Operation Beautiful

“Emma! Come on inside!” Mrs. Hansen wraps Emmaleigh in a huge hug. “Corey, Matt, help her with her bags, please.”

We head outside, only to find one suitcase in the car. “Where’s Jessica?” I ask Matt.

He sighs and ruffles his hair. “Upstairs. I don’t think Mom knows about the fight.”

“She’ll find out about it soon enough,” I say, heaving the suitcase out of the car. “I guess I’ll go talk to Jessica.”

“No!” Matt says, a little too forcefully. “I’ll talk to her.” He grabs the suitcase from my hands and heads inside.

I follow after him, but instead of going upstairs I head into the kitchen.

“Well, Emma, did you see your parents off?”

“Yeah. They were really excited.They’ve never seen Alaska before. My mom wants a picture of them in front of a glacier and some whales. She has this weird love of whales.”

I smile at Mrs. Hansen and slip into the bar stool next to Emmaleigh at the kitchen island. “Sounds like they’ll have a good time,” I say.

She nods. “Yeah.” She turns to Mrs. Hansen. “Have you guys already had dinner?”

“We were actually waiting for you. Why don’t you call Jessica down. I don’t know why she hasn’t come to see you yet.”

Emmaleigh gets up and looks at me. “Um, yeah. I’ll go...talk to her.”

“I’ll go call Matt,” I say, following Emmaleigh upstairs. We climb in silence for a bit. “Nervous?” I ask her.

She nods. “Yeah. I don’t know what she’ll say.”

“Well, you did say that you would apologize and it would all blow over.”

She hooks a long strand of curly hair behind her ear and looks down. “I also said that I didn’t think I was going to back down this time.”

“Meaning?”

She looks at me. “There’s something we both want. Usually I’m the one to back down, but...I’m going to have to tell her that I can’t this time.”

“Well, I guess it’s her turn to stand back,” I say, unsure as to what exactly I’m supporting. “Is this about Matt?” I ask.

“Yeah. She wants to push and I don’t want her to,” Emmaleigh says with a sigh.

I pat her on the back as she stops at Jessica’s door. “Good luck.” She nods and I walk past her and into my room. “What did you talk to Jessica about?” I ask Matt.

“I told her she’s going to need to make up with Emma before Mom finds out.”

“What did she say?”

“She said it was none of my business.” He looks up at me and sighs. “I guess there really isn’t anything we should--”

“If you want something then go out and GET IT!” I hear Emmaleigh yell from across the hall. “Stop blaming me just because you’re too spineless to do it yourself!”

“Well you’re not helping!” Jessica yells back. “And, as a friend, you’re supposed to HELP!”

“Should we, uh,” I jerk a thumb at the door.

Matt shakes his head. “Nah. They’ll need to battle it out anyway.”

“Well, how about this. Instead of going all behind-the-scenes and trying to manipulate the situation, why don’t you just go for it and if you fail, respect what I want!” I hear Emmaleigh yell.

“I already--!”

“Yeah, you called it. That’s why I’m giving you a shot to go first!” The yelling stops.

“I guess they solved the problem,” Matt says, looking at me curiously. “Do you know what they’re fighting over?”

I can’t exactly say it’s about him. “No,” I lie. “Not a clue.”

***
Dinner is extremely quiet. Jessica isn’t glaring at Emmaleigh, but the two aren’t talking either. If Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have noticed anything, they haven’t said so.

“Anything interesting happen at school today?” Mrs. Hansen asks, passing the chicken to Matt.

Matt shrugs. “Nothing much.” He looks at me. “What did you do all of lunch? Didn’t see you.”

“Just...” I glance at Emmaleigh, who shakes her head furtively. “Just hung around. And then Janice called. Apparently Haley and Trevor...?”

“Fought, yeah.” Matt says, picking up his drumstick and sinking his teeth into it. He chews and swallows before continuing. “I’ve never seen Trevor that jumpy before.” He laughs. “He was like a cocaine addict, I swear. All irritable and restless.”

“They fought?” Jessica asks. She looks upset. “Why?”

I don’t really want to give away all the details. Matt and I share a glance. “I don’t know,” I lie. “Probably just a silly argument.”

“Yeah, they’ll get over it,” Matt agrees. But he probably doesn’t know the extent of the problem.

***
“I know you know,” he says later when we’re safely upstairs.

“Christa took random pictures of me and Haley to get him jealous,” I explain.

Matt lets out his breath with a whoosh. “And he got jealous?”

“Yeah.”

Matt sits up suddenly. “Is that why your eye is so weird?”

I poke it gently with my finger. “Is it that bad?” It didn’t end up as bruised as I had expected, I guess the ice had helped. Or maybe Trevor had been going easy on me, too. I’m surprised no one had mentioned it at dinner.

“Not really. My mom was asking me if you’d gotten into a fight or something. Did you and Trevor...?”

I nod. “Yeah. I think Haley got mad at him for punching me.”

“That sucks.”

Suddenly my phone starts ringing. I pick it up. “Hello?”

“Coreyyyyyyyyyy.” It’s Clarice, sounding more pissed than I’ve ever heard her before.

“Clarice, it’s nine o’clock. What’s up?”

“I need you to go talk to Haley.”

“Why?”

“Because. This whole hiatus thing...” her voice trails off and she sighs deeply. “I don’t like it.”

“No one likes it. I don’t like it. But it’s Haley’s choice, isn’t it?” That’s me, not really wanting to get involved.

“Yes, but,” she pauses. “I’m just worried that she’ll go too far. She’s overreacting.”

“Clarice, she’s a teenage girl going to therapy. I think she’s allowed to overreact a little.”

“Well, considering it’s Haley, I guess it’s to be expected,” Clarice muses. “She’s the type of person who solves a screw-driver problem with a power-drill. She’s very thorough.”

“So, have you already talked to her?” I ask, certain she got the power-drill metaphor from Spike.

“I spent the last three hours at her house. She explained everything and, well, we went to the movies.”

I’m incredulous. It sounds like she didn’t do much in the get-Haley-and-Trevor-back-together department. “So, why do you want me to talk to her?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like...like there’s either some other reason she’s doing this or she should just ask Trevor for space instead of going the whole ten yards.”

“Clarice, she explained it to me and it kinda makes sense. I think the best we can do now is hang out with her and just have fun. When she feels like she’s had enough space they’ll get back together. It might even be better that way. Haley said you guys haven’t hung out in a while?”

“Yeah.” Her voice is more resigned now. “I guess I was just hoping for a happily ever after for her.”

“There’s no such thing as a happily ever after,” I say, trying to comfort her. “Especially not in high school. You have to work for it. It would be worse if they didn’t try to fix it.”

“That actually...makes me feel better,” she says, sounding relieved. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” But as I hang up, I feel uneasy. I pick up the phone and call Spike.

“Hey,” he says. “What’s up?”

“Just...thought I’d go check up on Haley tomorrow.”

“I had the same idea,” he says with a laugh. “I’ll pick you up a little after noon, okay?”