Blandview High Musical

44. O Holy Night

Javier pulled himself out of bed as it was around noon time. It felt like he had been asleep for days. Several text messages and missed calls were flooding the notifications on his cellphone. He ignored the buzzing and got up to use the restroom. He turned on the shower and right as he was about to step into it, he heard the landline phone ringing. It was probably another telemarketer. Eventually, the ringing stopped. Javier got into the shower and tried to make himself look presentable. He just needed a shower and then maybe something to eat.

The knobs squeaked as he shut off the water. He stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel off the rack and wrapped it around his lower half. He could hear the answering machine beeping in the kitchen. He walked out there, leaving wet footprints behind himself. He pushed the button. "You have one new message." The automated voice said. It immediately started to play the message "Hey Javi, it's Jade. I uh...I know we haven't spoken in a while. I was just calling to umm...well, the performance is tonight at the church and maybe you'd wanna come. If not...I get it. You don't have to return my call." The line disconnected with the machine saying "End of message." Javier just pushed the delete button. He'd think about it. "Message erased." was the last thing the machine said as he was walking away from the kitchen. He went into the bedroom and shut the door.

"God, that's really scary, Caylie." I said as we were all sitting in the lobby of a Dunkin Donuts that was just around the corner from the neighborhood. "You're telling me? I was scared shitless thinking I was going to get some part of the story wrong!" She said. "Well, that's over now and hopefully the police will have no further interest in looking your direction." "I hope not, but we still don't know what's happened to Charlene." Shayne choked a bit. I reached over patting him on the back. "You're alright." "I'm sure she just took off somewhere. Maybe someone scared her into leaving you alone." "God, that would be great if it did happen." Caylie said, taking a sip of the coffee. "Any idea where Jade is?" I asked. "She's at the church, helping set up for the performance tonight. She said it would be better if she just stayed there all day." Damien said.

"I feel like an asshole for forgetting about that." Shayne said. "We're all still going, right?" He asked. I nodded my head along with the others. "She'd probably be really pissed off if we didn't show up." I said, laughing. "No kidding! We'd never hear the end of it." Shayne said.

It was nice to go on a double date with Caylie and Damien, I forget how fun things like that are. Jade never third wheels...but she also never has a committed man. Since it was Christmas, we walked around and looked at all the really great decorations of downtown LA. Hardly anyone was out. Shayne's family had opened their gifts that morning and dinner was that evening after the performance. Damien's family let Caylie stay with them for the holidays. And my family wasn't doing anything until grandma got there...which would be sometime tonight. So we all made time to spend together.

"I've been thinking..." Shayne started. His arm was draped casually over my shoulder as we walked ahead of Caylie and Damien. "Don't hurt yourself doing it." I teased. "I'm being serious. I think that...I might want to go to NYU." He said. I felt the breath escape from my throat. "Re-Really?" I asked. "Yeah, it would give me the chance to see a little of the nation and then...I'd be closer to you." He said. "You—Shayne, you don't have to do that." His hand squeezed around my shoulder. "I want to. Gill, I wanna be with you. You're such a good person and...and I'm afraid once high school ends, I'll lose you forever." He said. I reached up, touching his cheek. "Shayne, I would love it if you followed me to NY...more than anything. But...it's your future and the last thing I want is for you to follow me and then be unhappy." "With you...I could never be unhappy." He said, leaning down to kiss me. "We can make it work." I said, pulling from the kiss. "We always do."