Love Heals All (15 page)

Autumn

Skylynn, Hayes, and
I got home around seven p.m. We were really tired, and Sky was already asleep in my arms.

When we walked into the house, it was crazy. Everyone was running around, and they all looked panicked.

“What's y'all's problem?” I asked, and they all turned angry faces toward me.

“What's our problem? You left the house with Sky for
hours
without telling us! Of course we have a problem!” Gabby seethed. You could practically see the smoke coming from her ears.

“You should've just called,” Hayes said.

“We did. Over twenty times!” Aaron said, clearly aggravated.

Hayes and I pulled out our phones, and there were missed calls from everyone. I looked at Hayes with wide eyes, and he put a comforting arm around my shoulder.

“I guess they were on vibrate?” I said, a scared look on my face. Hayes squeezed my shoulder, silently telling me to calm down, so I loosened up a bit. They wouldn't hurt us, so there was nothing to be afraid of. Right?

“Auts, you don't have to be scared. We were just worried. We don't want anything to happen to you guys,” Bailey said, walking over and standing by my side.

“Well, they should be scared because we are clearly mad at them! They shouldn't have taken Skylynn out without telling us. They need to be more responsible and act their age!” Nash yelled.

I flinched.

“Nash, stop yelling! Not all of us are mad at them, and you're gonna wake up your sister and scare her. Do you want that?” Shaelyn whisper-yelled at him while walking over to us and standing next to Hayes.

“So they forgot to tell us—who cares. As long as they're safe and there's not a scratch on them, just let them be,” Bailey told Nash.

“Why don't y'all go upstairs while we calm him down,” Shae whispered to Hayes and me.

We nodded and ran upstairs. On our way up, we ran into Cameron. I said hi. I know he heard me, but he walked on downstairs, ignoring me. Well, I guess we're getting the cold shoulder from everyone except Bailey and Shaelyn.

I laid Skylynn down in her room, making sure she was fast asleep, and walked into the bedroom. I grabbed some pajamas and went into the bathroom to shower. I smelled like fish.

I took a shower and changed into Hayes's Davidson Day football sweatshirt, black Nike shorts, and some random socks. I did my hair into a messy braid, put on my glasses, and walked back into the room. Hayes got up and headed to take a shower himself.

I quietly went downstairs to the kitchen. I made it past everyone who was in the living room—I was like a freaking ninja!

Once I got to the kitchen, I saw Cam was there, his back to me. I figured he was making something to eat. I walked over and jumped up onto the counter next to him. He looked at me, rolled his eyes, and looked back down at the sandwich he was putting together.

“What the heck is up with you?” I asked, already knowing what was wrong.

He slammed the palm of his hands down on the counter, making a loud bang. I jumped and opened my eyes wide. “What's up with me? What's up with you? You're the one who left without telling us, and you could've been killed. Do you think I wanna see my baby sister on the news in a story saying she's dead? Huh! We've waited
hour after hour
, and you guys were nowhere to be found.
Don't you think we were worried, just a little bit?
” Cameron was fuming.

“What the hell—we were just at the lake! Don't you guys have any common sense? That's pretty much the only place we would go, and it's only five minutes away! You guys clearly didn't look hard enough! And all day I was even posting pictures of us on most of my social media. But no, you just have to lash out on us. We made one little mistake by not telling you beforehand, and you guys are acting like this?! Why didn't you just walk over to the lake? It's only five minutes away.
Five minutes!
Y'all clearly have no damn time for us if you can't walk that far!
If you were in our position, you would be saying the same thing and you know it!
” I was screaming at him by the time I was finished. You could tell I was so mad, because I never cuss.

I jumped off of the counter and ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs, pausing for just a moment to look at everyone in the living room. They had totally heard our fight and everyone wore a blank expression. Everyone knows Cameron and I don't fight. Well, we've never fought before, but as they say, there's a first time for everything. But this was one first I didn't want . . .

