Vengeance Is a Syn

When the bell rang, I started packing my stuff up. I knew Zacky would be late, as he always was, so I didn’t bother about not making him wait for me. When I was ready to leave the room, I saw someone dropping a book by my side. I bent down and grabbed the book, handing it to the person who let it fall.

“Here, you dropped this.”, I said as I returned the book. I looked up and cursed myself mentally for trying to be a nice person. It was Melissa, the red haired girl with fiery brown eyes that was envied by many girls that I knew because of her thin figure, pouty lips and beautiful appearance. She was one of Brian’s many ex-girlfriends. She could just be that – one of his last girlfriends - that way I could consider her a nice person, or a friend, who knows? But no, not her. She was like Gena’s sister, her best friend – which means, my second nightmare! The only thing I couldn’t quite understand was that she was sometimes nice to me, when she was alone. And when she wasn’t near Gena. And while she didn’t date Brian. During that time I couldn’t even get close to him, or else she’d start yelling at me, saying that I wanted to steal her boyfriend. Crazy minds, what can we do about them?

I sighed as she smiled at me.

“Oh, thank you, Hailey!”, she said, happily.

“Uh, you’re welcome.”, I smiled.

She stood there, smiling at me and creeping me out, waiting for me to make any move.
Okay… What’s wrong with her today?

I grabbed my backpack and threw it over my shoulder. I started walking from my desk in the back of the room to the door and she followed me. I glanced at her from the corner of my eyes as she rushed to my side.

“So…”, she said. I looked at her and raised my eyebrows, as a way to ask her what she wanted. “Hum… I see you’re with Brian now!”

I ran a hand through my hair and nodded. “Yeah…”, I mumbled.

“Have you done anything already?”, she asked. I looked at her with wide eyes and asked myself why she was asking that. Seriously, she’s like a stranger to me, seeing I don’t know anything about her. What stranger would ask this!!??

“Excuse me!?”, I asked, confused.

“Oh, you know… Is he good in bed?”, she asked.

“I’m sorry, but… Why should I answer that?”, I asked.

“Well, I kinda want to know if he’s still good.”, she chuckled, nudging my arm.

“I don’t know…”, I answered, resuming my walk to the classroom’s door, which was taking an eternity.

“You don’t know or you don’t want to answer?”, she kept bugging me.

“Both.”, I shrugged. “But even if I knew, I wouldn’t be telling you, that’s my personal life.”

“So you haven’t done anything so far!?”, she sounded surprised with my statement. Well, I’m sorry if I’m not a whore like you and haven’t slept with almost each guy in my class.

“Exactly.”, I said.

She looked thoughtful for some time until she spoke again.

“That’s surprising! But be careful, he’ll start with the cute words, loving gestures, and all that jazz and then he’ll only want to take you to his bed. He can probably leave you after he’s had some fun with you.”

I stopped walking just to look at her with a pissed-angry-surprised look on my face. Who does she think she is to talk about him like that? Or about me?

“I… I didn’t mean to anger you… I’m just warning you!”, she excused herself, looking down as if she was really apologizing.

“I don’t need that kind of warning, I know how to take care of myself, thank you.”, I crossed my arms against my chest.

“Okay…”, she nodded. “But don’t think I’m saying this just because I’m jealous that you’re with him. We broke up a long time ago. I’m just trying not to let you fall into his sweet speeches.”, she said. “Just think about what I told you.”

She left and I leaned against the wall outside the room, waiting for Zacky.

The more time I spent there waiting for him, the more I thought about what she said. He’d done what she said, the cute words and gestures, and he’d already tried something with me… But I told him I wasn’t comfortable with that and he understood.

Besides, he told me he loved me. I think I can trust him enough to know if he’s trying to get in my pants or not. I can, can’t I?

Argh, why am I so unsure now! No, Hailey. You won’t let that redhead poison your thoughts, or your relationship with Brian.

Before I could think about anything else, I spotted Zacky leaving his room.

“Sorry, I’m late. Mrs. Jones wouldn’t let us come out…”, Zacky apologized, walking in my direction and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Zee, it’s fine. You’re only 5 minutes late!”, I chuckled, looking at my watch.

“But I didn’t mean to keep you waiting for me.”, he said.

