Accidentally Yours

"Come on, Hayley. Can you brighten up a little?" Kat asked incredulously. "Today's the annual school foundation festival. Don't walk around with such a gloomy aura around you."

"I don't know. I'm feeling kind of moody recently," I answered. "Is that normal?"

"For you, yes," Raven teased.

I shot him a death glare, and he shot it back with a mischievous smirk. "Ugh, I hate you."

"If I can get a penny everytime I hear you say that, I'd be rich by now."

Kat abruptly shoved me against Raven, making our shoulders collide with each other. Before I was able to snap at Kat, she said, "Sooner or later, the two of you are going to have to live under the same roof. You should start getting intimate by now."

"Me? Intimate? With him? Please. I'd rather be intimate with a goat."

Raven scoffed, "Oh, really? Then I'd rather be intimate with a rat."

I felt a twinge in my chest. Why, I wondered.

Raven averted his eyes shortly after looking at me, after seeing whatever unwanted reaction I had on my face. "Sorry 'bout that. It was a bad joke."

"Anyway," Kat continued awkwardly. "Tonight, there will be a fireworks show. They say that couples that confess to each other end up happy forever and ever after. Honestly, I don't believe in that crap, but maybe some sort of miracle would happen to the two of you, so make sure you say it right, eh, Raven?"

Raven mumbled something unintelligibly, while I did the same on my own side.

After all, why would we vow to love each other in sickness and in health under a fireworks display?

I don’t love him; he doesn’t love me. Even a rain shower of miracles wouldn’t work on two people if they’re not in love, no matter how much they willed it.



Funny thing was, a lot of girls confessed to him today—and more keep coming, saying that they wanted to watch the fireworks with him tonight.

Not that I actually cared. I mean, after all, we're not really going out and we're just being mature and responsible for what had happened before. It's not like I felt jealous or anything.

"So, are you going to watch the fireworks with someone tonight?" A brunette girl asked seductively, scooting in next to Raven at our table, emphasizing (something that I lacked) what should not be emphasized.

I stabbed the porkchop straight to its center, watching them. I repeat, not because I was jealous.

"Actually..." Raven glanced at me once, gave a little smug smirk, and turned his attention to the pretty little flirt next to him. "I don't have any plans with someone...unless..."

Like, what was that all about? He didn't have to do that. It's not like I was jealous!

"Unless what?"

"Unless his girl friend wants to go with him and promise happily ever after," Kat interrupted coldly as she slid next to my seat. "Now, honey, this is our table, thank you very much."

The brunette girl glared at us as if it were the first time she noticed me there. She faced Raven, and then planted a quick kiss on his left cheek just before she left.

"She did it on her own," Raven shrugged.

"And you loved it, damn womanizer," I snapped back, stabbing the fork continuously into the innocent, battered pork chop.

Raven sighed, biting into his sandwich. "I didn't even know that girl. She's the one who kissed me all of a sudden."

"Flirt," I spat.

"Ice queen," he retorted.

"At least I don't go around chasing skirts."

"And why would you? You wear one," he smiled sarcastically. I swear to God, it took me all the patience not to punch the lights out of his sorry face.

Kat just rolled her eyes.



All the blood drained from my head when Kat suggested, “Let’s go to a horror house!”

I gulped.

Kat grabbed hold of my hand abruptly, practically towing me to the entrance. "Come on, Hayley. Don't be such a baby."

"I'm not being a baby. It's just that...you know..."

As if on cue, Raven blew against my ear, one of his “How to Annoy Hayley” antics. "Are you scared?"

"I-I-I'm not!" Blood rushed to my cheeks when I noticed that our faces were inches apart. He seemed to have noticed it too, because he winced and pulled away.

"It's not that scary," Kat continued excitedly. "Come on, already! This is going to be awesome! I wanna see how these Class-C amateurs can scare the shit out of us!"

We entered the dark room, and in the suspenseful, deafening silence, I felt my heart race to the ninth power. My palms kept sweating. Tears threatened to fall. Any time now, someone would pop out of the blue, ready to scare us—ready to scare me, who had the weakest willpower of the three.

As we followed a candlelit path to a labyrinth, Kat said, "None of the scary shit is happening. Is this supposed to be a horror house, cause if it is—Eeek!”

I yelled at the same time Kat did, panicking. Something had fallen from the ceiling, and it fell right into my hands. I blinked several times as I processed what it was.

It was a bloody head! A bloody fuc—damn head!

I ran. I ran so fast that I tripped over some monster crawling on the floor that appeared out of nowhere. I cried there with my ankle strained from the sudden downfall, afraid and unsure of what to do next. Moments later, shadows flocked around me, growling, whispering, snarling.

“Raven!” I yelled frantically, tears flowing out of my eyes. “Raven!”



Raven had been separated from Hayley and Kat the moment the stupid head fell from heaven. He sighed, running out of patience from running around in circles.

“Raven!” Hayley’s shrieking voice echoed from somewhere deeper into the labyrinth.

He knocked on the labyrinth’s walls, testing its foundation. It was made of plywood and Styrofoam, quite easy to push through to.

“Hayley, where are you?” he yelled back.

“Help me!” she answered, her voice coming from straight ahead. Without hesitation, Raven punched and pushed and kicked through the walls. So what if he would be held responsible for the destruction caused later on? He was willing to be suspended for this.

What mattered the most was finding Hayley and getting to her as soon as possible.

The monsters scrambled out from their hiding places, yelling at him to stop his destructive overdrive. Raven ignored them. It took him only a few minutes to finally find where Hayley was, and when he found her, she…



I jumped towards him, my heart finding ease at last. As soon as I made out Raven’s face under the dark light, I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into his warmth.

What was I doing, crying and clinging to him? Under normal circumstances, we would’ve both been embarrassed to death—disgusted with each other on saner circumstances, actually—but there was none of that ill feeling right now. He was here.

“I thought you wouldn’t come for me.”

“Would I be able to do that?” he laughed, his voice muffled against my hair.

“Where’s Kat?”

“I don’t know—but for now, can we just please get out of here?” he pulled away and stirred awkwardly. He started for the exit, and I trailed after him, my hand grabbing for the back of his shirt.

I didn’t let go until we were out of the darkness, and for a strange moment, I thought of the strangest thing.