I ran to our room and jumped on the bed, stuffing my face into the pillow and crying, more like bawling. I think it was Hayes's pillow, because it smelled like him.

I heard a door close and strong arms wrap around me. I knew it was Hayes—I mean, I fall asleep in those arms every night! I turned and pressed my face to the crook of his neck, still crying.

“What happened, sweetheart?” he asked quietly.

“Well,” I hiccupped, “Cam and I got in a fight, and he lashed out at me, kinda like Nash did to both of us earlier but even worse. He started telling me how worried they all were and blah blah blah. I started to scream at him that we'd been only five minutes away and that I'd posted a lot of pictures on social media, and I said, ‘Y'all clearly have no damn time for us if you can't walk that far!' Yeah, I know, Autumn cussed, what a surprise,” I said sarcastically, throwing my hands in the air. He laughed, and I continued, “So I ran out of the kitchen and up here, and now we're here.” I sighed, hiccupping once again.

“Aww, baby, I'm sorry. You know he was just worried.” He rubbed my back.

“Well, clearly not worried enough to come looking for us,” I cried.

“You know how they are.”

“Yeah, lazy butts who don't care,” I mumbled.

“No, that's not it. They care a lot about us. Their minds were just so jumbled, I don't think they thought about looking. You know how stupid the gang can be at times.”

I giggled at his last comment. “That's not the point, though. We made one mistake, one mistake, and they unleash the beast. We were only five minutes away, and look how they're overreacting! I know we had our phones on vibrate, but they're always on vibrate, and they know that! They could've taken
five minutes
of their time to come looking for us instead of waiting for us to turn up and then screaming and yelling at us. If it had been them, they would've used the same excuses we used, too. Hypocrites,” I mumbled.

“Well, now they know what to do if this ever happens again.” He kissed my forehead and I snuggled into him. He always knew how to calm me down and make me happy. No one else can do that.

“Let's just go to sleep and see how it works out.” Hayes turned off the lights and we fell asleep in no time.

I was just happy he was with me.

The Next Morning

I woke up
and went downstairs. Everyone was up, and they were still giving me the cold shoulder after what happened last night. I grabbed some water and sat next to Hayes and Bailey, across from Cameron

Cameron looked guilty, just the way he should. I really didn't care if I hurt his feelings; he needed to hear that.

“Do you want anything to eat, A?” Ella asked me. Thank God she was on our side, or I would've lost my patience.

“No, I'm good,” I mumbled. She nodded and went back into the kitchen to cook. I can't believe I turned down her cooking, but I'm just not feeling food right now. Would you, if more than half of the ones you love were mad at you?

“I'm going outside,” I said, looking at Bailey as I got up.

“Now she tells us where she's going,” Bart mumbled.

I ignored him and walked outside, and the last thing I heard was Bailey and Bart bickering about how rude he was being.

I lay down on my stomach in the garden under the big willow tree, taking in the scenery around me. Eventually, I closed my eyes, my head resting on my arms. I was just going over again in my head what had happened last night when I heard footsteps approaching me.

“Can we talk?” I turned my head and opened my eyes. It was Cameron. I laid my head back on my arms and closed my eyes once more.

“Crap, why do you have to be so hardheaded?” he whispered under his breath.

“You can sit if you want. I'm just not gonna talk to you,” I said in a monotone.

“You just did.”

I could practically hear the smirk in his voice, and I just wanted to slap him. I sighed.

“Okay, Autumn, I'm sorry about what I said. You know it's not like me to be mad at you. I'm never mad at you,” he said with a sigh. “It wasn't right for me to blow all that up in your face. I was just worried. Worried you wouldn't get home, worried I would lose my little sister. And I don't want that, it's already happened once.” He whispered the last part.

I sat up and moved close to him, hugging him. He hugged me back, and I could feel his tears on the back of my head. I looked up at him and wiped his tears away, giving him a sisterly kiss on the cheek.

“What was it like? Growing up with Ellie?” I asked.

