Wicked Heart Beat - A Listen To Your Heart Book

What I Never Told You

"Jane, you have to talk with your friends eventually," Fairy Godmother cooed to her crying daughter. "They need to know what happened and why you won't be here this summer."

"Mom, I'd love to but how can I explain to them that I'm going to a rehab center?!" Jane cried between sobs. "What will they think of me? I might lose all my friends."

"Honey, you need to tell them; they're your friends after all. They'll understand." Fairy Godmother comforted.

"I don't know mom," Jane sniffled. "I've had supposed 'friends' before that have left me as soon as they found out I was the headmistress's daughter."

"Jane it'll be fine."

"I know. I'm just scared to tell them I'm sick."
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Mal entered her room annoyed after multiple calls and texts from Ben, tells big her that Evie had already missed two rehearsals for the school production and today was going to be her third. She tried calmly by down Ben's robot baby to no avail. One more day and their project would be over.

"Evie! " Mal yelled, startling her friend. Evie was surrounded by fabric and half fished clothing. "What happened to our room?!"

Evie looked sheepishly at the mess she had made. "Sorry Mal, I got caught up in my things, like usual. You know how it is."

"Evie, I know you better than anyone else. What's wrong? You only see like crazy when you're upset about something. Spill!"

Evie bit her lip, a sure sign that she was nervous and felt guilty about something. Ma was starting to get worried. Evie usually spilled her guts to her, hardly being able to keep a secret. 

"Mal, I'm fine. I just feel stressed because of exams in two weeks. You now my stress relief is fashion." Evie lied.

"Ok.." Mal said, not believing a word. "Well you're gonna miss rehearsal again. They've been waiting for like fifteen minutes."

"Oh rehearsal," Evie said, trying to hide her lack of excitement. "Yeah, I almost forgot. Thanks. See you later." She grabbed her jacket and her bag and left the room.

Mal frowned at her friend's sudden evasiveness and secrets. Evie told her everything, why the sudden distrust?

"What are you hiding, Evie?" Mal sighed.
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"So how's your baby?" Crystal asked her boyfriend. Jay squeezed their intertwined hands and she giggled.

"Fine, I guess. Audrey has him her for today and I have her tonight and tomorrow we turn the project in." Jay smiled proudly. "You?"

"Ben has BJ so we could have our date, but right now I think Mal has him cuz Ben has rehearsal." Crystal said. They were currently walking through the park, something Jay never thought of doing. But here he was with an amazing girlfriend taking a stroll through the park without a care in the world. Yet something still felt off.

"Hey, why don't we take a break and sit on a bench and just talk?" Jay said.

"Sure," Crystal smiled. They sat at a nearby bench. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Us. Each other," Jay replied. "I wanna get to know you better. How about we play twenty questions?"

"Ok. Shoot."

"What's you're favorite color?"

"Easy. Blue."

"Why?"

Crystal got a dreamy look in her eyes. "Because it's the color or the sky and the sea, things that although have a certain size, seem infinite to us. I also would like to travel on a boat and study marine life."

"That's cool.." Jay said.

"You don't seem too thrilled about it." Crystal frowned.

"Well when you live on an island with a barrier surrounded by nothing but water, it's not exactly your favorite thing. Also I don't know how to swim." Jay grimaced.

"Ugh you're just like Audrey," Crystal joked. "She hates water and gets super seasick whenever we go on my dad's yacht."

"Do you know how much I'd pay to see that?!" Jay laughed. Crystal soon joined in.

"Ok.." Crystal said, calming down. "What about you?"

"Well if you mean my favorite color, it's a violist red and black. Red cuz it represents anger and black cuz it represents mystery."

"You know, red also represents love. Anger and love are both passionate emotions that are represented buy red." Crystal said thoughtfully.

Jay made a face. "I don't know about love. That emotion is hard to understand when you're a kid from the Isle."

Crystal's face dropped. "Oh."

"Oh! That's not- I didn't mean- ugh!" Jay screamed frustrated. "Next question."

"Ok," Crystal said awkwardly. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Crystal giggled. "I told you I want to study marine life. What do you want to do after high school?"

Jay furrowed his eyebrows. "I haven't really thought about it. I guess I never thought about what will happen after high school. I'm not much of a planner. I'm a more go with the flow type of guy."

"Jay! Next year we'll be seniors! It'll be our last year of high school! You need to make a plan!"

Jay frowned. "Okay, seriously you need to mellow out. It's not that big of a deal."

Crystal got up off the bench. "Not a big deal! It's the biggest deal! It's our lives, our future! How can you just sit there calmly when you have no clue what you're doing!"

Jay rolled his eyes. "As long as I have the people that are important to me in my life I'll be fine."

"No you won't! You'll end up being a janitor or something! Living on the streets! Penniless!" Crystal huffed. "Don't you see the importance of this? You have to do something now!"

Jay sighed. "Okay, look. I know you're my girlfriend and you care, but I don't really like the fact that you're getting worked up right now and yelling at me."

Crystal calmed down. "I'm sorry but you can't go through life expecting to be able to adapt in an instant. You have to plan ahead."

"As long as I have my friends I'll be fine."

Crystal pitched the bridge if her nose. "It's like you're not hearing me at all. It's not like they're going to stay forever. Besides who knows where life will take you. People drift apart and-"

"Enough! Can we please talk about something else?" Jay pleaded.

Crystal was taken aback by his sudden outburst. "Okay. Fine I get it. You don't like me talking about how you are completely unprepared for life."

Jay took a deep breath; one second away form losing it. "That's not why I'm upset. I guess we don't have that much in common. I don't know you, and you definitely don't know me..."

Jay got up from the bench and walked back to Auradon leaving a speechless Crystal alone.