Three Words | Teen Ink

Three Words

May 28, 2013
By GabbyB316, sydney, Tennessee
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GabbyB316, Sydney, Tennessee
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Author's note: We were required to write a story for a language arts project called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) The required number of words was 30,000 in ONE MOMTH. Kinda crazy right? Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish and the plot had barely unfolded. I had to rush the end, so pardon the lack of thought that went into it. It still turned out pretty good though. I hope you enjoy.

Beep! Beep! Beep! I glanced at the alarm clock and it was seven thirty in the morning. My hand slammed against it as I pulled my pillow over my head.
“Honey, get up! You’re going to be late for school!” I heard my mom’s muffled yell from under my pillow and groaned as I slipped out of bed.
I pulled on a sweater and a pair of jeans, slipped on my converse and headed downstairs. There was a plate of toast smothered with butter sitting on the kitchen counter and some orange juice poured into a glass. I drank the orange juice, grabbed a piece of toast and headed out the door to my mom’s car. It was a chilly October morning and my breath was frosty in the fall air.
“Hurry up!” she called as I walked towards her. I looked at the car parked next to her---my car. My parents had bought me an old used car that broke down two weeks after using it. They said they were going to buy me a new one but it’s been three months ever since that happened. That’s why I’ve been trying to save up and buy myself my own car. I’ve been working at H&M for the past month and haven’t even earned close to what I imagined. My parents aren’t big fans of allowance. They said if I wanted something, I would have to work for it.
I got into my mom’s car and we headed off for Menlo High School. It was just like your typical high school: We’ve got the jocks and the cheerleaders, nerds, skaters, goths, you name it. And the middle class, which was where I fit in. I stared into the rearview mirror at my reflection. Just a simple, beautiful girl, some would call me. I had dark brown hair which was streaked with natural light brown highlights. My teeth were perfectly straight and pearly white. My eyes a hazel-green color, and my body was lean and toned, giving it an athletic look because I played basketball.
“Bye mom.” I said as I got out of the car, slinging my backpack over my shoulder.
“Bye sweetie, have a good day.” she said smiling at me, driving off as she headed to work.
I stared up at the school building. Menlo High School was only built five years ago. I’ve been walking these halls for three years now. Hi, I’m Madeline Nicholas. I’m seventeen years old and I’m a junior here at Menlo High.
“Hey guys.” I said walking up to Evan and Skylar. We’ve pretty much known each other ever since we were toddlers. I remember growing up with these guys. We weren’t just best friends, we were like part of the same family.
“Oh hey, Elaine.” said Evan, smiling at me. Only Evan and Sky called me that;‘Elaine.’ They came up with my nickname when we were in middle school, messing around during our break time.
“What happened to you this weekend? We were trying to call you but you didn’t pick up.”
“I was feeling kind of lazy this weekend, so I just decided to stay at home and relax.”
“Evan and I were planning to go to the pumpkin patch so we could pick out a pumpkin to carve before Halloween.” said Skylar.
“It’s only the middle of October. We have plenty of time to pick out a pumpkin to carve before Halloween. Tell you what, we’ll go the weekend before Halloween and then we could carve the pumpkin just in time.”
“Elaine is right. I mean, if we bought it this weekend it would’ve been spoiled by then.” Just then the bell rang.
“Well we better get to class now. See you guys later.” I said.
“Bye.” said Sky.
“See you later.” said Evan.

I took a seat in English class and stared up thee white board. I placed my backpack beside my seat and listened as Mr. Crowe explained our lesson for the day.
“Okay class, we have a new project coming up.” he said.“You will be working with partners,” he added, “which I have already assigned.” There were many objections and complaints about this information.
“We have worked on various projects this year with groups, partners, and even individual ones. So my question is: Why are you guys complaining?” Someone raised their hand. “Yes, Elliot?”
“When will we get to know who our partners are?” he asked.
“You will receive your partners first thing tomorrow.” He cleared his throat. “Right, well I signed us up to help out thee dance next Friday---,” Mr. Crowe was interrupted by the sound of muttering. “and,” he continued, “decided that to get into the Halloween spirit we could build a haunted house. Each of you will contribute to the haunted house by adding something creepy to it. You will have to think of something with your partners and you will need your ideas by Wednesday.” He paused and looked around the classroom. “Are there any other questions about this project?” No one raised their hand. “Class dismissed.”

*****
“Hey, Elaine!” I turned around as I was walking to the school’s parking lot. It was Evan and Sky.
“Hey, guys. Do you wanna come over to my house?”
“Sure, why not.” said Sky. “You should come ride with us.”
“Alright, let’s go.” said Evan.

