HURT •Jaden Hossler•

Chapter 9

I walked to Starbucks and went in. It wasn't a long walk, so I was there within minutes. I gave the guy behind the counter my order and paid. I felt like I was being rude, because I cut him off every time. I just can't get my mind of what just happened. Not only the kiss with Jaden, but also that Payton lied to me for six months. And why would he be angry about me and Jaden. I mean he messed up, not me or Jaden. Like he has a new girlfriend or whatever she is. But he still gets mad for me kissing Jaden. Well actually Jaden kissed me first. Why tho, I mean we are just friends. He is my best friend. And did it mea-. "Hot chocolate for Aliyah?", the guy from earlier called. I shot out of my stare I was having and walked up to the pick-up place. "Thanks, sorry for cutting you off. It's just not my night", I said giving the guy a smile. "It's fine, I've had worse", he chuckled, "are you alright tho? You seemed a bit lost in your thoughts." "It's just a long night", I said shrugging. "Do you want to talk about it?", he asked. "No, you're at work. I don't want you to get in trouble", I said. "It's fine. It's almost midnight and normally nobody comes in this late", he said shrugging. "Are you sure?", I asked not wanted to get him in trouble. "Yeah, my day wasn't really great either", he said with a weak smile. I nodded and walked to the first table I saw. We sat down and then I remembered I don't even know his name. "What's your name?", I asked. He pointed at his name cart. "Noah", he chuckled. "Oh, yeah", I said awkwardly, "I'm Aliyah." He nodded and gave me a smile.

"So what happened that you're in a bad mood?", he asked sipping on his water he just made. "Well, I found out that my ex-boyfriend cheated on me for six months instead of two weeks. And I kissed my best friend", I said. "Okay... first: how did you find out? And two: why is that bad?", he asked. "One: the new 'girlfriend' came hanging with us, our friend group, and she told me. And two: it's just weird, it wasn't bad... it was actually... nice?", I said shrugging. I didn't really know how to feel about the kiss Jaden and I had. "Wow, okay but that is fucked up. Did he tell you she'd come?", he asked. "Nop, but I did tell him to go for her if he really liked her", I said looking down. "You're too nice", he said chuckling. "I know, my brother tells me that every time", I said looking up at him. "But about that kiss with you best friend?", he asked making sure he had it right. I nodded and he continued. "Do you like him?", he asked raising his eyebrows. "No, I can't like him. I just got out of a relationship for two years and I still love Payton, even tho I really don't want to right now", I said shaking my head. "I know it might seem soon, but sometimes your feelings for a person are stronger than you think", he said smiling. "Yeah.. maybe you are right", I said under my breath, "but what about your day?" "Oh yeah, well...", he started. He looked down and I could tell he was sad. "If you don't want to tell me it's fine", I said putting my hand on his.

"No, you told me your story. And if I'm honest I think I should talk about it with someone", he said looking up. I noticed he had tears in his eyes, and it made me worried. "My brother passed away a year ago today... I just really miss him", he said looking down once again. I see the tears fall and my heart breaks for him. I couldn't imagine losing Anthony. I grabbed his hand with both my hands, and he looked up. "I'm sorry", was the only I could say. "It's just hard, because it feels like my parents don't miss him at all and every time I bring him up they just cut off the conversation", he said sniffing. "Can I ask what happened?", I asked. He nodded and said, "my parents and brother were always arguing, because my brother was different. He was... gay." I nodded. I really don't have any problem with gay people, actually no people at all. Just people who cheat. *chough* Payton *chough*. "He came out that night and my parents completely flipped out on him. They practically kicked him out. I talked with him the whole night and that we would keep in touch. I really hated my parents at that moment. He left that night and he would text me when he got to the hotel", he said as tears were rolling down. "He n-never texted me, so I called him. A-and then somebody else picked up. A-and told me he g-got into an accident. H-he got killed i-in a drunk driver accident," he said stuttering. I was tearing up too, just of the thought of that. My parents would be the same. I stood up and walked to the other side of the table. He stood up too and I gave him a hug. We hugged for a while and he let everything out he had been building up inside.