Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Bailey's POV

“Give me the chips.”

“Give me the chips.”

No one turned a head, so Alex spoke again, “Give me the chips.”

“Can I have the chips?!” he yelled obnoxiously from his seat at the end of the couch.

“Excuse me?” Kaylie ridiculed next to him. I laughed lightly and popped another chip in my mouth.

“I want some chips, I want some chips, I want some chips,” Alex repeated, getting annoyed.

“What was that?” Kaylie repeated with the same deriding tone.

Alex exhaled loudly before rolling his eyes. “Can I please have some chips?”

Kaylie smiled at Alex. “Yes. You may.” She reached to her left and snatched the chips out of my lap and then gave them to Alex, who was sitting on her other side.

I dropped my jaw, looking offended. “Did you see what she just did?” I exclaimed beside me to Jack.

“Yes, BayBay! I did! I am appalled.” Jack shook his head, ashamed at Kaylie and Alex. “You fat fuck. You fat, fat fuck.”

Alex, Kaylie, Me and Jack sat on Melanie’s 3-coushioned couch comfortably, watching The Matrix in Melanie’s living room like we used to do almost everyday back in the fall. The rest of the group was sprawled comfortably around the room, feeling right at home. Just like it should be.

I saw a chip fly past my head and hit Jack in the face.

“Dick sucker,” Alex responded to Jack’s comment.

“You know,” Jack said, picking up the cheesy potato chip from his lap and examining it. “I would throw this back at your sunken in, shit rocker, face, but since you took the chips from poor little Bailey here, I’m going to give this chip to her. So she doesn’t starve. Jackass.”

“No, that’s you,” Alex smirked.

“Oh my freaking gosh! SHUT UP!” Melanie exclaimed getting tired of all the bickering but still keeping her eyes glued to the TV.

I giggled softly and Jack and Alex clamped their mouths shut. Thirsty from the snacks, I tried to heave myself off the couch to get a glass of water, but I was stuck in between Kaylie and Jack’s hips. I tried twice, three, four times but couldn’t get up.

“Looks like Bailey doesn’t need those chips after all,” Rian joked from across the room. The guys all cackled and earned a glare from me. I tried bracing myself on Jack and Kaylie’s knees but I still couldn’t get out from the couch, so I settled back down with burning cheeks.

“I’m getting up, anyone need anything?” a voice chimed from below me from where Zack was laying on the floor. I looked down at him and he was plainly staring at me, clearly mocking me for not being able to get up.

I stuck my tongue out at him and he winked back at me before laying back down, not even planning to get up in the first place.

“Why do my eyes hurt?” Rian said along with the movie.

Melanie looked at him dramatically, “Because you’ve never used them before.”

“Seriously, you guys. Stop quoting the movie dammit,” Alex griped at the two; they had been reciting every line back and forth to each other, getting a hoot out of it every time they did so.

“Who’s gonna get that?” Melanie asked after the door bell rang.

“Um, how about you?” Zack scoffed, being it was Melanie’s house. Melanie turned her head from the screen and gave him a ‘are you kidding me’ look and then focused her attention back at the TV.

“I think that’s Adam, I’ll get it!” Kaylie said popping up from the floor and dashing to the door.

I smiled at how excited Kaylie was to see Adam. They had been dating for only a month but it was clear they were perfect for each other.

Kaylie was spunky. She knew so many people and had probably talked to almost everyone in the school at least once, and she could be friends with anyone she wanted, but she chose a small friend group. She was sweet. At first I didn’t know how we got along so well, but she was really quite calm herself.

Adam was smug, but didn’t dwell on it too much. He was confident in himself enough that he didn’t need to act like a jerk for attention, well at least not most of the time. Adam was friends with completely different people, but everyone that Kaylie hung out with was so laid back that he fit in perfectly. He was polite and really cared.

The combination of the two was perfect. Kaylie’s humor and compassion and Adam’s poise and popular personality fit flawlessly. They didn’t spend too much time together to make each other, or outsiders for that matter, sick, but not too little where they were an amateur couple.

They felt completely comfortable around each other and everything came natural. It was like they skipped the awkward phase and perfectly molded the ideal relationship.

Though Kaylie never dug deep into the business that I didn’t want to tell her, she willingly spilled her thoughts about Adam and how she was doing. I loved to listen. I think that’s why Kaylie and I got along so well. We didn’t particularly need to talk or ask millions of questions. We just listened, and we liked to listen to story after story.

I was also very fond of Adam. At first, when the girls told me stories about how he streaked and was friends with some of the douchebags of Dulaney High, I was hesitant to like him because he contrasted with my personality so much. But like I have proven with my group of friends that I have and love so dearly now, first impressions are definitely not true.

Since Kaylie abandoned her couch seat, Jade pounced on the opportunity to get off the hard floor and take the prized chair. She quickly settled beside me and then looked over to the right of her, where Alex was reclined.

I felt Jade tense up beside me when Alex’s eyes were watching her. She tried to divert her eyes to her finger nails and then the hole in her jeans. What must have felt like an eternity to her, only lasted a couple seconds and when she dared herself to look back up at Alex, he quickly turned away from her and plastered his eyes to the TV screen.

I thought the kiss Jade and Alex had shared last night at the party would have made them more comfortable around each other, but it did the exact opposite. They never discussed it and neither of them knew what the other one wanted to do.

I didn’t know what Alex thought, but I did have a pretty good idea about Jade. She didn’t want to take the initiative to act because she doubted everything. I had no idea how Jade was going to get through her first day back tomorrow with clumsy air around Alex.

The awkwardness in the bubble around us even became painful for me to sit through. Luckily Kaylie came back, relieving Jade and Alex of the excruciating tension.