“That’s sweet of you!”, I said, making him smirk. I shook my head and chuckled.

“Well, let’s go, then!”, he smiled, resting his arm around my shoulders.

I nodded and we started walking outside school. “Where are we going?”, I asked, curiously.

“I thought about stopping on McDonald’s or something like that, grab something to eat and then spend some time together. After that we could go meet them in the park.”

“Yeah, that sounds awesome! We’re finally spending some time together, yay!”, I said, making him laugh.

“Are you being serious or are you joking?”, he cocked an eyebrow.

“I’m serious!”, I said, looking up at him. “Believe it or not, I missed spending those afternoons with you, you know… Before everything happened…”

As soon as I said that his smile fell and he nodded.

“We can change that. You’re still really important for me.”, he said, his lips twitching to a smile in the end of the sentence.

“You’re still one of my best friends. I’d kill you if you had replaced me!”, I narrowed my eyes at him, in a playfully way.

He laughed again. “I didn’t do that!”

“Good!”, I smirked, chuckling a bit.

When we arrived McDonald’s, he let go of my shoulders and we both walked to a queue to ask for our food. After doing that, we headed to an empty table and sat down, eating our lunch.

“So…”, I said. “How’re things with the Evil Queen?”

He chuckled at the name I gave to his girlfriend and shrugged.

“To be honest, I don’t know what to say…”, he said, playing with his food.

I placed my burger down and looked at him.

“Is there something wrong, Zee?”, I asked, concerned.

“I just… I don’t really know… I…”, he trailed off. “I don’t even know if I like her.”

I frowned and kept staring at him.

“But when I see you two you seem happy…”, part of me wanted to help him get on track with her, but another tiny part wanted to know how bad their relationship was. This was the best way I found to make him talk about his current situation.

“Really, Hailey?”, he showed no emotion on his face. “She’s constantly all over me. It seems as if I can’t even breathe!”

I bit my lip and nodded. “But you two like each other, you’ll find a way to fix things, I know that.”, I smiled reassuringly at him.

“Yeah, let’s just not talk about her anymore, okay?”, he asked, starting to eat again.

“Yeah, okay.”, I said, doing the same thing.

“And you?”, he asked. “Are you happy with Gates?”

Without even knowing I was smiling and nodding.

“Yes, I really am.”, I beamed and he just nodded. “He’s just so sweet, you know? He’s always telling me how beautiful I am, even though I don’t believe in him; he’s always surprising me, he’s not afraid of kissing me or hugging me in front of everyone, he’s just so nice and loving, and yesterday morning he…”, I stopped talking as soon as I saw Zacky was playing with his food again, absent mindedly. “I-I’m sorry, you probably don’t want to hear this!”, I chuckled nervously.

“I told you you were beautiful…”, he said, looking up.

I was taken aback by his statement. “I know…”, I looked down, eating my food in silence.
“You know, sometimes I wonder if it’s me…”, he said. “I did all those things he does but things didn’t work out right. So the problem must really be me.”

“Zacky…”, I reached my hand to touch the back of his own.

“No, you can say it.”, he shrugged, still looking down.

I was surely not expecting this. He was always so confident, so cocky, so… ‘the lady’s man’. Not like this, an insecure guy.

“Zacky, if someone you’re with ever tells you that you’re not good enough, she’s either blind or really dumb. You’re a nice, caring guy. I know you treat your girlfriend right.”, I assured him.
“Yeah, well, you kinda did that, exactly.”, he said, looking me in the eyes.

“We discussed that before… We didn’t like each other.”, I removed my hand from the top of his. “Things would never work out between us.”, I mumbled.

“I guess you’re right.”, he said. “Uh, I’m sorry. I know I was sometimes a dick when we were together.”

“Yeah… You made me feel really bad sometimes.”, I chuckled, glancing at him.

“How can I make it up to you?”, he asked.

I thought for a while before smiling at him.

“Pay my lunch and we’re even!”, I smirked. He smiled and laughed lowly.

“Okay!”

When we were done with our lunch, we got out the restaurant. Zacky decided we would take a walk and talk, so we could update each other about our lives.

He smiled and held out his hand for me. I looked at him and bit my lip, unsure if it was right to walk hand in hand with him, while I was dating Brian.