“I don’t think my parents are home yet.” I said slamming the car door. I unlocked our front door and went inside. Evan and Sky followed.
Evan walked over to the fridge. “You know, I’m pretty hungry.”openedd the fridge and examined the food inside. He pulled out some soda and popped open the can.
“You’re always hungry.” Sky said staring at him.openedd the cupboards and pulled out some bread and peanut butter and made a sandwich.
“Everytime you come to my house, all of my food suddenly disappears.” I said rolling my eyes at him.
“What?” He asked with a mouthful of peanut butter. He took a seat thee kitchen counter.
“Well, anyways, I was thinking about going to the Halloween dance next Friday.” I said. “It sounds like fun. I mean I heard you had to come in your costume.”
“And speaking of costumes, what are we going as?” asked Sky.
“I was thinking of being a... stripper.” said Evan, half grinning. Sky and I exchanged looks.
“We disapprove.” we said in unison. Evan started laughing.
“I was just kidding.” he said. “I wanted to see how you guys would react to it. Seriously though, I was actually planning on being Jack Sparrow. I would have the beard and everything. I’ll even get a parrot that can sit on my shoulder.”
“But, Jack Sparrow doesn’t even have a parrot.” I said.
“Well whatever, I still want to be Jack Sparrow.” we heard the front door open. My dad walked in.
“Hi dad.”
“Hi honey. Hello, Ms. Raey. Good afternoon, Mr. Samuels.”
“Good afternoon, Dr. Nicholas.” said Evan.
“What are you kids talking about?”
“Well, dad we were thinking of going to the Halloween dance but we still haven’t planned on what costumes we were going to wear.”
“Aren’t you all a little too old for Halloween?”
“Aw, come on. No one’s too old for Halloween Dr. Nicholas.” said Skylar.
“Yeah, Dr. Nicholas,think about it, kids in costumes, free candy, tricks and treats.” added Evan. My dad sighed.
“It was a long day at work, I’m going to go take a nap.” he said, walking toward the stairs. “You kids have a good day.”
“Bye dad.”
“Have a nice nap, Dr. Nicholas.”said Skylar.
“So, Jack Sparrow?” I said, turning toward Evan. He grinned.

