The Last Girl (17 page)

Jessica shakes her head, “Not at all. But, why today?”

But Daisy wasn’t even listening. She was too busy staring at someone behind us. I follow her gaze to see Nolan walking towards us.

“Hey, guys,” he nods in our direction. He walks past us and up to Daisy, “Hey, Dais.”

“Hi,” she says, staring back at him.

He nods his head towards the door and entwines their fingers together, “Come on, I
’ll walk you to your class.”

And just like that, they were gone.

I stare after them for a few seconds and then turn to Jessica who was smiling from ear to ear.

“What the hell?” I question. “When did this happen?”

“Aren’t they adorable?” she asks in awe.

“You knew about this?”

“Of course! I’m the one who gave Nolan the courage to finally ask her out! Ugh, they are so cute I could die,” she slumps against the locker.

“Why didn’t I know?”

“Nolan told me not to tell anyone until it was official,” she squeals.

“When did it become official then?”

“Well, they hung out at the party Saturday, thanks to me of course. And then they went on a date yesterday,” she explains.

“That’s so weird. I thought he liked you.”

Jessica laughs
, “Of course not. He’s liked her for years.” Her tone changes, “You know what this means?”

“What?”

“Now I am the only single one. Ugh, I need a boyfriend. Now.”

“Maybe you could call Tom Stephens.”

Jessica glares at me, “Not funny. I’m so sorry about that Jenna, you know that right?”

I nod understandingly,
I was only teasing her. “I know. I just don’t get why you wanted to get drunk at that stupid party.”

“I just,” she starts. “I just wanted to try to forget about
Lance. I saw him there with Kelsey and, I don’t know. I am sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

We walk down the hall in silence before she starts to laugh, “Changing the subject randomly here, you have detention today, don’t you.”

I roll my eyes, “Yeah.”

“With Zac.”

“And Emily,” I mention.

“Oh, that’s rough.”

Yeah, it will be.

Chapter 26: Stuck in Detention

The lunch bell rings, signaling that it was time for me to go to detention. Or hell. Whatever you want to call it.

I gather my books off my desk and follow the herd of students outside the classroom. As I turn to walk down the hallway, I hear a whistle from behind me and I turn around to see
Hayden leaning against the pale wall.

I feel myself smile and walk up to him, “Hey. What are you doing here?”

He pushes himself off the wall and wraps his arm around my waist, “I’m here to walk my little juvenile delinquent to detention.”

It actually takes me a few seconds to realize he was referring to me. “How nice of you.”

“I know, I’m the sweetest,” he says, bending down to kiss my cheek.

I want so badly to sigh in awe but
I hold it in. He is too good for me. And I don’t know how I can be so in love with him, and then get so jealous when I see one of his best friends with another girl. Speaking of his best friend and that other girl, I’m going to have to spend the next 40 minutes with them in a small classroom. I’m gonna be sick.

“Let’s leave,” I say urgently as we walk into the cool outside air.

Hayden laughs, “What?”

“Let’s just leave and go somewhere else for lunch.”

“Did you really forget that fast that you have detention? Didn’t I just mention it?” Hayden asks me sarcastically as we stop walking and stand next to the brick wall that made the back of the main building.

“No, I just don’t want to go.”

“Why?” Hayden asks smirking. “Are you scared?” He pokes me in the stomach causing me to giggle. I smack his arm away.

“No I’m not scared. I just don’t want to go.”

“You’ll have Zac to talk to,” Hayden says trying to poke me again. I smack his arm away.

“
Zac will be with that Emily girl.”

“Oh?”
Hayden’s eyebrows rise and the dimple on his left cheek appears. “That’s why you don’t want to go, isn’t it? You don’t want to get annoyed by Emily again?”

That’s partially the reason.

“Um, yeah,” I say out loud, feeling guilt take over my stomach.

“You’
ll manage through it,” he says grabbing my wrist. “Come on, you’re going to be late.”

He drags me all the way to the detention class room. It wasn’t one of the real classrooms in one of the hallways. It was in one of the grey portables on the side of the school.

I groan, “How come when I finally want to ditch, you won’t let me?”

“You wanted to be in detention, remember? You felt guilty about what happened with
Zac.”