“Hey guys, Adam’s here!” Kaylie said over the loud noises from the TV.

“Hey everyone,” he smiled. He walked in with his light washed jeans and hockey sweatshirt behind Kaylie. His curly, dirty blonde hair was almost long enough to be considered a jewfro.

“Hi Adam”

“What up, bro.”

“Hey man.”

“Hello!”

“SSHHHHH!!!” Melanie hissed, eyes sparkling and glued to the screen still.

“SSHHHHH!!!” Jack imitated with a sneer on his face, tired of being shushed by Melanie when she was always the one talking during movies.

I chuckled at all the bickering that was going on tonight, until I felt raindrops on my face.

“Ew Jack!” I slipped my hand into the arm of my hoodie and whipped his spit off my cheek with the sleeve.

Zack, who was laying at my feet, not even paying attention to the movie anymore and texting me, got some of Jack’s present too and sat up to junk punch him.

“QUICK LIKE A CAT!” Jack threw his head back and cried and then swiftly shoved Zack’s arm out of his intended path, making him hit my boob.

“OWW!” I screeched and reached to grab my boob. Zack and Jack looked astonished, and little uncomfortable. Alex, who I thought was watching the movie, apparently saw the whole thing go down, started cackling. Everyone else turned to look at me, not really sure what was happening, but hearing me scream startled them for a second.

My face reddened as everyone stared. “What happened?” Kara asked confused.

“Zack punched me.”

“On accident!” he defended innocently.

“Alright!” Jack cheered enthusiastically. “An open invitation to stare at Bailey’s boobs!”

“Jack, you asshole,” Jade scoffed, rolling her eyes and trying to hold in her chuckle.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Alex agreed. “It’s like free porn,” he said as I tried to massage my boob, because damn, Zack punched hard. It definitely wasn’t a friendly tap.

“Seriously guys, I’m going to flip a twat. Shut up.”

“Seriously Mel, I’ll flip you, a twat. Shut up,” Alex said wittily.

Adam sat down by Kaylie where Jade has been previously lounging, smiling, thinking everyone was funny. I was glad he didn’t think we were completely rude or overwhelming; he always seemed to be at ease with us.

Silence settled for a bit before Alex spoke up again. “I don’t even want to watch this movie anymore!”

“Me neither,” agreed Jade and Kara.

“But guys, Adam just got here!” Kaylie complained.

I reached in my pocket to get my vibrating phone. Zack and I had been texting throughout the movie because he got bored.

Wanna go for a run before it gets dark?

I looked down at him and tapped him in the side lightly with my foot. He looked up at me and I nodded eagerly.

I was excited to go running again. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t gone running since Christmas. I used to run everyday, but ever since the day Jade and I dipped out, I hadn’t pulled out my running shoes once.

Zack and I descended down Melanie’s front porch together into the cold. It was the middle of February, so it was freezing temperatures, but it didn’t bother me.

“I haven’t gone running since the last time we ran together,” I said, starting the conversation between Zack and me as I tied up my shoes.

“Are you kidding me?” he said shocked.

“Nope. I guess I just had a lot of other thoughts on my mind…”

“Huh. Must have been one heck of a thought then.”

I chuckled, “It sure was.”

We started out jogging down my driveway and just ran lightly in silence for a bit through the neighborhood.

“So tell me about getting signed!” I said excitedly.

Zack chuckled at my enthusiasm and started out hesitantly. He was never the one to brag. “Well, we’re no longer with Emerald Moon’s Record Label anymore. Hopeless signed us, and that was so rad,” Zack said proudly. “We actually got signed the same day we called you. We got home and told the girls and then we called you two right afterwards.”

I smiled at the sweetness of his words. “So what are you going to do now?”

“We’re going to put out an EP with some of our older songs and I think we’re going to record a couple new ones too.”

“Really? Have I heard them?”

“Maybe,” he smirked. “I won’t give it away.”

I took a couple deep breathes before speaking again. “Oh come on! You know I’ll just hear them in Jack’s basement anyways, so just tell me now.”

“Oh, speaking of which,” he said, getting off topic. “We’re practicing, like, all the time now. So you guys can come whenever.”

“You’re getting off topic,” I whined. “Tell me about your songs.”

Zack bent down as he jogged and scooped up some snow his hands and sprinkled it in my face before jogging off ahead of me. “Nope!”

The cold flakes of the snow started to melt on my warm face and the cold water chilled my neck as I picked up my pace to catch Zack, who was still running fast ahead of me.

It was crazy how much Zack and I had opened up to each other. We were both the quietest ones out of the group, but when we were together it was completely normal to be myself. Even when we were with everyone else and Zack was there, I still felt shy. I think that was why I like spending so much time with Zack; I felt so comfortable with him. Laughing and telling stories came so naturally.

I continued to accelerate to catch up to Zack. As I did, I passed a large, dirty ice chuck that was sitting on the side of the road. I quickly ran over to it, picked it up and started running towards Zack with it. Once I caught up with him and strategically positioned myself so I could throw the snow chuck.

Seconds later I let go and the ice chuck hit Zack right where I was aiming. He yelped quickly and slowed down to bend over. He stood up again with a glare on his face, holding his junk.

I smirked at him. “That’s payback from earlier, thank you very much,” I said triumphantly, pointing to my left boob.

“Karma tastes so sweet, Bailey!” he said determinedly. I squealed when I saw him darting towards me and I turned to run towards home, forgetting the entire essence of the run. We stumbled through the snow from the chase, tackled each other in the snow, were completely out of breath, wet, frozen and in need of hot chocolate and warm shower, but we laughed the entire way home.