~LOSING IT ALL~
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09| FREE AND HAPPY
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"I THINK HE WAS BEING HONEST about fucking you, Hayley." Camille brazenly says, and I nearly choking send a shower of fries flying across the patio table.
"Jesus Christ, Hayley, this shirt is new!" Jennifer cries across the table, hastily reaching out for some napkins. I stare at her vintage shirt and I'm miserably apologetic.
"I'm so sorry, Jenny." I say, then to Camille. "Can you please have some shreds of dignity. It was a game, and everyone was fucking drunk."
Camille leans forward at that, elbows against the lumbering surface of the table, with her long nails cupping the delicate lines of her face. "I wasn't drunk, and frankly, he didn't look drunk either."
I roll my eyes to the heavens, and brush back the hair that has fallen over my face from the rush of the cold wind. Just take me now, lord.
The wisps of cloud that threatened to cover the sun a while back is gone now. No cloud breaks up the sky and the blue is so perfect, it becomes a haze.
Ping!
My phone suddenly chimes with an incoming message, and I snatch it up from the table, grateful for the distraction.
I'm pulling up on you soon.
Would you mind ditching yours
friends for a while🥺
~Jayden <3
An audibly sigh of relief escapes through my nostrils.
Gladly 😪😪
I type right back.
"Who's it?" Camille quips, animatedly shifting her stool to read the message displayed on the screen of my phone. I roll my eyes skywards, again, and grasp my Tote bag. "I'll be going now. Jayden's picking me up." I simply say, pushing back my stool and pulling myself to my feet.
"Are you bailing on us right now?" Jennifer asks, unpretentiously rebuff and hurt. I fling the strap of my bag over my shoulder, and throw her my megawatt smile. "Absolutely."
"You're such a heartless bitch." She bluntly says, giving me a contemptuous look over her fake lashes.
"I know." I drawl back, waggling my eyebrows.
A few minutes later, Jayden's blue truck pulls up screechingly along the curbside. Waving 'ta-ta' to Jennifer and Camille, I quickly breeze through the thronging sidewalk to meet him.
"Hey, babe." Jayden says, flinging his arms around me and pulling me into his sturdy prominence when I plough into the bench seat beside him.
"Heyyy..." I smile radiantly at him as soon as he frees me. Worried green eyes roves over me behind rimmed glasses as his fingers affectionately trails over my chin, and my heart dips with...guilt?
"You look harried. Is everything okay?" He grills softly, tentatively helping me to fasten my seatbelt. With his close proximity, the waft of his cologne, and strawberry candy pervades my nostrils, and the animal warmth that radiates from him, prickles my skin with desire.
Tutting like an admonitory principal, I look squarely up at him. "If I look harried it's simply because of the pressure I'm getting from school."
Liar. My other voice chides at me.
"Likewise, it unnerves me when you go worrying unnecessarily about me. I'm fine, and I can take care of myself."
"All right." He says, looking relieved. "As long as you take good care of yourself for me, I promise not to fuss."
Chuckling softly at his remark, I power down the truck's window while he revs the truck back into the street. The radio squawks, and 'In Dream' by Roy Orbison starts to play over the speakers.
"You ditched your friends willingly today, what happened. Did they piss you off?"
The cold wind carrying the smell of nature herself, sweeps pass my face, and ruffles my wavy hair around my chin and neck. I smile fleetingly, and shrug. "Let's say they were really getting on my nerves."
"Explains a lot." Jayden replies with a scoff.
I tilt my head, and stare at him. Blonde hair in a roguish mess on his shapely head, the sleeves of flannel shirt sticking to the bulging muscles of his arm as he clenches the steering wheel. My heart is high, bumping against my ribs. When last did I feel this way towards him. I nearly lost what it feels like to want someone, to need someone.
"You're burrowing holes into my face with that look." Jayden suddenly says, and I jerk out of my wandered reverie, startled and slightly embarrassed.
"Where are we going?" I ask instead, averting my peripheral vision back to the road.
"To the beach."
"The beach?" I squeak, dumbfounded.
Jayden momentarily pulls his gaze away from the road, and stares warily at me. "When last did we spend some quality time together, Hayley?"
My mind goes blank for a while, and for a split second, I don't know what to say. It's been awhile. When'd everything end and I didn't even realize it.
"You see, it's been forever. I know you're under a lot of pressure recently, but I don't want that to affect our relationship."
A genuine smile pulls up on my lips, and I swallow back the urge to cry. "Okay." I say, animatedly. "I hope you brought some snacks. You stole me away from my lunch, remember."
Jayden smiles disarmingly back at me. "I also bought your favorite wine, Frascati"
A loud laugh bubbles out from my throat, and for the first time in a long time, I feel free and happy.
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Thank you so much for reading "LOSING IT ALL"
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I'm sorry this chapter is arriving late. I had some issues with this app, and I'm happy I've rectified the issue.
The next chapter will be published on Wednesday. Once again, thank you for your understanding. XOXO.
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LOSING IT ALL //HAYLEY PARKER
RomanceHayley Parker's life was hypothetically going just smoothly. She had an amazing boyfriend, and housemates who always had her back. Well, not until Dale Randall saunters into her comfortable and normal life, changing her every perspectives about love...
