The Last Girl (15 page)

I feel a pang of guilt. I had forgotten about her.
I type a message saying “Can you get a ride home from Nolan? Something came up and we had to leave early:(“.

I sigh and look
up at Luke, “Sorry for pulling you away from the party.”

“It’s alright,” he shrugs. “I hate parties anyways.”

I laugh, “So, then why go?”

“I’m the ‘Designated Driver’.
It’s my job.”

“Ah, I see.”

We pull up in front of Hayden’s house and use his key to get in. We carry Jessica first and lay her in Gemma’s bedroom. Then we carry Hayden, which is very difficult due to his weight. We plop him on his bed and then both collapse on the floor because of exhaustion. It is 2 o’clock and it had been one of the longest nights of my life.

“Thank you,
Luke,” I breathe.

“Thank you for pulling me away from that boring party.”

I laugh, “That was my plan all along.”

His laugh turns into a sigh, “I’ve missed having you at my house.”

I look at him leaning against the dresser, “I’ve missed it too.”

“Yeah right,” he scoffs. “I’m sure you love being with your boyfriend.”

“I’m pissed at him right now,” I look at Hayden’s peaceful face on the bed and know I am lying. “Besides, I see Hayden at school all the time. I feel like I barely see you.”

“Well, we should fix that.”

A smile spreads across my face to match his, “We should.”

There is this moment of staring at each other before
Luke stands up and says, “I think I should go.”

I stand up too, “Okay. Thanks again,
Luke.”

He stands there not knowing what to do until I finally hug him.

“No problem, Jenna.”

I smile into his chest and
minutes later, he is gone.

Too tired to change, I pull back the covers and get in bed, facing the wall. I feel
Hayden attempt to wrap his arm around me but I push it away.

“Are you mad at me, Jenna?” he mumbles.

I sigh, “I’m tired, Hayden. We can talk tomorrow.”

I hear him sigh as well and smell the cheap beer again, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Chapter 24: The Morning After

I wake up to the sound of Hayden moaning next to me. I lift my head off the pillow weakly to look up at the clock next to me. The blinding glow illuminating from the table stings my eyes as they adjust in the darkness. It is 5:30 a.m.

“
Hayden,” I say groggily, “what’s wrong?”

He groans again. “My head is pounding,” he mutters.

The memory of the party last night hits me like a ton of bricks. I feel myself roll my eyes in the darkness and I fall back on the bed. The mattress shakes causing Hayden to let out another low groan. I pull the pillow and covers over my head to block out the sound and drift back to sleep.

Pancakes are the first things that pop into my head the next time I wake up. Light enters my pupils as I slowly sit up so I can see the door. Hayden is walking through it, his hands gripped around a tray that had a glass of milk and, sure enough, pancakes on it. He smiles brightly at me and sets the silver tray on my lap.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he says as he circles around the bed to sit next to me. “I made breakfast just for you.”

I stare at the three golden pancakes stacked on top of one another. “What’s this for?” I ask, trying to sound unimpressed.

“Just wanted to do something special for you,” he kisses me on the cheek and I feel myself flinch. He looks at me sadly.

“What’s wrong?”

I look back at him
, “You know what’s wrong.”

I see him look down, “Is this about what happened about the party?”

It was all I could do to rip my eyes off of him and stare at the syrup dripping off the sides of the pancakes.

“Jenna?”

Drip, drip, drip.

“Jenna, please. I know I screwed up, but at least talk to me.”

“Screwed up?” I laugh. “Hayden, you did much worse than that.”

“I know,” he grabs my hand, “I just… I just wanted you to have fun last night
.”

“So you gave me beer? I’m 14,
Hayden! You’re 17, you shouldn’t even have had any!” I drop his hand.

“What’s wrong with a little beer?”

“You had a lot more than a little. Luke and I had to sneak you into your own house! And it makes you do stupid things. Like, punching Tom, for instance.”

Hayden
lets out a laugh from the back of his throat. “You’re mad at me for that? Jenna, even if I was sober I still would have punched him.”

“You didn’t need to get involved in that,
Hayden. And who knows how bad it would have gotten if I hadn’t dragged you out of there.”

“If I hadn’t punched him first,
Zac would have done much worse, trust me.”

I shake my head, “That’s not reassuring.”