I roll my eyes, “I’m starting to see how stupid that was.”

“It was stupid,” he says and then kisses the top of my head. “Now go.”

“But-”

“Go,” he pokes me again.

“Why do you keep doing that?” I ask laughing.

“Because I am starting to realize how ticklish you are.”

“I am really ticklish,” I say as I begin to walk up the ramp leading into the classroom.

Hayden smirks before walking away, “Good to know.”

I shake my head and laugh as I walk into the smelly little makeshift classroom. I feel heat rise in my cheeks as I notice all
30-40 pairs of eyes were on me.

“You made it with one minute to spare,
Miss…” I hand her my detention slip and hold my breath as she looks over the signature, “Brown. Take a seat.”

I look back at all the students in their chairs and my eyes land on
Emily who, surprise surprise, was sitting next to Zac. Zac motions with his head for me to sit in the empty chair on the other side him. I make my way through the desks telling myself not to trip the whole time. I make it to the chair and set my stuff down.

“
Okay class. You know the rules; No talking or getting up unless it is to use the restroom. I have marked down where everyone is sitting so I will know if you have changed seats,” Ms. Right, the detention teacher says sternly.

I almost burst out laughing when I see her walk through the door
.

Are you kidding me? She’s really going to leave us here alone for the whole 40 minutes and expect us not to talk?

Teachers can be so stupid sometimes.

She locks the door behind her and as soon as she gets far enough away from the window, everyone gets out of their seats. In just one second, it had gone from being quiet enough that you could hear a pin drop to sounding like the party on Saturday night.

“Is she really going to leave us alone all throughout lunch?” I ask Zac.

He laughs, “Like always.”

I lean back in my chair, “Wow.”

“I know right? Detention is stupid if you ask me,” Emily butts in.

No one asked you, Emily.

“What if you have to go to the bathroom, though?” I ask.

“There’s a bathroom right there,” Emily says like I’m stupid. I look over and see a brown door leading into a small bathroom. Just then, a girl and a tall guy walk into the bathroom, locking the door behind them.

I look questioningly at
Zac and he smirks a little. “People also go in there to make out.”

I hear Emily giggle and look to see her smil
e, something I really wanted to smack right off her face.

Without thinking
fully, I say the only thing I can think of that might make Zac mad, “Then I should come here with Hayden sometime.”

Zac
gives me a confused look and I mentally punch myself. Did I really just say that out loud? That I should come here with Hayden to make out in the bathroom? God, I’m an idiot. I just said it to get a reaction out of Zac. I guess I kind of did, it just wasn’t the one I wanted.

“How long have you been dating
Hayden?” Emily asks.

“
A little over a week, I guess.” I respond. I think about it for a second.

It’s only been a week? That’s such a short amount of time.

I think out loud, “Weird, it feels a lot longer though.”

“Nice,” Emily smiles and sticks out her fist. Is she really fist bumping me right now? Not knowing what else to do, I stick out mine and she bumps them together. “He’s attractive.”

Zac glares at Emily, making her laugh, “But not as attractive as you, Zacie-Pooh.”

She kisses him on the cheek.

Oh this is not happening.

“How long have you two been dating?”

“Since yesterday,” Emily smiles at him.

Zac
squints at me, “Feels a lot longer though.”

Now there is the reaction I was looking for.

30 minutes later, Ms. Right comes back into the room. And of course, the room was back to being completely silent.

“Time for second roll everybody.”

She glances at the list and then back up at everyone for a few minutes, making sure people were in their seats. “Emily and
Zac, glad to see you two decided to actually stay for a whole detention today.”

I see smirks
appear on both of their faces and finally the bell rings. God, I have to endure four more days of this.

I quickly pull my bag over my shoulder and race out of the room. I am halfway to the hallway door when I hear
Zac call me. I stop in my tracks and turn around to see him and Emily walk up to me.

“You go on, Emily. I have to talk to Jenna real quick,”
Zac tells her with a peck on the lips. I feel my eyes roll.

“Why?” Emily asks peering at me.

“Nothing important. Just go Em.”

