A Different Kind of Education

Chapter Eighteen : Bad Decisions

Jay's POV

I watch her chug back a clear liquid and from our history at parties I can only assume that she's drinking vodka, since she was never really one for tequila - at least not in large quantities. She stares at me warily, as if not sure how to react to the situation. Hell if I was her, I'd be wary too. Finally running into my ex who I had been avoiding for the past week because I cheated on them with their sibling, who was also their teacher. The girl really got herself into a slippery situation this time.

"Hi Jay." She greets finally, making my heart clench at the sound of her voice. Oh I missed her.

"Hey Cans." I return, taking a sip from my drink.

"You're drunk." She states, cocking her head to gaze at me with a questioning look at me.

I don't reply, knowing she had already made up her mind and no matter what she wouldn't believe me. Not that she was wrong, I was completely gone out of this world with how much alcohol I had consumed. She was observant and brilliant, which was something I loved dearly about her. I get my drink down as she hops up onto the counter to sit. Her uncertainty is gone and she is back to being her comfortable confident self. I take this time to take in her attire. It was just as plain as she had been wearing all week, but somehow she looked just as stunning as she did when she used to do her makeup and take time to sort out a good outfit. It was a simple fact that Candy was a gorgeous girl no matter what her state or outfits be.

"You gonna keep staring at me or what?" She asks, raising a single brow, a small smirk on her face.

I nearly spit out my drink at her bluntness, but laugh after swallowing my beer. As much as she may not want to admit it now, some of the 'fake' her had become apart of the 'real' her at this point. For example the brazenness and sarcasm was fully her automatic nature now. She laughs with me and it's not like the old times, but in a way it's even better - we fully understood the other one's standpoint.

"So how have you been?" She finally speaks, not really looking me in the eye.

"Pretty good, just trying to survive these damn rumors."

"Yeah, they're pretty ... vicious."

"That's an understatement." I say, "At least none of them are even close to the truth."

"Well, that's debatable. The one about how I cheated on you with Kent is close enough to the mark."

"True." I take a drink of my beer. "Let's not talk about that."

"Okay." She nods, understanding that this conversation was only headed to a bad place. "How are things going with your dad?"

I smile at that because the answer is that it's going really well. My father and I were really getting to truly know one another and he was taking time to be more involved in my life. He even cut back on his hours at work so that we could do more stuff together. I animatedly told Candy all about my dad and I, which she just grinned happily at it all.

And I knew it wasn't just a pity, 'Oh you seem so excited about it I'll act like I am too.' No it was a genuine happiness for me and it warmed my heart. This is what I missed about her. The genuine care she gave to those near her and the way her face relaxed, showing true happiness when she saw others happy. When I'm done she hops off of the counter and comes to hug me tightly.

"I'm so happy for you, Jay! That's just great!"

I don't even think about my actions before my arms are wrapped tight around her, keeping her close to my body. The warm and shape of her body were so similar that my heart couldn't help but feel joyous at the familiar touch. My body had missed her so much. I knew she was thinking the same thing by the way she firmly grasped onto the back of my shirt as she hugged me. Our hands and arms weren't even close to being ready to let go of the other. I leaned back a bit so that I could look down at her. She felt me shift because she leans back to look up at me as well. It's not like our lips are inches away, I have some height on her, but the intensity between us is thick as we both instinctively glance at the other one's lips.

It would be so easy to just press my lips against her delicate soft ones, letting all my emotions out just like we had when we broke up. God that kiss had been so damn heart wrenching, body tingling, and just amazing in general. When I looked into her eyes I saw that she was thinking the same thing. Oh how easy it would be. Every part of my being wanted too. They were just so close...

"Hey, Jay you gonna come do body shots off of me -" The tall leggy black haired vixen I had been fooling with earlier walked in just then. Her drunken smile vanished when she saw Candy and I. At first I thought it would be replaced with a look of hate and disgust, based on the rumors going around, but instead she just became incredibly shy. "Oh, hey there Candy."

"Hey Leslie." Candy smiles kindly at her, backing away from me. My arms aren't happy about letting her go, "He'll be right there."

"Oh, I-I don't want to interrupt anything -"

"Trust me you aren't." Her casual tone hurts my heart, "Sorry to have taken up his time with you. We just needed to talk about a couple things."

"Of course!" Leslie avoids Candy's eyes.

"I guess I'll see you around, Jay."

I stare longingly at Candy as she walks out of the kitchen and disappears into the house. Leslie, for as dumb as she looks catches on.

"Ya know. Candy's great. From what I can tell by that lost puppy dog look, she's not someone you have ever wanted to let go, so why do you?" The girl's light eyes give me a look that basically says I'm an idiot.

"Because, it's what we need." I tell her softly, hating the words as I say them.

"Doesn't look like it." Leslie says, being serious for a moment before grabbing my drink from me with a sexy grin, "But if that's how you are gonna play it, then let's go have some fun."

"Yeah, let's." I agree, letting her pull me out of the kitchen by my hand.

****

I wake up with a pounding head ache.

"Son of a bitch." I mutter to myself, especially when I see Leslie's black mop of hair next to me and take in the fact that I was utterly naked.

Sighing to myself I slowly get out of the bed and slip into my clothes, making sure to leave my shoes off so that I wouldn't wake up Leslie. When I look around I assume that we're in Kent's parents room and that makes me internally shudder. Oh dear lord. I quietly close the door behind me, then quickly turn around to make a fast escape, only to slam into someone smaller, knocking them to the ground.

My blood runs cold when I see Candy's wide eyes staring back up at me. Then I take in her crazy messy hair, shoes in hand, and my heart plummets. At first I'm suddenly furious and it must show on my face, because I can see regret in her eyes and slight terror rise up. I let myself calm, making sure to not be a hypocrite. We were both in the same situation. I was in no place to judge, and even though I wanted to believe she was a dirty whore who hooked up with her old make out buddy, I knew that there's no way she had actually slept with him. Make out and other things, probably, but sex, no.

"You need a ride?" I offer instead of saying some nasty comment like my subconscious wanted me to.

"Yeah," She is grateful, I can tell by the way her face relaxes drastically. "I was just gonna call Tommy, though I don't know if I could survive the shame right now."

"It's not like you slept with him." I say, causing her to stare up at me in shock. "Come on, you may have slept with my brother but I know you wouldn't lower yourself to Kent. Us Hayes are of a much higher scale."

She laughs joyously, tossing her head back, causing her chestnut hair to cascade down her back. Dear lord when did I become a sap who used novel like descriptions on a girl. I help her up and we walk out to my car, hand in hand. It's not romantic though, just casual, normal, friendly - supporting.

I could live with this.

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HEY BABES!! :D

So I should be doing my homework for class because finals are in a few weeks... actually like one week. Plus I should be showering for work right now, but damn I just... I'm been way too swept into this book of mine right now. Thank you all for the support!

-Just A Short Girl