“Well, it was great. We would spend every second of every hour of the day together. We were stuck like glue, just like you and me. We had a little clubhouse in the woods by the park that we would always go to that no one knew about but us. I always had a thing for Ella, though. She was really adventurous and she was totally her own person. Nobody could stop her from following her dreams.” He was smiling at the memories.

“I love you, Cammy.”

“I love you, too, Autumn-Cakes.” Cameron kissed my forehead, and we stood up.

We walked back to the house. Well, actually, I was on his back and he was running, but it's the same thing. I hopped off when we got to the door, and we walked into the living room, where everyone was now sprawled. Looking around, I could see that many of them—except for the ones with sense—were still mad at Hayes and me. I rolled my eyes and sat next to Hayes.

“I'm glad you're here. I can't handle the tension,” he whispered, putting his arm around my shoulder.

“Cam and I made up,” I whispered in his ear, setting my feet on his lap and resting my head on his shoulder.

“That's good. Now for the others,” he laughed breathlessly. I did, too, and looked at the TV.
Friends
was on. Nash and I used to watch this together sometimes.

“All right, I can't take this anymore! Look, you guys . . .”

Autumn

“Look, you guys,”
Nash started. “I'm sorry for lashing out and yelling at you. We are all sorry. Right, guys?” The others nodded. “We were just worried and didn't have our heads on straight. We couldn't live with ourselves if something happened to you two. Okay? I'm sorry.” Nash looked down at his hands.

“Yeah, we don't want any more drama in the house. Can we just go back to normal?” Carter asked.

Hayes and I nodded. Then we had a big group hug. At least everyone's finally on good terms again.

“I'm sorry for what I said, Auts. It was wrong,” I heard someone whisper in my ear. I looked up and saw Bart.

I smiled. “It's fine. Just don't say anything like that again, or you won't be able to have kids,” I warned.

“O-o-kay,” he stuttered. I giggled and kissed his cheek, in a friendly way.

“Does anyone wanna go swimming?” Aly asked randomly.

“Yeah!” we all screamed, and ran upstairs to change into our bathing suits.

I put on a blue fringe bikini top and black-and-white Aztec bottoms. I grabbed my Ray-Bans and some tanning oil and ran downstairs with Hayes, Skylynn, Bailey, and Aaron behind me.

We all ran out to the pool, and I threw my towel on a chair. Bailey came and sat next to me and I rubbed on some tanning oil then handed her the bottle. I was listening to my music with just one earbud so I could still hear everyone around me.

“Let's throw them in the pool,” I heard Jonah whisper.

“Don't even think about it,” I said in a warning voice. The other guys started laughing, and I heard splashes, so I'm guessing they were in the pool.

“Do you wanna paint our nails tonight?” I asked the other girls, who just joined us. “I'm actually feeling like doing them.”

“Well, duh! No one misses an opportunity to paint her nails.” Gabby laughed.

“I'm in,” Bailey said.

“Totally,” Shaelynn said.

“Let's do it.” Aly giggled.

“I can't,” Alyssa said sorrowfully. “I have to pack. Then Aaron's taking me out on a date.”

“Oh yeah . . . We'll help you get ready!” I said excitedly. All the other girls nodded in agreement.

After about twenty minutes, I felt like getting in the pool. I stood up, put my phone on the table, and walked over to the diving board. I'm probably not supposed to do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

I ran down the board and did a perfect front flip into the pool. When I came up, I heard everyone gasp.

“Autumn, you're not supposed to do that!” Ella screamed as she walked out of the house carrying a tray of food.

I shrugged and swam to the shallow end, where all the guys were. I dove underwater then resurfaced fast, scaring Tez and Alec in the process.

I giggled and went over to Hayes, jumping on his back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and put my chin on his wet shoulder. He held me up by my thighs and looked over his shoulder at me.

“Wanna have a movie night tonight with the guys and me?” he asked. Everyone looked at me, waiting for an answer.

