Highmore Manor

The last day of term came around fast. Time had past while my bruises healed and my ribs stitched themselves back together and now it was time for going home for two weeks. All six of us were sitting around a table in the cafeteria in silence, I was thinking about everything that happened to me over the past month and a bit.

Callie and I spent a lot of our time with Chase, she was annoyed by the fact that he always seemed to want me to tag along too and that I always obliged. We’d been into the town and he’d shown us around, he’d driven us all the way up to Dover and we’d gone on a huge shopping spree. Well Callie and I had while Chase ‘did some business’.

He was adamant that I go to his party on his private boat in the first week but that meant I had to consult my mother and my friends, who were waiting for me to come visit.

I was so excited about going home to see Payton, Ricky and my mum, I'd missed them so much and no amount of MSN-ing and phone calls could make up for them not being in England with me.

But then I was going to miss my friends over here, they were all planning parties and I was invited to all of them, all apart from Ryan. But Alex informed me I was actually invited just Ryan was being an immature bitch, according to him anyway.

Ryan decided he hates me.

It had been about four weeks since I'd told him my true feelings in the woods and he still avoided me in corridors and never talked to me. I tried - of course - to talk to him but he didn't want to so after a while I just gave up.

“Two hours in counting,” Callie said softly beside me.

We all groaned, those of us not already slumped on our arms did so then.

“You know, I’ve grown to love this place, but I really just want this day to be over. Now,” I mumbled into my arm. I heard a few grunts of agreement. I glanced up and looked around at my friends; they all had their heads down. From the outside we must have looked an odd bunch.

“I’m sick of school,” Ryan said looking up and straight at me and I caught his meaning immediately. He was sick of me, nice subtext there Ry.

“Yup homework just sucks at the moment,” I said shooting him a half glare, not meaning to be mean but meaning that with him ignoring me it sucked. He stared at me for a few seconds and then slumped back down on his arms.

“So are you guys all coming to my party?” Chase asked with a spark of excitement rising in his voice. We all looked up.

“Can’t,” Alex and Ryan said simply, glancing at each other.

“Won’t,” Jesse mumbled slightly.

“Oh come on guys, don’t be such party poopers,” Callie said with a look that said ‘no really carry on being party poopers, please.’ I didn’t like the iciness going on in our group at that moment.

“I’m busy,” Jesse said looking away from his right.

“Whatever leaves more for me,” Chase said putting his arm around my shoulders. Jesse glanced back at us and caught my eye for a second before looking away again. Callie glared, Alex watched Callie glare, and Ryan and I watched Alex’s face fall slightly. Ryan met my gaze and shot me a worried look. It was the only time we ever shared a connection, whenever Callie and Alex’s relationship was obviously being put on the line.

Their relationship was completely falling apart. Callie was endlessly flirting with other guys and they hadn’t even broken up yet. I was beginning to think she was trying to give him a taste of his own medicine even though he never flirted with the girls that flirted with him, or she really was just a bitch.

I smiled slightly up at Chase; I really didn’t mind that his arm was around me and not her.

“You’re coming aren’t you?” he asked softly looking straight into my eyes.

“I haven’t talked to my mum or Payton yet so I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. He laughed.

“Well hurry up, we leave for France tomorrow so you’d better ring now,” he said.

To go along with his private boat he had a kind of private jet, kind of because he had to share it with anyone from his father’s work and all of his father’s friends.

"That's a good idea, anything to end this boredom," I said standing up slowly.

"I'll come with you," Chase offered and stood up too.

"Me too," Callie said quickly jumping up and knocking over her seat.

"I'm coming too," Alex said suddenly. Ryan stood up slowly, so not to feel left out and Jesse stayed seated staring at his friends with an incredulous look on his face.

"Great, why doesn't whole group come too? I was hoping it would just be you and me," Chase muttered lightly thinking only I could hear, but I saw Callie shoot a sudden, hurt look at Chase and then looked down at the table in shock, and Jesse and Ryan were both glaring slightly at Chase.

“Its ok guys, I’ll just go by myself, I don’t need someone to hold my hand,” I said. Chase raised his eyebrows and looked a little disappointed.

I turned and walked away from them all, saying ‘bye’ and escaping the tension.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

The trip from Highmore to Ramsgate Airport sure was an exciting one. We left at 11 in the morning in Chase's car, so that we could be in France before 3 o'clock.

Chase’s car was unbelievably luxurious, the seats were like sinking into the comfiest bed in the world and everything was so pristine and perfect. He drove smoother then any guy I had ever driven with as well as adding a bit of typical teenage boy road rage into the mix.

He revved the engine when we left from a standstill and left skid marks in the perfect white stone gravel in the courtyard and zoomed off down the driveway so fast I was certain he was going to crash. I sat in the passenger seat, gripping the sides of the seat, with an exhilarated but slightly scared look on my face.

I was happy to be going to the party, and to be going to France, one of my top ten places to visit in the world. Convincing my friends and family had gone surprisingly easy.

The conversation with Payton had been interesting, she seemed happy that I wanted to go to a party and miss out on the two weeks we would have had together and no matter how much I reminded her that it meant she would have to wait another 10 weeks before I saw her again didn’t make her unhappy at all. Then she hung up on me after saying “Have fun, gotta go, Ricky’s here, bye.” I had stared at the phone for about a minute before hitting the end button.