I was sitting in class on Wednesday waiting to find out who my partner was for the haunted house project when Mr. Crowe walked to the front of the classroom and made an announcement.
“Class, you will soon find out who your partners are , but first...” There was a boy standing next to Mr. Crowe’s desk. “We have a new student.” He gestured for the boy to come forward. “Please introduce yourself.”
“Um, hi, I’m James, James Pierce. I’m a transfer student from Richardson High School.” He observed the room, looking around. His eyes locked with mine. I stared at him for a moment. His eyes were piercing blue. He had blond hair and a nice, muscular body. His skin had a tanned look to it. He smiled and looked away, ruffling his hair.
“Please take a seat, Mr. Pierce.” said Mr. Crowe. James walked to the back of the classroom and took a seat in one of the empty chairs. “Now, about your partners. When your name is called, please sit with your partners and start coming up with ideas. Alright,” he said picking up a clipboard with a list of names. “Belle Johnson with Elliot Summers, Wyatt Meyers with Keith Donovan, Paige Lucas with Cole Garcia, Marshall Butler with Simon Lee...” I listened for my name while the others started to join up with their partners and come up with ideas for the project. Mr. Crowe tapped his pen on his clipboard. “James, you will be working with Madeline on this project.” he said pointing towards me. “If that’s alright with you?” he asked James, although it didn’t actually sound like he was asking for James’ permission.
“That’s perfectly fine with me.” James said, looking at me. He pulled up a seat next to my desk. “So, Madeline, what’s this project about?”
“Well, we have a Halloween dance next Friday and he told the leadership committee that we would help set it up, so he’s making us build a haunted house, and we each have to add our own little part to it.”
“That sounds cool. I love Halloween, you know, it’s my favorite holiday. On Halloween this one year, I dressed up as a scarecrow and sat really still on the bench outside our porch holding a bowl of candy, so when kids would come up to get some, I’d yell ‘trick or treat’ really loud.” he started to laugh. “I sure had a lot of leftover candy that year.” I smiled.
“Anyways about the project, I was thinking we could set up some cobwebs and put up huge fake spiders, and then while they’re coming to our part of the haunted house, they would walk right through it.” I suggested.
“Mhmm.” he said stroking his chin in deep thought.
“So what do you think?”
Well, I was thinking about playing some really scary music while they’re walking around,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“and then we could hide in a corner in scary costumes and jump out when they walk toward us.”
“Okay. That could work.”
“All we need are some really creepy costumes.”
“Attention everyone!” announced Mr. Crowe. “You must all have your ideas by now. You will have until Monday to get all of the supplies that are necessary for your part of the haunted house and your homework is to bring your supplies on Monday. Do not forget!” I started packing up my things. “Class dismissed!”
I headed out the classroom to look for Evan and Sky when I heard a voice calling my name.
“Madeline! Madeline!”
I looked back and saw James trying to catch up to me, pushing himself through the crowd. I stopped walking, waiting for him to catch up. When he was close enough I turned around and started walking. He matched my pace and we walked through the halls together, heading toward the stairs to the cafeteria.
“So I was thinking that you could give me a tour of the school. I mean, if you want to,” he said. “ but you don’t have to.” he added quickly.
“Well, I was actually going to look for my friends because we always meet during lunch but I’m sure they won’t mind.”
“Great.” he said smiling.
“Alright let’s go this way.” I said leading him through the halls. “I honestly haven’t seen the whole school myself yet. It’s actually pretty new. It was only built five years ago.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah.” We stopped in front of a big window with a view of the huge fountain in front of the school. I stared out the window. “They knocked down the old high school and built this new one to replace it. I guess it was because it was all broken down and pretty ancient.” I glanced down at the fountain and looked up at James. “Let’s keep moving.”
I brought him to all of the obvious places: the library, the gym, the courtyard. We stopped at the cafeteria. “Well, that’s the end of the tour.” I said spotting Evan and Sky. They were sitting at one of the lunch tables, looking around. They were probably trying to find me.
“Thanks a lot Madeline. I’ll see you tomorrow.” he said walking off.
“Bye.” I called. I walked toward Skylar and Evan.
“What’s up guys.” I said, taking a french fry from Skylar’s tray.
“Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you.” said Sky.
“So what you’re saying is that you guys have been sitting here eating your lunches while watching people walk past and hoping that one of them is me?”
“Exactly.” said Evan, nodding his head and taking another bite of his pizza. I playfully punched his arm and took another french fry from Sky’s tray.
“I was touring a new student around the school.”
“New student?” asked Sky. “Who?”
“His name is James.”
“James, huh?” asked Evan.
“Yeah, why? Do you know him?” I asked.
“Nope. Is he a transfer student?”
“Yeah, he’s from Richardson High. Why are you so curious about James?”
“No reason.” he changed the subject. “So have you figured out what you’re going to be for Halloween?”
“Not yet, but I have to be something scary for the project that we’re working on in Mr Crowe’s class.”
“Like a vampire or a zombie?” suggested Skylar.
“Something like that. I’ll think about it.”

“So where are we heading, Madeline?” It was Friday afternoon and James and I had an agreement that after school we would go to buy the supplies for our project.
“We should go to Party City. They probably have everything that we need.”
“Alright.” he agreed.
James pulled up at Party City and I pulled out my shopping list and read it out loud to him.
“Okay, so we need fake cobwebs, giant fake spiders, a Halloween music CD, and scary costumes.”
“Oh and a fog machine!” James exclaimed.
“Why would we need that?”
“It adds mystery. And it will be harder for the people to see us hiding in the corner.”
I sighed. “Fine, but you’re paying for it.” I said matter-of-factly. We went straight to the decorations aisle and picked up a bunch of cobwebs and fake spiders.
“Two down, three to go.” I said checking off the list.
“Let’s go get the fog machine. The CD must be in the same aisle.”
We found the fog machine and the CD and I crossed those two off the list. The last thing on our list was costumes. I had nothing in mind. I couldn’t think of anything scary enough, and (then it hit me).
“I’ve got it!” I said triumphantly.
“Got what?” James asked.
“I know what costume to get! Come on!” I grabbed his arm and pulled him through the aisles until I found the one with all of the costumes.
“Wow, slow down!” he said, trying to loosen my grip on his arm.
“I’m going to be the bride of Frankenstein!” I got up on my tiptoes, trying to get down one of the zombie bride kits. I stretched my arm up higher but still couldn’t reach it. I looked back at James for help. He was watching me with a grin on his face.
“Here.” he said reaching up and grabbing it off of the shelf. He handed it to me and I grabbed it from his hands. The costume included a whole kit of scissors, fake blood, and makeup. I stared at the picture on the front of the bag. The model was standing in a dress that was all ripped and spattered with blood. Her face was powdered white to make her look pale. She had fake scars and dark circles were painted under her eyes with the makeup.
“What about my costume?”
“I don’t know. Do you have anything in mind?”
“No. Maybe I could be Frankenstein and then we could match?” he asked gingerly. I rolled my eyes at him.
“Okay. I think it’s over there.” I said pointing to a shelf of costumes. He picked out the Frankenstein one and held it up to me.
“Is this okay?”
“It looks great.”
“Let’s go pay for this stuff.” I said, checking off the last item on our list.