“Is that really why you are mad at me? Or is there something else?” I feel his eyes never leave me as I continue to stare ahead.

I didn’t want to admit it, but there was something else. Actually, him punching Tom barely bugged me. I kind of liked seeing him punch Tom because, well, he deserved it. I just didn’t want
Hayden to get hurt. But there was something else that had been eating at me all night. And I hated it because I always swore to myself that I wouldn’t be one of those jealous girlfriends. But, I have to ask him about it otherwise it won’t stop bothering me.

“Who’s that Victoria girl?” I wonder, finally allowing myself to look at him.

“I knew you would ask about her.”

“Okay. So, who is she?” I ask again.

“We went to middle school together and have been friends since. She goes to a different high school than ours, though,” he explains.

I try so hard not to ask the next question, but it comes out anyway.
“Did you guys ever date?” I wasn’t expecting him to start smirking. “Why are you smiling?”

“Are you jealous of Victoria?” his smile grows wider.

“What? No.”

“It’s okay if you are Jenna. It’s cute.

“Well that’s weird because I’m not jealous, I’m just curious,” I explain to him, folding my arms across my chest.

He continues to smirk at me, “We did about a year ago.”

I feel my heart stop for a moment. “For how long?”

“Around two months.”

“Why did you two break up?”

“Because we never saw each other.”

“Did she break up with you or did you break up with her?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes,” I say almost instantly.

His smile begins to fade, “She broke up with me.”

Perfect. He didn’t want to break up with her. She wanted it to end. And now she probably wants him back. And why wouldn’t he take her back? She’s gorgeous and if he never stopped liking her… I need to stop thinking like this.

“So, what did you guys do last night?” I ask him, feeling my
heart begin to pound again. Pretty quickly, I might add.

His face becomes serious and there isn’t even a hint that a smile was just there a few seconds ago. “What?”

“Well, I mean, you kind of disappeared for a while. And then, when you came up to me on the dance floor, Victoria said that you had been with her.”

“Nothing happened between us, if that’s what you mean,” he states, sounding annoyed.

“Hayden, I-”

“Jenna, I wouldn’t cheat on you. Do you not trust me?” he asks looking a bit offended.

“I trust you Hayden, I just don’t trust her.”

“Right,” he rolls his eyes. “
Victoria and I are over, you have to believe that. We are just friends; we just hung out last night.”

“While getting super drunk.”

“Not super drunk. And, to tell you the truth, I was angry last night. You had gotten all mad at me for giving you a beer, so I left to get you a soda and when I came back you were gone. That’s when I ran into Victoria. I didn’t know where you went.”

“I saw Kelsey outside so I went to ask her about what happened between her and
Nolan,” I explain sadly, realizing that I had driven Hayden right to Victoria.

Hayden
raises an eyebrow, “What did she say?”

“That
Lance pretty much threw himself at her and she couldn’t resist.”

Hayden
chuckles, “Sounds like Lance.”

“Yeah, great guy. Nearly broke my best friend’s heart,” I roll my eyes. “Speaking of my best friend, where is she?”

“She was asleep when I last checked. Why aren’t you eating?” Hayden asks.

“I’m not hungry,” I say plainly. My stomach then proceeds to growl, admitting my lie.

“Jenna, you haven’t eaten since before the party. Eat before they get cold. They are good,” he brags.

“Isn’t that kind of a biased opinion?”

He chuckles again and gets up off the bed, “Well, it’s true. I’ll be right back.”

He leaves the room just as another growl
escapes from my stomach. My eyes flash back to the delicious looking food in front of me. I really did not want to eat it because I was still pissed at Hayden, even though I wasn’t acting like it. But, he was right; I hadn’t eaten since before the party. One more low rumble from my stomach was all it took for me to begin to take huge bites of the pancakes. He was right; they were good.

I was halfway done when I hear
Hayden call, “Jenna! I need your help, here.”

Curiosity spiked through me and I lifted the tray from my lap and set it on the bed. I followed
Hayden’s voice to the guest bathroom and found him kneeling on the ground next to Jessica, whose face was in the toilet bowl. I couldn’t help but groan at the sounds Jessica was making which let me know that my guess was correct; she was throwing up.

“Jessica,” I say bending down next to her to rub her back. I almost threw up my breakfast
; she smelled so bad.