She grabs him by the cheeks and pulls him in for another kiss. This one lasts about ten seconds and I almost laugh at how ridiculously awkward it was. Emily leaves with a final smirk at me.

“You wanted to talk to me,
Zacie-Pooh
?” I ask looking up at him. I use my hand as a shield to block the sun away from my eyes.

Zac
rolls his eyes, “Are you mad that I’m dating Emily?”

I gasp innocently, “Of course not. Why would you think that?”

“You have no right to be mad Jenna,” he says angrily. “I told you how I feel about you and you told me you didn’t feel the same. Now you’re dating my best friend. I wasn’t going to just sit around and wait for you. What did you expect?”

“How do you feel about me,
Zac?”

“Felt. I said felt.”

“I heard feel.”

“No there was a ‘t’ in there.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry because I am not jealous,” I say simply.

“Oh really? So what was that whole ‘I should come with
Hayden here sometime,’ thing about then?”

“Jealous much?”

“You’re the jealous one. Not me.”

“I’m not jealous. I just don’t understand why you like her.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s annoying and fake. That whole ‘I’m so much better than everyone’ thing? You could do so much better.
”

“She’s actually really cool. You’re jealousy just overlooks all the good things about her.”

“I’m not jealous, Zac. Date the entire cheer squad, I honestly don’t care.”

“Good, because I might if I want to.”

“Good.”

“Fine.”

“Fine,” I cross my arms. “Oh look, here comes my wonderful boyfriend now. Good luck with Emily, Zac.”

I brush past him and meet
Hayden next to the double doors.

“How was-” he asks but I interrupt him by pushing my lips up against his, pushing his back into the wall.
I feel his tongue enter my mouth and after a few more seconds of making out, I pull away.

“Wow, miss me?”
Hayden asks smiling.

“A lot, actually
,” I casually look over to where I was talking to Zac to see that he was watching me and Hayden.

Good.

“Detention wasn’t so bad, was it? I mean the teacher doesn’t even stay in the room,” Hayden laughs, grabbing my hand.

“Yeah, you never told me that.”

He laughs again, “I wanted you to worry. I didn’t want you knowing detention isn’t even bad.”

“Well thanks!” I laugh.

“You were scared.”

I laugh and see
Zac turning to walk away, “Let’s go with that.”

As soon we get back to Hayden’s house, I walk to his room and get in the bed.

“I’m tired
,” I say as he walks in after me.

“Oh, I bet,” he sits next to me on the mattress. “Sitting for 40 minutes in detention can be exhausting.”

I smack him on the arm, “It is.”

He gets in the bed too and lies down so that his face is over mine. “You know what will make you less tired?”

“What?”

He smirks, “This.”

I feel him grab my stomach and start to tickle me.

“
Hayden!” I cry out. I start laughing uncontrollably. After many attempts, I am finally able to get the word “Stop,” out of my mouth. But he wouldn’t stop. I try to roll up into a ball but it doesn’t make things any better. I grab Hayden’s arms and attempt to pull them away but he is too strong for me. I dig my nails into his biceps and finally he stops.

I gasp for air and
Hayden collapses beside me from laughing so hard.

I smack him, “Why would you do that?”

“That was hilarious,” he says through his laughter.

“I could barely breathe!” A tear rolls down my cheek. “Oh great, you made me laugh so hard that I’m crying!”

He continues to laugh as I get out of bed and look in the mirror. I wipe away the tear and fix my mascara.

I get back into the bed and
Hayden finally stops laughing to examine his arm. “Dang, you’re violent.”

“I am?”

“Look,” he shows me his arm and I see four horizontal red scratches from where my nails had dug into his skin.

I can’t help but laugh, “I’m sorry.”

“It looks like I got attacked by a cat. And you kicked me a few times in the stomach.”

I laugh again, “You deserved it.”

He rolls on top of me again, “Well, unfortunately for you, I’m not ticklish.”

“Of course you aren’t.”

“Even if I was, I could take you.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, I would be able to stop you.”

“Oh really?”

“Oh yeah,” he smirks. “I just proved it right now by how you couldn’t stop me from tickling you.”

“That was different. You were on top of me.”

“Fine,” he rolls onto his back. “Let’s try it then.

“Fine.”