Operation Beautiful

“Why’d you take Jessica home?” I ask Matt. The girls are upstairs, leaving us guys sitting on the kitchen table. Matt just shrugs.

“She was being annoying.”

“Oh.” What else can I say? There’s a pregnant pause before Matt speaks again.

“Hey, let’s play a game,” he says. I snag an apple from the fruit bowl and take a bite.

“Okay. What game?”

“Well, I’ll say a word and you say the first thing that comes to mind.” I raise an eyebrow at him. Where is this going?

“Where’s you learn this game, from Dr. Phil?” Matt just shrugs.

“Just...play with me.”

“All right. Go.”

“Chocolate.”

“Cake.”

“Glee.”

“ick.”

“Carrots”

“Yum.”

“Jessica.”

“Scary.”

“What?” Matt scoffs. I open my eyes wide.

“What?” I ask.

“You find Jess scary?” He laughs. I feel my face turn slightly red.

“You know I get nervous around girls. Especially ones as...confident as her.”

“You mean wild,” Matt says, with a grin. I just shrug. “It’s a wonder you ever went out with Haley,” he continues, shaking his head.

“Haley’s different. She didn’t really act like a girl back then.”

“Emmaleigh?” he asks. I look at him.

“What?”

“Emmaleigh. How was your date with her today?”

“It wasn’t a date. And it was really awkward.” I decide to throw him a bone. “I don’t really like her that way.”

“Mmm,” says Matt. “Well, as long as you don’t have feelings for Jess.”

“Dude,” I say, putting my hands up. “I told you, I would never touch Jessica. She’s like my sister.” Matt raises an eyebrow at me and I lower my voice guiltily. “And she scares the crap out of me.”

“Then this month should go by really quickly,” says Matt, standing up.

“What?” I take another munch of the apple. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Just a deal Jess and I made.”

“What kind of deal?” I ask suspiciously. What does this have to do with me and my “feelings” for Jessica? Matt opens his mouth to answer, but we’re interrupted by someone bounding down the stairs.

“Just getting some water,” Emmaleigh says. She pulls down a glass, fills it, and begins chugging as she jogs back upstairs.

“The deal,” says Matt, watching her leave. “is that I hang out with Emma more this month. And if I don’t like her by then, Jess has no right to get involved in my love life. I mean, it’s not even like Emma likes me. Jess just thinks we’d be ‘perfect’ together.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Now Emmaleigh’s secret is safe, she gets a chance with Matt, and I don’t have to go on any freakish double dates.

“Wait. What does that have to do with me not liking Jessica?”

“Well, you’ll probably end up hanging out with her more if I’m with Emma.”

“And you’re okay with that?” I ask incredulously. Matt shrugs again and shifts his gaze to the fruit bowl.

“Whatever.”

***
“How was your weekend?” Haley asks as I enter 4th period. She seems a lot lighter now, as if laughing lifted a huge weight off her shoulders. “Did you get a reply to your fortune cookie note?” The events of the weekend come flooding back to me and I spend a good portion of math class balancing notes for the class and a long-winded explanation of the note person, Emmaleigh liking Matt, and the deal Jessica struck with Matt.

It was Jessica? Woah...did not see that coming.

Yeah, neither did I. I was kinda hoping it was-- I stop myself from writing down the name that pops into my head. someone else.

Emma?

You don’t miss much, do you?

Nope. Much to your annoyance ;)

What is this? Haley using smiley faces??

“So what did you think of Emmaleigh?” I ask as we walk out of class. Haley’s opinion has always been important to me, when we were dating and even now that we’re just good friends. She seems to see past the surface of anything and everyone. The girl could see through the ulterior motives of chair. Haley nods slowly.

“Well, I think what matters more is what you think of her.” she says.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask. A small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth and for the first time I see it glimmer in her eyes. She spins me around to face her and puts her hands on my shoulders.

“It means that I’m giving you my blessing.” She leans forward and pulls me into a friendly hug. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” She says into my ear.

“How do you see right through me?” I ask, surprised at this show of affection. She shrugs, but I swear she skips a little down the hallway. “Okay, what is it?” I ask.

“What?” her eyes are wide and innocent.

“Why are you all grinny and smiley?”

“Because I can see the future,” she jokes, a grin breaking through her usually stoic features. “And I’m so happy for you!” She grabs my hand and squeezes it once before letting go. I swear she wasn’t even this physical when we were dating. I’ve never seen her this happy before. Trevor’s done a great job.

We sit down at the lunch table. Spike and Clarice are working on some extra credit French project in the library and no one but Trevor has shown up yet. He stands up to hug Haley and then jumps as his phone starts to ring.

“Hello?” pause. “How did you get this number?” more silence. “About what?” his face goes from confused to angry. “I don’t care.” there’s a faint murmur from the the other end but he cuts in quickly. “I said I don’t care.” He hangs up and slumps down in his seat, a frown on his face.

“Smile,” Haley says, poking him in the shoulder. “Who was it?” Trevor slams his head down against the table.

“Christa.” Haley and I share a surprised glance. I thought she’d dealt with that biotch a while ago.

“What did she want?” Haley asks, a frown on her face.

“To talk.”

“About?” she presses. Trevor lets out a groan and raises his head to look at me.

“Corey. Again.” I raise my hands in surrender.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“I don’t care,” he says stonily. “It’s none of my business and I’m not going to get involved.”

“When are you going to tell me what this whole ‘Corey’ thing is about?” Haley asks, her eyes boring into mine.

“I thought we’d gotten Christa to back off,” I say, trying to change the subject. “Remember, Haley?” Trevor sits back up suddenly.

“Haley got defensive?”

“Okay, okay, I get it. It’s none of my business,” she says quickly. But I keep looking at Trevor, who looks kind of pleased at the idea of Haley defending him.

“Kind of. Christa was still talking about that stupid party and Haley suggested--” A hand clamps over my mouth. I look up to see that Haley pretty much leaped over the cafeteria table in order to prevent my speech.

“I suggested nothing,” she growls. I struggle against her hand, erupting in peals of laughter as we fight.

“Trevor is it true--” her hand makes it back over my mouth and I push it away again, trying to laugh and speak at the same time. “Is it true Haley hasn’t seen you shirtless yet?”

“Where the hell did that come from?” Haley nearly yells, thumping me on the shoulder repeatedly. I just keep laughing. “Some friend you are,” she glowers as Trevor joins in the laughter.

“No. We should probably go remedy that, shouldn’t we?” Haley’s eyes grow wide as Trevor grabs her by the arm and begins to drag her out of the cafeteria. Even from all the way across the room I hear him erupt in peals of laughter. Haley is going to kill me later.