The Days of August

Chapter 8

       Claire woke up at about 9:30 A.M., while Callie still was asleep in her bed.
       She got up and looked in the mirror, she had looked terrible. She thought to herself of all the messed up things that happened to her recently, there was a bunch.
      Claire signed, she sat back down on her bed and pulled out her phone, I had been forever since she last got on it. She spent about 30 minutes checking her social media until Callie got up.
     Claire smiled, "Hey sleepy head."
     Callie smiled back at her, "Hello."
     Claire noticed that Miley must have sat a basket of laundry in the room when she was sleeping, she picked it up and started to fold.
    Callie tapped Claire's shoulder, "Hey I have an idea."
    Claire grinned mischievously, "What?"
    Callie giggled, "Let's go get August, Ian, Hannah, Noah, Andy, and Kara."
    Claire's smile faded, "Why?"
    Callie's smile faded also after seeing Claire's reaction, "We could go to Sally's ice cream shop and maybe afterwards a movie?"
    Claire grinned, "Start texting them, tell them to meet us there at noon."
********
There movie had just ended.
August grinned, "Thanks for inviting me guys, I had a blast."
Callie was blankly staring at something, she looked up, "No problem August, you're one of our friends."
August looked down trying to hide his humongous smile.
Claire pulled Ian away from Noah, "Hey."
Ian looked worried, "Hey, what's wrong, you've been acting weird all day."
Claire forced a smile, "There is just a lot going on right now." She said as she started to hug him.
Ian ran his fingers through her hair, "It's going to be okay, I promise."
Claire randomly became furious, she yanked herself away from Ian, "You know what it's not okay and it's not going to be, and you know it!"
Claire stormed away from him as he stayed standing there clueless.
Claire ran up to Callie, "Hey are you ready to go home?"
Callie was talking to her best friend Kara. Claire had always thought that Kara was spoiled brat, she never really liked her.
Callie turned to Kara, "I'll be back in one second."
Callie pulled Claire over to the bathrooms of the movie theater, she rudely asked, "What's your problem?"
Claire looked shocked, "Nothing."
Callie gave Claire a snotty look, "I saw you yell at Ian."
Claire walked away and texted Miley and asked her to pick her up.
Hannah walked up to her, "Hey are you all right?"
Claire shoved Hannah away, "Don't talk to me." She said with disgust in her voice.
Hannah backed away, obviously hurt, "Okay." She managed to whisper out.
Hannah walked away trying not to cry, Claire immediately felt miserable.
Claire's phone rang, it was Miley. She went outside to be picked up.
Claire got into the car.
Miley had a sly smile, "Ready to go home already."
Claire would not even look at her, the last thing she would do was speak to her.
Miley tried to cover the hurt in her voice, "Is Callie coming?"
Claire shrugged, but she knew she wasn't.
They didn't say any words the whole ride home, but Claire's mind never took a rest.
As they pulled into the driveway Miley started to cry, "They hate me now." She said through her tears. Claire did feel a pang of guilt but hid it as she got out of the car and slammed the door. Miley was still crying in the car as she went inside.
She ran up to her bedroom ignoring her father who was making dinner, "Where have you been!"
She slammed her bedroom door, and plopped down on her bed.
Claire started to think about her Grammy once again, she missed her. She wondered when she would be released from the hospital.
She looked at the clock, it read 4:12 P.M. Claire sighed, Callie would probably be mad at her because she left the theater.
All the sudden she heard a knock on the door, "May I come in."
Claire recognized his voice, it was Ian's.
She wiped away her tears that she didn't even realize where there, "Yeah."
Ian opened the door, you could tell by the look on his face that his was terribly sorry.
Claire held her arms out so she could hug him, seeing his reaction made her feel terrible.
Ian set down on the bed and Claire started to cry on his shoulder.
Ian kept trying to calm her down, "Shhh, you're safe, you'll be okay."
Claire cried on his shoulder for about 20 minutes, then she was finally well enough to have a conversation.
"Ian." Claire paused for a moment.
"What is it?"
Claire let out a big sob, "I just love you so much."
Ian wiped the tears off Claire's face, "And I love you more."
They kissed, and then Claire's father saw his car and yelled at him to leave.