Everything with you

Part 31

Emma

I made my way inside the room to find Hayley working on her laptop. I drop my bags on the bed,

"Hi Hales!"

"Hi Emma! Sorry, I didn't see you come in. How was your weekend?" she asks, more excited than I was.

"Uh.. It was fine.. The wedding was great! But my mom and I had a bit of a fight when we left yesterday. Overall though it went better than I expected," I say honestly. It really could have been worse.

"Um.. Sounds bad what was the fight about?"

"Justin and me," I say out flatly.

"Oh, got it. Beautiful, innocent daughter with hot guy covered in tattoos? Mom is not okay; sounds about right."

Her response makes me laugh. Hayley was a person who could turn anything into a positive thing. She was always a glass-half-full kind of person.

"Enough about me. How was your weekend? What's you doing?" I say as I get more settled on my bed.

I notice her face changes from the cool and causal tone she was speaking earlier to more serious.

"Well, Friday night I went to a party. Then pretty much stayed here the entire weekend."

"Okay.. What party did you go to? Did you go alone?" I ask. I knew she didn't go to any parties since she broke up with Nolan and both of them were kind of a package deal.

"Um.. It was Nate's party. I went with a few of my classmates", she answers quickly. Something was off here.

"Okay.. Why am I sensing something's off?" I sit up.

"Ugh.. fine," she says, closing her laptop and placing it on the floor.

"Hales?" I pushed.

"I did something bad. Well.. no bad, it was good.. not great but it was bad."

"What did you do?".

"I slept with someone. Not Nolan," she says, looking sorry.

"Who? When? How?" I ask in shock because I had thought for sure she would get together with Nolan. As annoying he was while trying to get her, he was persistent. He had almost never missed a day to call her, hoping they could patch up.

"Ugh.. Does it matter? I did something horrible; I'm not even over Nolan. I thought maybe we would take a break and get back together... you know", she says, looking sorry.

"I did too.. but how did this happen?" I ask again.

"I had a couple of drinks; this guy was trying to hit on me. He was getting too close. Then another guy had come to help me. The other guy and I ended up talking. It was nice, you know.. different, and before I knew it, we were upstairs. "

"I freaked out so much when we were done that I sneaked out when he was sleeping," she continued.

I noticed she didn't want to tell who the guy was. I didn't push her. She was regretting it as it is.

"Maybe this doesn't have to be a bad thing. You did something that made you realize you should be with Nolan. That's good right?" I try to assure her.

"I don't know Em. I'm so confused. I honestly don't want to leave this room because when I do, I do bad things."

"Come on.. give yourself a break.. It's not like Nolan and you are in a relationship, Hales. You were broken up for a few weeks now."

"I know.. but it still doesn't make me feel better," she says as she falls back on the bed, sighing.

"It'll get better.. I promise," I respond to her. Hayley was a good person; I was not going to judge her for the small mistake she had made, and I was definitely not going to make her stay here and feel bad about herself.

"Wanna go and throw some ice cream at the problem?" I suggest.

"You just got in Em. Take some rest. I'll be fine."

"No, come on, get up. I would love some ice cream for myself right now!" I say as I drag her up and make her go out with me.

At the ice cream shop, we were at our regular seats. I was having my chocolate sundae, and Hales was having her strawberry sundae. We were deep in discussion about how the movie "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" was iconic and influenced the way we think when my phone rings. I did a quick check to see who it was. If it was my mom, I had no intention of answering. It was Justin. I answered it almost immediately.

"Hey!" I say, sounding way too excited.

"Hey Emma.."

"What's up?"

"Nothing.. I just missed you. Nate's irritating us with his incessant talking. I just got out of the room, hoping to talk to you for sometime. Is it a good time to talk?"

"Yeah.. I mean no." I'm out with Hayley. Wait, are you still at Nate's?" I question. It was almost 3 hours since he left me at my dorm.

"Yeah.. we're going through some plays for this week," he says casually, but what interests me more is the change in Hayley's reaction to my mention of Nate. She was pale and looked like she'd seen a ghost.

I must have forgotten to answer Justin, because he calls my name a few times on the call.

"Yes. Sorry Justin! I can't really talk right now. I think something's wrong with Hayley," I say, sounding panicked.

"Something's wrong with Hayley? What happened? Do you need any help?" he asks.

I could also hear a male voice in the background asking, "Something's wrong with Hayley?". Before I could process who was that, Hayley signaled me to hang up. I nod, giving her a questionable look.

"No no.. I mean, she's fine! It's just that she tripped and fell. She hurt her leg," I say, trying to sound convincing.

"Oh.. okay.. I'll let you go now, Emma. Text me when you go back," Justin says in a confused voice and hangs up.

I placed the phone on the table, still confused about what was going on. Hayles looked incredible guilty as well.

"Hayley? What was that?" I question.

"Um.. nothing.. it's just..." she dragged on. Why would she panic if I was talking to Justin, who was at Nate's? Then it clicked. The voice in the background of the call was Nate's. I could recognize the hint of a southern accent.

"Nate?" I ask with my wide eyes. She nods and puts her head down with a thud on the table.

"You slept with Nate? I mean.. Nate?" I ask again.

"I know.. I know. He's the biggest playboy on campus. He sleeps with a different girl every week. I know," she responds with a defeat.

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I get why she was so upset now. She didn't want Nolan to find out, but now that I knew it was Nate, he was going to find out anyway. Nate was quite a player and the center of attention of gossip at our school. He seemed like a nice guy though, from the brief interaction we had the two times.

"It's going to be alright, Hayles. I mean, it's going to be..." I try to assure her again.

"I hope so too, Em," she sighs.