Wicked Heart Beat - A Listen To Your Heart Book

Aftermath

Mal and Evie were watching a movie on Mal's laptop when they heard a soft knock on their door. It was 8:30 at night, so it was kind of late for visitors. Still Evie got off of Mal's bed,put on her fuzzy slippers, and opened the door. To her surprise it wasn't her friends, but instead Crystal White.

"Um, hey Evie," Crystal said, shyly. She held up a pillow and a blanket. "Could I crash here for the night?"

"What? Why?" Mal said, appearing at the door.

"Um, Audrey is kind of unbearable right now," Crystal admitted. "She and Jay had another little tiff."

"A little tiff?" Evie asked. "If it was, you wouldn't have been kicked out of your room."

"Well I don't know exactly what happened. It all went down in Jay's room and Audrey is to busy being angry to talk about it," Crystal said.

"Well, you make yourself at home," Mal said. "We've got some business to take care of."

With that, Mal and Evie made their way to Jay and Carlos's room. When they turned the corner they saw Carlos sitting on the floor,opposite the door on his laptop. Currently he was editing a video for his tech class.

"Um, Carlos," Mal asked casually. Watcha doing?"

"Homework." Was his reply.

Of course he was being difficult. Mal still held her composure. "Well why ?"

"To pass."

"Ok. Well why are you doing it out here?"

"Because I can't do it in my own room."

"Oh for Pete's sake!" Evie exclaimed. "Why the heck are you sitting on the floor outside your room?"

"Trust me, you don't want to go in there," Carlos warned. "Jay is PISSED. I don't think I've ever seen him so mad before. I have no idea why."

"I have a clue," Mal said. She braced herself for the storm to come, but what she saw inside was not what she was expecting. The boys' room was not a disaster(well no more than usual). And Jay was facing away from her but seemed to be calmly sitting on his bed. But then she heard sniffling. Upon further inspection she realized that Jay was crying. Crying! Jay never cried. This was bad.

"Jay?" Mal approached.

Jay furiously tried to wipe away his tears. "Oh hey Mal, I didn't hear you come in. "

"Jay are you okay?"

"Yeah, never better."

"Jay. I-I heard about your little 'argument' with Audrey."

"Oh you heard about that?"

Mal sighed. "Yeah I did."

"Well it didn't go as well as I hoped."

"I know. Crystal was kicked out of her room. And apparently so was Carlos." Jay snorted. Mal rubbed his back. "Is everything okay?"

"Why wouldn't things be okay?"

"Because you're crying. Jay you never cry. What happened?"

"Look, I don't want to talk about it right now. It's been a long day and all I want to do right now is sleep." Jay rolled over on his side.

Mal sighed. "Okay."

"Oh and tell Carlos he can come in. I'm fine."

Mal laughed. "Alright. Good night." But as she left she glanced over her shoulder to her friend. He looked absolutely crushed, but he wouldn't tell her why. For the first time, Mal didn't have the heart to meddle.
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"And he was just so broken," Mal said, munching on a chip. She just finished recounting what happened earlier with Jay to Evie and Crystal. "Poor guy, I don't think I've ever seen him so upset."

"You should have seen Audrey," Crystal commented between bites of pizza. Having Crystal in their dorm, they decided to have a girls night."She was wallowing in self pity and anger."

"I don't know about you, but I'm getting super depressed talking about our friends' problems," Evie said getting up to get more popcorn. "Can we worry about that tomorrow?"

"As much as I'd love to disagree with you, you're right," Mal admitted. "So what do you want to talk about."

"How about the fact that you and Doug are officially an item!" Crystal practically squealed. Evie giggled.

"What's there to say? I liked him, he liked me, he finally got the guts to ask me out, and I said yes!" Evie giggled with delight.

"I have to take the credit for that," Crystal bragged. "I realized he wasn't into me as much as I was into him, so after a little pep talk, he went up and kissed you. I guess you could call me a matchmaker."

"Oh my gosh! I completely forgot about that!" Evie said. "I'm so sorry!"

"No hard feelings," Crystal insisted. "Life moves on and so do I."

"That's a great attitude!" Mal praised.

"And I'm sure your prince is just around the corner," Evie said.

"Thanks but I think I want to focus on my studies for a little while and not boys." Crystal admitted.

"Well that's good," Evie said. "I'm thinking of auditioning for the school musical!"

"Ugh, really?" Mal laughed.

Evie looked indignant. "Yes. I'm a natural born actress. Can't you tell?" She flipped her hair over her shoulder and fluttered her eyelashes.

"Okay first of all, stop that," Crystal said. "It's creepy. And second, good luck. Audrey always gets the lead. So does Ben. But I think Audrey is to preoccupied with her problems to audition this year. So maybe you do have a chance!"

Evie rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the words of encouragement." She giggled.

"Gosh, I wish things could have been like this back on the Isle," Mal said.

Evie nodded. "Yeah who would've thought that you'd get a boyfriend before me! Or at all! And a prince too! Or um a king now!"

Mal blushed. "Shut up Evie!" She threw a pillow that hit Evie square in the face. Mal started hysterically laughing.

"Oh you're gonna get it now!" Evie exclaimed. She threw the pillow back, but Mal moved out of the way so instead she hit Crystal. "Sorry!"

"Ok! Now it's on!" Crystal said. Soon enough the three girls were having a full fledged pillow fight. 

They were having so much fun they didn't hear a soft knock on the door. Then the doorknob turned and in stepped Fairy Godmother. They all immediately stopped.

"Tomorrow may be only Sunday, but some people are trying to sleep," she reprimanded. "Now go to bed girls."

"Yes, Fairy Godmother," they apologized in unison. "We're sorry."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." After Fairy Godmother was safely down the hall, all three girls burst into laughter and continued their fun.