Operation Beautiful

I’m so mad I could hit someone.

“Corey,” someone’s hand is on my shoulder.

“What the hell do you--” I stop when I see Jessica. Emmaleigh is behind her, a scared look on her face and a pen in her hand.

“You dropped it,” she almost whispers, holding the object out to me.

“Sorry, Emmaleigh. Today’s just not a good day. I wasn’t yelling at you.” She looks up, concerned.

“What happened?” I ruffle my hair lightly.

“Just...Trevor being an asshole.”

“Trevor-Haley’s-new-boyfriend-Trevor?” Jessica asks, narrowing her eyes slightly. I ignore her and look back at Emmaleigh.

“Haley doesn’t seem like someone who’d date an asshole,” she says quietly, stumbling slightly over the a-word. She raises her blue eyes to my face and lets out the smallest of comforting smiles. “He’ll come around.”

“We gotta go,” Jessica cuts in. “Bye!” She drags Emmaleigh away.

“Corey!” Unfortunately, this delay has given Trevor time to catch up to me, Spike a short distance behind him.

“Jealousy?” he pants. I ignore him and keep walking. “Corey,” he says, grabbing my shoulder. By now Spike has caught up.

“What’s going on?” He moves Trevor’s hand away and stands beside us.

“Jealousy?” Trevor asks again.

“If Haley doesn’t want you to know then I’m not going to say anything,” I say evenly.

“Jealousy is such an ugly color,” Spike says, looking at Trevor carefully. What’s going on?

“God Dammit.” Trevor lets out a groan and sits down with his back to the lockers. I sit down on one side of him, Spike on the other. Trevor puts his head in his hands. “God Dammit!”

“What?” I ask.

“Damn Christa,” Trevor says.

“What did she say?” I ask. He shakes his head, but Spike prods him.

“Christa is in your math class,” he begins. “And she says you guys have been talking a lot lately and,” he pauses, not really wanting to talk about it. “You know, passing notes today and stuff.” I can’t believe my ears.

“So you’re jealous?” He just shrugs. “Dude, you know Haley and I are just--”

“Friend, I know!” he yells in exasperation. “But knowing,” he points to his head. “and knowing,” he points to his chest. “are apparently two completely different ballgames!” I look at him. He just shakes his head. “You don’t know how annoying this is.”

“Oh yeah, because I never felt jealous when I found out Haley was living with you and hadn’t told me,” I spat. That was why we broke up. Not that Haley minded horribly, she was more upset with the fact that she made me cry. That was the old Haley, the one who didn’t feel many emotions.

“Well I don’t plan on solving it the way you did,” Trevor mutters.

“Well then you should probably talk to her,” I snap. “instead of being a jealous ass hole.”

“You know what--”

“He’s right, Trevor,” Spike says, clasping a hand over his mouth. “You’re going to have to talk to her.”

“Yes, well, it’s kind of embarrassing to admit to her, considering I know that there’s nothing going on.” I stand up in annoyance.

“Well then, you can either talk to her or you can deal with it yourself. But don’t make her worry for no reason,” I say standing up. “She’s gone all closed-up on you now.”

I enter the cafeteria to see Christa sitting next to Haley and talking to her. Clarice is glaring at them from her end of the table and Janice looks like she’s about to strangle someone. Matt probably disappeared after we did, not wanting to be at a table surrounded by girls not interested in him.

“Well, thanks for letting me know,” Haley says with a calm smile. “I’m glad we can be friends again.” I slip in across from her just as Christa leaves.

“What was that about?”

“Christa being a bitch,” Clarice says.

“Lying through her teeth,” Janice agrees. “And Haley...believes it?” Haley shakes her head.

“Not even close.”

“What did she say?” I ask.

“Oh, she wanted to tell me what she and Trevor were talking about because...apparently she doesn’t want to fight anymore,” Haley lets out a dry laugh. “But I figure I should ask Trevor about it before jumping to conclusions.”