“Jenna,” she says, lifting her head up to look at me. Her eyes were watery and mascara was running down her face, giving her a raccoon look. Her hair was tangled all in itself and her gorgeous pink dress was all wrinkled. I felt so bad for her. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for any of that to happen last night.”

“It’s okay. Don’t talk about it now; you need to take a shower.” I help her stand up and put her arm around my shoulder. I stare at Hayden for a few seconds before he finally gets the hint.

“Oh, right, I’ll just be going then.” He stands and closes the door behind him.

I smile to myself at his cuteness but quickly force myself to stop. I’m mad at him, remember? I turn on the shower and wait for the water to get warm before I help Jessica out of her dress. She gets in the shower and I close the curtains around her. For the next five minutes, I sit next to the bathtub and think about what Hayden and Victoria might have done last night.

They probably just sat around with a bunch of Victoria’s friends drinking. No big deal. But where would they have sat? No one was sitting at that party. Okay, so maybe they were standing up and drinking. But no one was really just standing around either, especially if they were drunk. Maybe they were dancing. No biggie. But, what if they were dancing really close to each other and then started kissing in the heat of the moment. And they just kept kissing and kissing until they finally went upstairs and-

The water from the shower turns off.

“Can you hand me a towel?” Jessica asks me. Her voice is more stable than it was before.

“Let me get you some clothes,” I say leaving to get some from my room. I come back and Jessica puts them on.

“Jenna, I am so sorry. I didn’t know that was him at all,” she pleads.

“It’s fine Jessica, honestly. I just can’t believe you were actually stupid enough to get drunk.”

“I know. I was just so upset over everyt
hing with Lance that I thought this would be a good way to take my mind off it.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask. “How’s that working out?”

She shakes her head, “Not so well.”

“Come on,” I laugh. “Let’s get you some food.”

We walk into Hayden’s room, and to my disappointment, Hayden is sitting on the bed eating the last bite of my pancakes.

“
Hayden!”

He looks up at me guiltily, and with his mouth full, he mumbles a, “Sorry.”

Jessica laughs. “I was planning to eat those,” I complain.

“I was right,”
Hayden says standing. “They are good pancakes.”

“Were,” I correct him.

He smiles and Jessica follows him to the kitchen. I stay behind to get dressed. A high beep comes from my phone somewhere on the bed, so I dig around for it. When I finally find it, I see it is a text from Daisy.

What happened to you guys last night?

“I will tell you tomorrow, I can’t explain over text. Did you get a ride home with Nolan?”

Yeah. Last night, was the most fun I have ever had at a party…

“Why”

I will tell you tomorrow;)

A small smile grows on my face. Well, at least Daisy had fun.

There is a small knock on the door and
I say come in.

“So, I was wondering,”
Hayden says, flicking his hair to the side, “if you wanted to go out to dinner tonight?”

“Out to dinner?”

“Yeah. Maybe we can go to a movie, too.”

I bite my lip, “I don’t know.”

“Let’s just forget about what happened last night. All you need to know is that Victoria and I are nothing and nothing happened between us.”

“So, what did you guys do last night, then?
” I ask, nervous for the answer.

He sighs, “We just hung out and I caught
up with some of my old friends.”

“That’s it?”

Another sigh. “And we danced a little.”

Of course.

“But, like I said, nothing happened.”

He could see the doubt in my face. He sits on the edge of the bed and pats the spot next to him for me to sit down.

“Jenna, you’re my girlfriend, not her. It didn’t work out with us for a reason. She was jealous of every person I talked to and we fought all the time. I just started dreading hanging out with her and when she finally broke up with me I was relieved. It was the complete opposite about how I feel about us.”

I felt myself smile and I tilt
my head so it was resting on his shoulder. I’ve never heard someone say that to me. And as much as I wanted to be mad at Hayden, I couldn’t be. “I believe you,” I say, trying to convince myself more than him. “I guess I am kind of acting like the jealous girlfriend, aren’t I?”

His voice is low, “Yeah, well I can see why. So what do you say? Let’s go out tonight.”

“I’ve never really been on an actual date before,” I say without thinking.

I shrug.

“What about our mini-golf game?” he asks.

“That didn’t really count as a date.”