Mum had been harder to persuade, she really wanted me home. But she gave in sadly after about an hour and that made me feel bad. She was after all at home alone with the little monster that called herself my sister.

So there I was with Chase in his sporty, expensive looking Porsche with Callie sulking in the back squished up against the luggage that couldn't fit in the tiny trunk. We were speeding around the bends in the road at about 120 kmph but it was so smooth that I hardly even realized how fast we were actually going.

Callie was angry because Chase had asked me to sit in the front seat with him instead of her. So she decided to be annoying. When she failed at trying to flirt with Chase from the back seat she turned to snapping at anyone who spoke to her. After every second thing I said she managed conjure a snide comment to go along with it, so I came to the point where I was ignoring her. Chase had had enough of her too, growling at her and telling her to shut up every few minutes.

We were just coming into Ramsgate. The town looked amazing in the morning sun, warm looking but the air in the car was filled with icy silence in comparison. I stared out the windows at the town moving past, my head resting on my hand. The whole trip had reminded me of one a family would take, where everyone would slowly get more and more annoyed with each other.

"Can we stop?" Callie asked suddenly.

"Why?" Chase asked in a bored tone.

"Would you just stop the friggin’ car,” she snapped. Chase shot me a look, rolled his eyes and then pulled the car into a park. She got out and slammed the door shut and started walking away. As soon as the door slammed Chase dropped his head down on steering wheel with a thump.

“I’m in the right mind to drive off and leave her here,” he groaned.

“Please do,” I muttered.

"Where the hell is she going anyway?" Chase snapped climbing out of the car.

"Callie, we have to be at the airport.” Chase glanced at his watch. “In about ten minutes," he said in a very annoyed tone. She spun around to face us with a dark expression.

"Look it's been made pretty obvious that neither of you want me here, so would you just leave me alone!" Callie snapped and then stalked off again. Chase's mouth was hanging open.

"Great!" he said in a sarcastically happy voice, and then spun on his heel, got in his car and slammed the door shut leaving me standing on the pavement by myself. I glanced once at Chase and then hurried after Callie.

I found her in a small café.

Well actually I walked past her position in the window three times before I realized she was staring at me with a slightly amused expression. I went in and plonked myself down beside her.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing," she mumbled.

"Oh don't give me that bull shit!" I said disbelievingly. She just ducked her head slightly and remained silent. "You've changed Cals. Ever since Chase arrived you've been different. Did something go wrong when Chase arrived?" I asked quietly.

"Oh it was way before Chase and it really has nothing to do with him!" Callie exclaimed raising her head to look me in the eye.

"So? What was it?" I asked. "Because you know you're hurting Alex -" I started.

"Hurting Alex?" Callie hissed. "Me hurting him? Oh so that's what he's been feeding you aye? You don't know the half of it Hayley!" Callie snapped harshly. I reeled back slightly. I was conscious of some people looking over in our direction.

"What do you mean?" I whispered leaning closer.

"You know I thought Alex was so perfect, he was kind and seemed to really love me. But you know what - it was all lie, he's a big fat liar. Boys always are. Nothings ever perfect. And he hates Chase so much, so I thought I'd get Alex back by pulling Chase but Chase doesn't want me!" Callie started babbling.

"Whoa, Cals, you're making no sense, please explain," I said holding my hands up like a surrender. Callie took a deep breath.

"You really want to know what it is?" Callie said.

"No I asked because I don't want to know anything about it, so stop talking," I said sarcastically. Callie glared and I smiled innocently.

"I'm not going to say if you're going to be witty, in fact, no it’s Alex's business not mine or yours!" Callie decided and went to stand up. I grabbed her arm.

"You're his girlfriend and I'm his friend I think that gives us the right to know," I said pulling her down into her chair again.

"Fine. You know how I accused him of being all flirty with other girls?" she asked pursing her lips. I nodded. "Well that was sort of just a cover up, I told him that was why I was angry but it's actually because of something else." She took a deep breath and launched into the story.

"Alex and I always had problems, you know he was popular and I wasn't. I was always jealous of all those girls who flock around Alex, Ryan and Jesse because they always got what they want and that means getting Alex and Ryan, but maybe not Jesse," Callie smiled slightly at that and I had to agree.

"Alex isn't as perfect as everyone thinks he is. He's just not. And this last thing only makes him ten times more not perfect. A while back Camilla tried to steal Alex off me, she has a way of stealing boys from their girlfriends, and her big plan was to make Jesse jealous by getting his best friend but it didn't work. Alex turned her down. But looks like she's got her way now," Callie stopped and put a hand over her mouth emotionally.

"What did she do?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"I can trust Brittany, but never Camilla. Brittany told me that Alex and Camilla - Camilla and Alex - you know," she looking at me as if I should know, tears brimming. I stared at her.

"Wait you mean they - they - did it?" I asked, my eyes widening. Callie started crying and nodded slowly. I quickly slid my chair round next to hers and wrapped my arms around her.

"Let's just hope that Brittany is wrong, you know, that was a whole bunch of 'apparently's, and could just be a rumor," I said comfortingly. She nodded slowly and sniffed into my hair.

I couldn't believe Alex had done that.
He always seemed so nice.