I got a call from Sky on the way to my house.
“What’s up?”
“Hey, Elein, Evan and I are at your house, okay?”
“How did you guys even get in?”
“We know where you guys keep your spare key.” she answered.
“Oh---right. James and I are heading back there now. You’ll never guess what my costume is.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a surprise. I still have to get it ready though.”
“What do you mean you still have to get it ready?”
“You’ll see what I mean on Halloween. We’re almost there. I’ll talk to you later.”
“See ya.” she said. I hung up the phone.
“Who was that?” James asked.
“Oh, just a friend of mine.” A couple minutes later I spotted the street that led to our neighborhood.
“Turn left and it’s the third house down.” he turned the last corner heading to my house.
“Here we are.” he said.
“Don’t forget to bring the fog machine on Monday.” I said as I was getting out of the car. “Oh, and, uh, thanks for the ride.”
“No problem.” he waved goodbye. I closed the car door and watched as he drove away. When he was out of sight, I snuck in through our back door, careful not to let Evan and Sky see what was in the bags.
“So, what do you have there?” Sky tried to grab the bags from me.
“Sky! Stop it!” I yanked the bags from her grip before she could look through them. “You are the most impatient person I have ever met.” I said huffing out a breath.
“Alright, alright. I’ll wait until Halloween.” she said in a sarcastic tone. I raised my eyebrows at her.
“I promise!” she exclaimed, holding her hands up as a sign of defeat.
“Good. Now stay here while I put these up in my room.” I rushed up the stairs and changed out of my jeans and pulled on some sweats.” I went back downstairs.
“Where’s Evan?” I asked surveying the kitchen.
“He said he had to go home and take care of some business.” she shrugged her shoulders. “So how’s your project going?” she asked suddenly.
“It’s going pretty well. I’ll show you what we bought. Let’s go up to my room.” I looked through the bags and showed her the cobwebs and the fake spiders.“These are all cool.” she said holding up the cobwebs and spiders. She paused for a moment.
“What does James look like?” she asked suddenly.
“What? Oh well----um, he has blond hair and really nice blue eyes.” I thought about James for a moment.
“Hello?” Sky snapped her fingers in front of my face. “You blanked out for a second.”
“I did? What were we talking about again?” Sky had a confused look on her face.
“Are you okay? Are you sick?”
“No, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.”
“Something or,” she paused. “someone?” Sky knew me too well.
“Okay, you got me.”
“So who were you thinking about? James?”
“No! I was thinking about the project that James and I were---”
“Nevermind, Elaine.” Sky said interrupting me. “Look, I want to meet James for myself on Monday okay?”
“Okay.” I said, relieved I didn’t have to defend myself from Sky’s questions.
*****
On Monday my mom had to leave early for an important meeting at work and my dad was asleep upstairs after another long day at work. That meant that I would have to walk to school. I would’ve walked to school but then after playing so much basketball over the weekend my legs were sore so I called Evan and Sky to pick me up instead. I saw Evan’s car pull up at our driveway at around seven thirty-five and I picked up my muffin and headed outside.
“Hey guys.” I said slamming the door shut.
“Hey, Elaine” said Evan, looking behind him as he backed out of our driveway. He spotted my muffin.
“Hey, can I have a bite of that?”
“Sure.” I held it up to his mouth.
“Thanks.” he said with a mouthful of muffin. “That’s really good. Did your mom bake them?”
“Yeah, she baked them fresh this morning. Do you want some Sky?” I said, holding up the muffin.
“No thanks, Elaine.” I shrugged and took another bite.
“So we’re still going to the pumpkin patch next weekend, right?”
“Yup.” said Sky.
“Do you guys want to go on Saturday or Sunday?” I asked.
“Saturday. I’m going to be busy on Sunday. I have to do something at home.”
“Alright, Saturday it is. Just out of curiosity, what exactly are you doing on Sunday?”
“Well, my aunt is coming over and I have to babysit my little cousin.”
“Mhm.” we pulled up in the parking lot.
“Seriously!” he said in defense.
“Okay, whatever you say.” I winked at Sky and she grinned at me.
“Hey, can you guys help me with this stuff?” I said holding up the bags that I was carrying.
“Here, hand them to me.” said Evan. I handed him the fog machine and spider webs.
“Thanks.” I said as we headed towards the courtyard. I spotted James talking to Kimberley Marie, one of the school’s snobbiest cheerleaders. Kimberley and I used to be friends, not the best of friends, but we didn’t completely hate each other. Until I met Sky and Evan. Kimberley refused to hang out with them so we went our separate ways.
“James!” I called. He glanced back and saw me waving at him. He grinned and waved back.
“See you later.” I heard him say to Kimberley. He started walking towards us.
“Hey, Madeline.” he said smiling at me, putting his hands in his pockets.
“Hey, James.” I said smiling back. We stared at each other for awhile. James cleared his throat.
“So are you going to introduce me to your friends?” he said.
“Right.” I said. “ James, this is Skylar, but Evan and I call her Sky.” They shook hands.
“Pleasure to meet you Sky.” he grinned at her and Sky blushed.
“And this is Evan.” I said.
“Nice to meet you, man. I would shake your hand, but they look pretty full.” James regarded the bags. Evan set his jaw.
“When did you move to this school?” Sky asked him.
“Just last week. On Wednesday.”
“So you’re the new transfer student that Madeline was touring around last week.” Evan stated.
“That would be me.”
“Madeline’s told us a lot about you.” said Sky.
“She has?” James questioned. “Like what?”
“Well, like you went to Richardson High. Why did you transfer here all of a sudden in the middle of October?” said Sky.
“Well actually my dad was transferred here because his boss offered him a chance to design a new building for some big company.”
“So your dad’s an architect?” I asked.
“Yeah, something like that. He’s more of a businessman. He just found this as a great opportunity and accepted the offer.”
“That’s really cool.” The bell rang.”We should probably get to class now.”
“It was great meeting you guys.” said James to Evan and Sky.

