Not Exactly What it Seems

I wish she would have told me from the beginning; it would have made everything easier. But I guess I kind of understand why she wanted to keep her secret. I knew that she thought I would hate her after that, but I could never hate her- she was perfect to me. I wanted to kill him for making her so upset, but I knew that she would get mad if I did. How I got mixed up in all the drama was a mystery to me, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything because that would mean I never would have met her. So really, I could handle the drama, as long as she would always be my friend. She seemed to be warming up to me.

Two days after the party, I received about a million roses with a card that was short and simple. ‘I’m sorry. I love you.’ Nathanial would never have said the things that he said if he were sober, but it still hurt. It took me a week to be able to talk to him again. But things were okay after that.

Almost a month went by and Hayden and I were becoming really close, he was a great guy. Nathanial found the perfect girl and I was so glad. She was petite and cute, shy yet still outgoing and she absolutely adored Nathanial in a way that I knew someone would. He deserved her and she deserved him. They were the new ‘it’ couple and were destined to be together forever. And like I told him, I was living the only way I knew how, getting by in the best way I could. Unlike some ex-girlfriends, I was not jealous and grudging, I loved his new girlfriend Anna and we became good friends. Though she did not know my secret, I felt as though soon after, I would be able to trust her with it.

Hayden was trying to convince me to be a cheerleader, claiming that the squad deserved someone as good as me. And he was actually wearing on me. See, he had this pout that I was just powerless against. It really was not fair, but I was slowly becoming immune so I hoped I would not cave before that happened.

Nathanial decided that he would play match maker for me and Hayden, claiming that we were the perfect couple. I was not so convinced. Yeah I was really starting to like the guy, but he would never care for me as anything more than a friend. And besides, I had no idea what really liking a guy felt like. I’d never actually had real feelings for the guy I went out with because I had no choice whether I wanted to go out with him or not. But Nathanial was truly convinced that we had to be together.

“So guess what,” Hayden said, walking up to my locker the day before Thanksgiving break started. He seemed rather reserved and sad.

“I have no idea. But my guess is that it is not something good,” I commented. “That look on your face is not a good one.”

“Well, I just found out that instead of having Thanksgiving at my house like we always do, my whole family has to go to Pittsburgh to celebrate at my grandmother’s house. Instead of just her coming up here to visit all of us, we all have to go down there to visit her.”

“You can’t! That’s so stupid, why would she make you all do that? Besides, we were supposed to hang out all break.”

“Tell me about it. So now I’m super bummed because my grandmother is just about the suckiest cook ever which is so not the way it’s supposed to go. Aren’t grandmothers supposed to be amazing cooks or something?”

I pouted in sympathy at his situation, knowing full well that I would not let him go. My parents were pestering me to ask him to come to dinner with us anyway. “Well, that is usually how it’s supposed to go. My whole family comes over to my house for Thanksgiving and my Nana makes the best pumpkin pie ever. And my Granny makes sweet potatoes that are too good for words. We all pitch in something and have about a million pounds of food left over. Even with the overwhelming number of family members I have, there is always way too much food.” With these descriptions I knew he would get mad at me for rubbing it in his face, but I couldn’t help do it before I asked him to come over.

“You enjoy that don’t you? Making me feel just how much my Thanksgiving is going to suck compared to yours. Is that really fair? Do you really want me to hate you forever Onyx? That seemed to be what you wanted when we first met, but I thought you were over that. I mean after all you-”

“Come with me,” I interrupted.

“Pardon? I could have sworn you just asked me to come with you.”

I laughed at how unbelievable he thought the prospect was. “Yes Hayden, that is what I asked. Of course, you could always decline and then go and eat the sucky food in Pittsburgh because I’m sure that you-”

He cut me off by cutting off my breathing. The hug that he pulled me into was bone crushing; I was surprised he didn’t kill me in the process. But once I was out of the hug and could breathe again, I laughed at how happy he had become. Apparently, he still thought that I did not like him all that much so this was a big thing.