“No, I'm gonna paint my nails with the girls.” The guys gasped.

“What? You never paint your nails! What is happening to my Autumn-Cakes?” Cameron screeched.

I giggled. “I wanna try something new, and I'm just painting them black.” I shrugged.

“What's going on in that little head of yours?” Nash messed up my hair.

I swatted his hands away. “Nothing! I just wanna try something new, I guess, and black would look cool.”

“Sure, says the new Autumn,” Alec said.

“There's nothing new! I'm the regular Autumn who hangs with the guys. I'm just doing one thing different.” I laughed.

“Okay. But we'll never get used to you wearing nail polish,” Daniel said.

“Whatever. Again, I'm still the same Autumn. I'll still play football with you guys and go penny boarding, 'cause the other girls don't penny. Oh, and I show you guys up all the time.” I rolled my eyes at the crazy guys I call my best friends.

“Actually, Aly wants to learn, and I'm gonna teach her,” Bart said proudly.

“Yay! I'll have a girl to penny board with!” I wriggled off of Hayes's back and danced around the shallow end of the pool in excitement.

Everyone was laughing at me, and Nash dunked me in the water. I came up, glared, and treaded over to him. I dunked his head under, and it soon turned into a dunking war.

That's why I loved hanging with the guys. They treated me like one of them, and I could get away from all the girly stuff that the girls do. I mean, I loved doing some girly stuff, but I loved sports and roughhousing more.

“Y'all be careful! Autumn doesn't need another concussion!” Gabby yelled. We rolled our eyes and stopped our little war.

“Yes, Mother.” Carter smirked at her. She rolled her eyes and threw one of those mini basketballs at him.

“Let's play basketball,” I said. We teamed up and played for almost an hour, but in the end, our teams tied, so we just called it a draw.

“Who wants to go to the ice-cream shop by the lake and then go swimming down there?” Nash asked.

“I'm down with spending two days in a row at the lake,” I said, and everyone laughed. We got our stuff together, then half of us penny boarded to the lake while the other half walked.

Jonah and I had a race to see who could get there first, but unfortunately, neither of us saw the huge crack in the sidewalk. Simultaneously, we both flew off of our boards and landed on the hard concrete.

“Oh my God, are you guys okay?” Alyssa came running up to us.

Everyone was surrounding us by now and Jonah and I looked at each other and started laughing.

“Uh, Nashy, are they okay?” Skylynn asked Nash.

“Yes, we're fine, Sky. Now, can one of y'all help us up, or nah?” I asked sassily.

Hayes held out his hand for me. “Are you sure you're okay, babe?” Hayes pointed down at my knees, looking worried.

I looked down and saw my knees were all bloody, and so was my elbow.

“Eh, I'll be fine.” I shrugged and grabbed my penny board.

I started riding slowly as the others gathered their composure and started walking or riding again. Hayes came up next to me and held my hand between our pennies. I blushed and whipped the hair out of my face.

“We got it,” Cameron yelled.

I laughed and looked back at all of them with their phones out. My phone vibrated in my back pocket, and when I checked it, there were notifications from Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and more. I also got a text from Cameron. I opened the text, and it was a picture of Hayes and me from moments before. I looked at all the other ones and it was the same picture, but some edited, with the caption saying stuff like “They're so cute” or “Cutest couple alert” or something like that.

I liked or favorited all of them and retweeted Nash's on Twitter, because his edit was the coolest, then put my phone away so I wouldn't wipe out again.

We got to the ice-cream shop, and once again there were so many girls there! We walked up to the counter, ready to order.

“Um, excuse me, can we get some ice cream?” Carter asked as nicely as possible.

The girl turned around with a blank face and looked right at Carter. Carter froze, and it was like he couldn't talk anymore. I giggled, hiding my face in Hayes's shoulder so no one would hear me. He wrapped his arm around me as we waited for Carter to talk.

“What would you like today?” she asked with a cheery voice. Her nametag read
ANNIE
.

