After our little chat, Riker and I exchanged numbers before he went back to his family. I stood in the same spot for a little while, looking out at the ocean. In the short time we talked, he told me that sometimes he felt like that, but he had his family to help him through. I told him I only had Jamie and my mom because my dad was in the army and my brother was away in college. I basically opened up about almost everything to him, even though we just met. It was amazing how we had so much in common and we were just strangers to each other. I was pulled out of my mind and back into reality when Jamie’s voice made me jump. I turned around to see Jamie and Kelsey.
“So,” She said. “How’d it go? Does he like you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well we saw you guys talk to each other.” Kelsey said.
“What were you guys talking about? Huh?” Jamie asked. She was way too noisy.
“Nothing important,” I started. Jamie sighed. “But I did get his number.” I said. They both jumped.
“We knew it!” They said at the same time. I just laughed.
“Let’s get back to the guys.” I said. It turns out as soon as we went back, Jamie and Caleb went to the water, Kelsey went to the boardwalk to scope out guys and I was stuck on the sand with Dylan. He was lounging on a beach chair and I made sure there was another beach chair in between us. I sat down on my towel and stuck in one of my headphones.
“So, Hayley, how are you?” Dylan said. I glanced at him. He was looking at me with those blue eyes I was once in love with.
“Um, fine.” I said, no feeling what so ever in my voice.
“Oh, that’s good. Have you, you know, stopped?” He said. I knew what he meant. He was one of the few people I told about my cutting. The others included Jamie and now Riker. I took off my sunglasses and looked at him in the eyes.
“It’s none of your business if I stopped or still am.” I said. He studied me. I couldn’t take the penetrating look of them, so I slid my sunglasses back on.
“Actually, it is. I still care about you.” He said. Yeah, right.
“Uh hmm. You cared about me so much that you dumped me for someone else. I totally get it.” I said, sarcastically. Dylan picked up on it right away.
“Could you forget about that? It happened a couple of months ago.” He said. You could see the red in his blue eyes.
“I don’t think I could ever forget. You lied and I trusted you.” I said. I started to get up and fold my towel.
“It was a mistake!” He shouted. I looked around to see we were attracting attention. Riker and his family even stopped to watch the show that was going on. I threw my towel back into my bag and roughly put on my shirt to cover up. “Where do you think you’re going? You can’t just leave!”
“Actually, I can. You’re not my boyfriend anymore. Remember?” I smiled. I grabbed Jamie’s car keys. “Tell Jamie I took her car. Thanks babe.” I called over my shoulder before trudging off to the parking lot, my curls flying off my shoulders as I did so.
“Hey! Hayley!” Riker shouted behind me. “Are you ok?” He asked when he finally caught up to me.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I said unlocking her car door and throwing my beach bag into the front seat.
“Call me if you need anything.” He said. I was actually quite surprised that he cared. I nodded and slid into the driver’s seat. I started the car and left to go home.