Will Trevor even tell her? Seems unlikely. The whole table holds its breath as Trevor and Spike come back.

“Hey,” he says, giving her a hug. “Sorry, I had to deal with something. We, uh, we don’t really need to talk later.” She nods and then pretends a thought just came to her.

“Oh, Christa came by after you disappeared.” Trevor’s face freezes.

“R-really. And, uh, what did she say?”

“Well, it seemed kind of unlikely, so I wanted to ask you first. What were you two talking about earlier?”

“F-french project.” Trevor stumbles over the words. Haley narrows her eyes at him.

“Are you sure? Because I know you wouldn’t lie to me.” Damn. I can see the gears turning in Trevor’s mind.

“Okay, it wasn’t a French project but...I’m not sure if...” he looks at me for help.

“It had something to do with me,” I say. “But we straightened all that out back there.” I jerk my thumb out to the hallway. Trevor lets out a sigh.

“Yeah, it had to do with Corey, so I wasn’t sure if I should talk about it in front of everyone.” She looks from me to Trevor and then back to me again. I nod slightly at her.

“Okay. Well I’m glad that’s sorted out,” she says.

“What did Christa say anyway?” Trevor asks, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek. They’re not a couple for PDA, so this must be an apology kiss.

“Oh...it was,” her eyes search for the memory and then she lets out a little laugh. “Oh! Her date ditched her for some party so you offered to take her?” She shakes her head, the laugh still on her lips. “And that you didn’t want to tell me but she felt obliged to so that if I found out I wouldn’t get upset?” Trevor recoils in shock.

“I would never--!” She holds a hand up to stop him.

“I know. I figured that would never happen so I checked with you first.”

“And even if it did I would tell you,” he says, surprised she left that part out. She looks at him in mock reproach.

“Yes, because you totally just proved that.” Her voice is only half joking.

“Hey, I’m sorry, okay?” he protests. She just nods.

“Okay.” He pulls her onto his lap and hugs her close.

“Hey, that’s not fair. I’m sorry.” A small smile of self-satisfaction spreads over her face. Her hand moves to her side to squeeze the hand that holds her.

“Okay.” And with that goofy smile still on her face, she turns back to her lunch. Spike just laughs and shakes his head and the rest of us go back to eating, the tension gone.

“Speaking of parties,” says Matt, who arrived God-knows-when, “I’m having one tomorrow night. You guys in?”

“Hell yes!” says Janice. Clarice and Spike nod.

“Are we going?” Trevor asks, poking Haley’s side. She looks up. There’s a moment of silence.

“Yes. Yes we are.” Her voice is a little too determined, but we ignore it.

Haley’s still a little apprehensive when it comes to parties. Her best friend died at one years ago and it wasn’t until New Year’s Day that she finally managed to come to a party without freaking out completely, and that was only because of Trevor’s plan. Essentially, we took her to as many parties as possible and the minute she freaked out, Trevor would take her home. Eventually, she was able to stay for longer and longer before freaking out.

She’s okay with parties themselves now, she just gets nervous thinking about them. And whenever something reminds her of that night she’ll stiffen and Trevor will pretend he's tired and wants to go home. For some reason he's afraid of what'll happen if she pushes herself.

“Good,” says Trevor. “I’ll pick you up at seven, okay?” She nods stiffly and goes back to her lunch.

“So the Yankees,” says Spike, thumping the table with his fist. We all laugh at his obvious attempt to take the pressure off Haley.

“Do you even know who the Yankees are?” I ask between chuckles.

“A football team, I believe,” he says in mock seriousness.

“Wait, I thought it was a women’s softball team,” says Janice, watching Matt’s face turn redder and redder.

“BASEBALL!” he yells finally. “It’s baseball you ignorant twits!” Janice pats his arm.

“Ignorant is a big word,” she says with an evil smile. We all laugh as the bell rings.