this girl was a saint. "I never got to say thank you for what you did."

"It's no big deal."

"Well, you did come to my rescue, so it is a big deal. So, I wondered if maybe you want to go out and watch a movie with me this Friday. Maybe get something to eat too. What do you say?"

Please put me down in the records books because never in the history of Heartbreak Hailey did this happen. I was now, literally, living the dream that half the guys in this university wished for. She asked me out, in front of so many people. Fuck me.

"Can we talk in private?" I asked.

The cafeteria died, figuratively, of course, but it did feel like I was staring at a bunch of ghosts after that. Hailey, too went pale.

I started walking, and Hailey followed me robotically.