Once Upon a Cliché

Chapter 8

Quick Note: I actually updated like I said! Yay! I didn't edit any of this, so excuse my laziness, heh.

Anyway, enjoy!

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Chapter 8 ~

"Forget it. You were a shitty friend anyway."

Was she right? Was I really a bad best friend like she said?

My insides twisted all up into knots at the thought of what I'd done. If I'd just shut my big mouth, nothing would've happened. Now, my best friend was gone. Now, she probably hated my guts. Now, my entire world was ending—

Okay, maybe not that. But I still felt bad. Maybe if I talked to her, she'd understand.

My inside turmoil silenced itself momentarily when I finally spotted Hale at the end of the hallway. It was a pain trying to navigate through the rush of students that were trying to get home. For some reason, they always decided to take the same main hallway to get out to the parking lot, and it was like trying to part the Red Sea without a handy staff to order the waters to do your bidding. Though I doubt I would be able to part any of these waters even if I had a chainsaw and Leatherface mask.

"Hale!" I jumped up, trying to wave over the heads of what seemed to be the school's entire football team. Once I'd finally managed to push past them, I realized that there was already someone else talking to him.

I stopped several feet away, trying to place this new yet familiar face.

She was probably a senior. Yeah. That was where I recognized her long, dark hair and heavily made-up eyes. The black of her eyeliner practically drowned out the brown in her eyes as she batted her heavy eyelashes at Hale. "So, baby..."

Pet names. Blech. Gag me.

Hale seemed to notice me right then, because he was just about to call out to me when the girl ran her finger down his chest.

I raised an eyebrow, but I didn't bother interrupting.

"Hale, I'm so disappointed," she purred, reminding me somewhat of a cat in heat. "You never called over the summer. If I didn't know any better, I might've thought you'd forgotten about that night."

That night? Hold your horses, missy. What night?

Hale smiled tightly. "It wasn't so much that I had forgotten, but that I was trying to forget."

Her overly full lips puckered just a bit as her thin eyebrows knitted together. "C'mon, don't be like that. I already know you have a girlfriend. But that's okay...we can still meet up..."

Eugh. A disgusted shiver ran down my spine as I tried to suppress any mental pictures from surfacing. Puppies, kittens, rainbows, fluffy things...

"I don't think so," Hale said, brushing her off. "One night alone won't kill you."

"Whatever." Cue the flipping of the hair. "I can find someone else just as easily!"

Hale shook his head incredulously as he walked away. "Good!" Out of the corner of his eye, he found me, and his shoulders lowered slightly with relief. "Emica—"

But by the time he'd gotten the sense to follow me, I pivoted on my heel and made a one-way trip to anywhere in the opposite direction of where Hale was heading.