Evil Hearts - A Listen To Your Heart Book

Broken

Fairy Godmother woke up bright and early, anticipating the arrival of the teens from their trip. She quietly walked past Jane's room on her way to the school. Her daughter was a mess, lying in her bed. The child had cried herself to sleep again. Fairy Godmother felt guilty about the secrets she has kept from her daughter. But it was too late to undo that. Now she hoped that Jane would forgive her enough to at least let her explain. But Jane was a stubborn child and had refused to talk to her for days.

And today was no different.
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Mal was anxious as she signed in. She looked around the room of the gallery. Many students were placing their respective pieces in their designated spot. Everything was set up alphabetically. She looked for Green and saw that unfortunately it was at one of the tables near the center of the room. Great. Now she was more nervous.

She looked around the room again, hoping to see a familiar face. And she did.

"Hey Mal," Evan greeted, with an unbelievably large smile. "What a surprise to see you here."

Mal rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Like you didn't know I entered this year."

Evan let out an exaggerated laugh. "Ha. You're funny. I never knew you were so funny."

Mal tried to control her annoyance. "So what are you doing here? Last I heard, you're not competing."

Evan smiled and Mal swore she saw a twinkle. She wanted to wipe his annoying bright smile off his face. "I wanted to check out the talent this year," he explained with a wink. "And so far, I like what I see."

Mal bit her tongue. "Ok. I'm done with you right now. I'm gonna go look for my friends."

She walked around him and headed to the bathrooms, the one place she knew she could be away from him. She was so sick and tired of Evan. He wouldn't give up with his charming smile and obvious flirting. Sure he was handsome and kind, of not a bit overconfident. But she wasn't looking for a relationship. Her last one didn't end well. She didn't need another jerk.

Except for the fact that Ben wasn't a jerk. He was actually super sweet and great guy. Who obviously made a stupid mistake. But who hasn't? She's made many mistakes in her lifetime.

"Oh my god!" Mal exclaimed.

Sasha rushed over to her. She had seen Mal walk into the bathroom and rushed in at her yell. "Are you ok?"

Mal furiously wiped away the tears that were running down her cheek. "I'm such an idiot. And a hypocrite. And probably the worst person ever."

"What are you talking about?" Sasha asked, trying to comfort her.

"I'm talking about Ben," Mal said sobbing. "I was so unfair to him. He made a mistake and I was understandably upset. But I couldn't bring myself to completely forgive him. But when I messed up big time, he still loved me and supported me. But I couldn't do the same."

Mal slinked to the floor and pulled her knees to her chest. "What is wrong with me?"

Sasha crouched next to her, because there was no way she was sitting on the nasty bathroom floor. "Look, everyone makes mistakes. Clearly you have stuff to work on and deal with when you get home. But right now you have to set up your art piece because judging starts in 10 minutes. So wipe away your mascara and go out there and kick some art butt, ok?"

Mal nodded and got up off the floor. "You're right. One battle at a time."
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Fairy Godmother stood ready to greet King Ben and his friends. The limo pulled up and the driver walked around to open the door. She expected the teens to come home refreshed and ready for the upcoming school year. That was not what she got.

Ben was the first to step out, fresh and happy like he always was. Chad was right after, rushing past Fairy Godmother to the bathrooms. After him the rest of the teens stepped out, all looking tired and stressed. Lastly Carlos and Lonnie helped Audrey out of the car. That was certainly not what Fairy Godmother expected.

"Oh dear!" She exclaimed. "What on earth happened?"

"Audrey may have broken her ankle," Ben explained.

"Oh dear! We must take her to the hospital at once!"

Audrey rolled her eyes. "I'm fine. See?" She tried to hobble forward but yelped in pain when she lost her balance and almost fell. Carlos and Jay quickly grabbed her arms and held her up.

Audrey stepped wrong and a surge of pain went up her leg. Her ankle had been fine the way back to Auradon. But of course her stubborn self had to go and ruin it. She was starting to get lightheaded from the pain and she felt like throwing up.

"Oh no, you are not fine!" Fairy Godmother insisted. "Jay would you be a dear and help me with her? We're going straight to the ER."

Jay sighed in defeat. "Do I have a choice?"

"No. Not really."

"Ben, sweetie, there's paperwork on your desk," Fairy Godmother said. "The rest of you can go unpack. I'll be back as soon as possible."
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"Yep, it's definitely broken," Doc said. "Without the right medical treatment, your ankle is in terrible shape. Have you been resting at all?"

"Yes," Audrey lied.

"No you haven't!" Jay protested.

"Shut up!" Audrey said.

"Make me!"  Jay hissed.

"Enough!" Fairy Godmother yelled.

"So how long will it take my ankle to heal?" Audrey asked Doc.

"By the looks of it, probably three to four weeks."

"What!" Audrey exclaimed.

"Audrey calm down," Fairy Godmother reprimanded.

"But cheer camp is in two weeks!" Audrey explained.

"Well it won't matter anyway," Doc said. "You can't cheer."

"Tell me about it," Jay snickered. Audrey glared at him.

"No," Doc sighed. "Audrey, even after your ankle heals, you won't be able to cheer. Your ankle broke I'm assuming from the first crack you heard. Because you haven't rested and kept injuring it, the bone kept breaking. You will probably need surgery to help fix the fractured pieces. But the damage has been done. You will probably never cheer again."

Audrey's face fell at the doctors words. Her eyes welled with tears at the realization that she could never cheer again. Doc excused himself and went with Fairy Godmother to fill out some paperwork. That left Jay and Audrey alone in the exam room.

Jay sat uncomfortably in his chair. He felt awkward and didn't know what to do. He saw that Audrey was crying on the table. He might've been mad at her, but he couldn't just sit there.

"Hey," he said awkwardly. "How you doing?"

Audrey sniffed. "How do you think I'm doing?" She snapped.

Jay winced at her words. He was irked at her tone, but understood she was just upset. He stood up and slowly walked over to her.

"Ok, I get you're upset-."

"Upset? Upset doesn't even cover it! I'm crushed!" Audrey cried. "Cheer is everything to me. It's my life. I've been cheering since I was four. And now I can't. My whole senior year is ruined."

Jay was speechless. He didn't know what to say. There was nothing he could say. What was done was done. No amount of words could change the fact that Audrey's ankle was in bad shape.

Jay awkwardly sat next to her on the exam table. He fiddled with his hands, waiting for Fairy Godmother to come back. He felt Audrey lay her head on his shoulder, crying softly. And he let her. Because he knew she needed it.

So they stayed like that, just waiting.