Whatever It Takes

"Dude, your hands were around her arms. Of course she's going to scream. Every girl would", Jeremy tried to cheer Josh up, but it wasn't working.
"No, she was upset before she even saw me. And there was blood covering her body. And she was crying", Josh recalled.
He couldn't sleep that night, think about how horrible Hayley looked. And all that blood. He had to talk to her. He had to find out what happened.
He was going to wait by her locker, but Jeremy forced him to go to History.
"If she is in, then she has to go to class. Then you can have the whole day to talk to her. Okay?", Jeremy told him as they sat in there normal seats in the history room.

Frankie came into the class and took her usual place in front on Chloe.
"Hey Fran, where did you get this book?", she asked. "It's great".
Frankie just smiled. "Did you hear from Hails? She wasn't online last night", she asked causually.
"Dunno. But I heard she was talking to some guy. Maybe she went home with him", Chloe laughed
"Shut up. He's over there", Frankie whispered, looking in the direction of Josh. "Anyways, I saw him after she left".
"Oh, he's cute. I don't know. Maybe she was just tired and went to sleep when she got home?", Chloe suggested.
"Maybe", Frankie said, considering that option.
Ms Downey walked into the room. Not many people stopped talking, but Frankie and Chloe did.

Just as she was about to read the first page, the door opened shyly and in walked Hayley.
"Told you", Jeremy nudged Josh, proud that he was right.
Josh just stared at her. She seemed so normal. Her hair was in her eyes, like every other day, so no one knew any different. Except Josh. He could see the wariness in her eyes, the way her hand shoke slightly, and how she cautiously walked up to the teacher and handed her a note. Ms Downey nodded her approvel and Hayley made her way to her seat. Frankie smiled at her, and Hayley smiled slightly. Chloe mended over her seat slightly and nudged Hayley's back. She winced slightly but went un-noticable to everyone except Josh. She turned around to face her.
"Have anymore porn books?", Chloe whispered.
"Do you have anything to share with the class, Ms Jonas?", Ms Downey asked her, staring above her glasses.
"No miss", she answered politly, but whispered to herself, "you little freak".
Hayley and Frankie smiled and Ms Downey just continued with her work.
"Okay, so I hope you all were listening, because you are now going to be paired up for a project about this topic.", the teacher informed them when she finished reading.
Everyone in the room smiled and began to talk. Someone down the back laughed and shouted "What's the topic?", but the teacher ignored him.
"But you will not be with your usual partners", she continued. "So I will call out the partners I have decided to be with each other".
Frankie smiled at Hayley. "It was nice knowing you". They both snickered.
"Rebecca, your with Michelle. Jessica is with Rian. Diana, you will be with Zac. Chloe, your with Taylor. Francheska, your with Jeremy".
"It's Frankie miss, no one ever calls me that. Mainly because it's not my name", Frankie complained.
"Okay, Frankie and Jeremy. And Josh will be with Hayley. Now, go sit with the person I put you with, and try to remember what the topic was, please".
Everyone was smiling as they went to their new partners, except Josh and Hayley. He walked over to her table and sat on the seat where Frankie use to sit. She didn't look at him, just stared down at her book.
"Okay, so the topic is famous artists. So I was thinking of doing Michelangelo, because he's like, the most famous, but we can do whatever you want either", she said, trying to act normal.
"Look, Hayley, I think we need to talk", Josh said as gentle as possible.
"Well, yeah, of course we do. Because we have to have this done soon, right", she said.
"I mean about last night", he said again gently.
"Oh yeah, the party. Pretty cool, huh?", she smiled.
"No. Not the party. Afterwards", he said.
"I don't know what your talking about. I went straight home last night", she said smiling.
"Okay, odviously this isn't going to be easy. You know what I'm talking about. Now are you going to explain to me what happened?", he said again.
"I already told you. I don't know what your talking about", she tried to smile but if was odvious to Josh that she was uncomfortable.
"Okay, so Michelangelo did you say?", he asked, trying to make her feel comfortable. It seemed to work a little. At first, she was taken back by his sudden change of subject, but took her advantage to keep an easy conversation flowing.

After school, Hayley was walking out of the school grounds when Josh caught up with her.
"Hey, Hayley, wait up", he called as he ran to her.
She was startled at first, but once she saw who it was, she smiled.
"Josh, hey. Do you need something?", she asked casually.
"Yes, actually", he said causiously.
"Well, then, aren't you going to tell me?", she smiled.
"I need to know the truth", he finally said what he wanted to since the first class that day.
"About?", she tried to act innocent, but she didn't achieve it.
"Don't mess me about Hails. I saw you last night. You were covered in cuts, and you were crying. What were you running from?", he asked, with sympthy in his eyes.
"What? I have no cuts. Do you see any cuts?", Hayley asked, pretending she was getting annoyed.
Josh lifted the piece of hair that had been covering her eyes for the whole day.
"Yes, I do", he said quietly. The cut wasn't as bad as the night before, but it still had the scary feeling it gave Josh when he first saw it.
Hayley looked down at the ground.
"What happened?", he asked again.
"Nothing, okay?", she pulled away from him, so her hair covered her eyes again.
"I really want to help. Just tell me what happened, and I can make sure it won't happen again", Josh tried to reassure her, but it didn't work.
"I have to go", she said, continuing to stare at the ground as she made her way home.
Joshed watched her leave, just like he did the night before.