“Is something wrong?”, he asked, concerned, lowering his hand a bit.

“N-no… It’s just that….”, I trailed off. “I don’t know if it’s right to hold your hand now…”

“Hailey, you hold hands with Jimmy all the time...”, he said, looking slightly hurt with my answer.

“I know… But…”, the look in his eyes was just breaking my heart. He looked like a lost puppy in the middle of the street on a rainy night.

“O-okay… I guess there’s nothing wrong about it.”, I hesitated a bit before giving in. He was right, I held hands with Jimmy all the time. He’s also my best friend, there’s nothing wrong about holding hands with your best friend!

He smiled and we started walking towards the park. On our way there he told me how excited he was about the band and how they were going to record the first album soon.

About half an hour later, we arrived at the park and some of his friends were already there.

“Come on, let me introduce you to them.”, he said, pushing me to the place where his friends were.

When we got close to them they smiled and greeted me.

“Hey, guys, this is Hailey.”, Zacky said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, to make me more comfortable around them. “Hailey, this is Josh, Sophie, Patrick, Tate, Rayleigh, Abby and Tyler.”, he pointed at them in the order they were standing.

“Hey, guys!”, I smiled.

“Hey there!”, one of the girls, Abby, smiled, waving her hand at me.

“Is anybody missing?”, Patrick asked.

“Nah, we’re all here.”, Tyler answered. “Well, except for Matt.”

“Do you want me to call him?”, I offered my help.

“Would you do that?”, Tyler smiled.

“Of course!”, I said, grabbing my phone and asking him if he was going to take too long to get there. As I ended the call, I returned my phone to his place in my pocket and walked over the rest of the people. “He’s on his way here. He says he’ll take 5 minutes to get here.”

“Great!”, Josh said. “Uh, have we ever met before? I mean, your face is familiar…”

“She’s Matt’s sister, you dumbass!”, Zacky chuckled.

“Oh!”, he said, eying me. “Now I understand why they think you are twins!”

I laughed and the girls approached me.

“Hey, guys.”, the girl I think whose name was Rayleigh said. “I think we’re going over there and talk while you play okay?”

They all nodded and she smiled at me, telling me to go with them.

“I’m Rayleigh, but most people only call me Ray.”, Rayleigh said as we sat down.

“I’m Sophie! I don’t really have a nickname!”, she giggled, making me laugh. “And she’s Abigail, shortened to Abby!”

“Well, it’s really nice to meet you!”, I smiled at them. “Hum, I’m Hailey, and the guys have always called me Hay since I remember…”

“Hay, that’s nice!”, Sophie said. “Hey, Hay!”, she joked, seeing as those two words sounded alike.

“Yeah, it’s kinda strange saying those two words together!”, I laughed.

“So, you’re Matt’s sister?”, Rayleigh asked.

“Yeah.”, I nodded. “Ever since I was born!”, I said, making them laugh.

We talked for the whole afternoon and I got to know some more about their lives, what they wanted to do in the future, our mutual friends and things that we all liked.

It was starting to get late when Josh decided to leave the park, making Rayleigh and Abby leave too. I stayed in the same place with Sophie, still talking with her. She was turning out to be a really nice girl.

Matt, Patrick, Tyler and Zacky joined us after some time and we stood there until they all decided to leave too. Zacky promised he’d take me home, so I waited for him to grab his stuff so we could go.

I grabbed the basketball that they’d been using and started playing with it. I threw it to the basketball’s table and Zacky cheered.

“Yeah! 2 points for Hailey!”, he joked, stealing the ball from me and throwing it himself.

“Hey!”, I whined. “I was playing with it!”, I said as I tried to steal him the ball.

He just chuckled and kept mocking me.

“Zacky!”, I cried, running after him. Once again, he just laughed and dodged the ball from my hold. “You’re an asshole! Give me that ball!”

“No!”, he said, throwing it over my head and scoring.

I sneered and he hugged me, kissing my cheek. I pouted and moved out of his embrace.

“I’m angry at you, in case you didn’t notice.”, I said, walking away from him.

“Oh, I’m sorry!”, he snickered.

“Shut up and take me home, Baker!”, I said, trying not to laugh.

“Yes ma’am.”, he smiled, throwing his backpack over his shoulder.