“Uh, can I have the, um, chocolate ice cream with sprinkles?” he managed to get out.

“Cup or cone?”

“C-cup, please.” Carter blushed.

“What about y'all?” She turned to the rest of us while Carter stared googly eyes at her. We all told her what we wanted, and she bustled around preparing the treats, then handing them out to us.

I noticed something scribbled on Carter's cup and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked at me, and I pointed at the writing while sitting down next to Hayes. Then, using some napkins and ice water, I quickly cleaned up my wounds.

When we were partway through our cones, I noticed Carter just staring at his ice cream with wide eyes.

“What's up with Carter?” I asked, waving my hand in front of his face.

“He seems to be in love,” Tez smirked, looking at his cup.

We all looked at him, confused. He turned Carter's cup around, and we could then see it had Annie's number on it.

“Oooh! Cartah!” Jonah yelled. I smacked him upside his head and shushed him. Everyone was staring at him like he was on crack.

Carter blushed and told him to shut up. Now, all the guys were teasing and making fun of him.

“You guys! Shut up!” he whined. We all laughed and went back to eating our ice cream.

I was looking around the shop when I noticed a very familiar-looking girl staring at Hayes. I thought I'd seen her around town before, but I wasn't sure. She saw me looking and glared at me, then returned her attention to her friends. I was confused and kind of freaked out, so I asked Hayes why she was staring at him. Hopefully, she was just another fan.

“Hayes, that girl keeps staring at you and glaring at me, and it's freaking me out!” I whispered in his ear.

He looked over at me with a confused face. “Who?”

“Her. The girl at that table, sitting in the red chair.” I discreetly pointed.

He looked over, and his face paled. Before I could say another word, he pulled me up by my hand and rushed me out of the ice-cream shop. Now I was really confused.

“Who is that and why did we have to leave?” I asked, annoyed.

“I'm his ex-girlfriend, Lainey. Who are you?” I heard a voice say right behind us. We turned around and I saw the same girl who had been in the ice-cream shop. Hayes wrapped an arm around my waist, and I crossed my arms.

“I'm his
girlfriend
, Autumn,” I said, annoyed.

“Well, Hayes, that was a downgrade.” She laughed.

“Shut up, Lainey. She's a way better girlfriend than you ever were. Now what do you want?” Hayes asked angrily.

“I just want my boyfriend back. Is that too much to ask?” she said in a sickly sweet tone.

“Yeah, it's
way
too much to ask. One, you cheated on me with my best friend—twice! And two, I'm already off limits, so go away. I told you I never wanted you back, so get out of my life,” he told her as he walked away, dragging me with him.

“What was that all about?” I asked Hayes after I texted Nash that we were going on a walk. We didn't need a replay of last night's events . . .

“She's my ex-girlfriend, and we dated for a while until she cheated on me with my best friend. Then I found out later that she'd cheated on me with him twice.”

“Oh, Hayes, it's okay. She doesn't know what she's missing. And all things happen for a reason, whether it's for the good or for the bad. I mean, if you were still dating her, you wouldn't have me,” I told him, lifting up his chin to look me in the eyes.

“That's the reason I'm happy we broke up. Because she wasn't the one for me. You are.” I pecked him on the lips, and we started walking home, since we'd left our penny boards with the others.

We walked silently, hand in hand. I was enjoying looking at the mountains and the trees, until we got to the Griers' doorstep. We then realized that Nash still had the house keys. Darn.

“Well, I guess we'll sit here until they come back,” Hayes sighed, sitting down and pulling me onto his lap.

I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, feeling a soft wind blow through my hair. I opened my eyes to see Hayes staring at me.

“What?” I asked him, blushing.

“Nothing, you're just really beautiful.” He kissed my forehead.

“Thank you. You're not too bad yourself.” I giggled, kissing his nose.

I laid my head back on his shoulder, and we waited for the others to come back. This could take a while.