I started working on my costume after I got home from basketball practice. I brought it downstairs and laid it out on the countertop. I read through the instructions:
Step 1: Rip up dress in different places to give it an old look
Step 2: Splatter dress with ‘blood’
Step 3: Let ‘blood’ dry for 24 hours
Step 4: Apply makeup
After I finished making the dress, I brought it up to my room for the blood to dry. The Halloween dance was tomorrow. On Tuesday, our class went down to the gym to set up the haunted house. James and I put up our cobwebs and hung up the spiders. I still had the Halloween music CD homee and I was going to bring the CD player tomorrow. James had the fog machine at his house and was going to bring it to the dance. We had the middle section of the haunted house, which was perfect because it was the darkest spot in the haunted house. It would be much harder to see us hiding in the corner. I rushed back downstairs after I heard a knock at the door. I looked through the window and saw Evan. I opened the door.
“Evan, what are you doing here?”
“I was bored homee and I didn’t have anything to do so I came here.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I was thinking we could go get some frozen yogurt or something if you’re not too busy.”
“I actually just finished everything that I needed to do so let me go grab a jacket upstairs.” he sat on the couch and turned on the T.V.
After I got downstairs, I asked Evan;
“Aren’t you going to call Sky and ask her if she wanted to come with us?”
“I already did and she said she couldn’t. She had to catch up on her work.” I nodded my head. Skylar was always behind on her work.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked.
“Yeah, let’s go.”

“So Elaine,” said Evan as we sat down to eat our frozen yogurt. “I’ve been wondering if you wanted to go to the Halloween dance with me?”
“Evan, I would love to go to the dance with you but James has already asked me.” James had asked me if I wanted to go to the dance with him while we were setting up the haunted house. No one had asked me yet so I said yes. Evan looked down at his yogurt and started poking at it with his spoon.
“I could tell James that I’m going with you instead if you’re upset about it.”
“No! I mean, no don’t do that. I’m perfectly fine with you going with James to the dance.” He paused. He took a deep breath. “Can I ask you something Madeline?”
“You can ask me anything.”
“Do you like James?”
“I -- I don’t--” I stammered. “I don’t know. Maybe--” I stopped.
“Maybe?” He urged me to continue.
“Maybe a little.” I hadn’t really thought much about James before Evan had brought him up.

The Halloween dance would start at six o'clock and I had to get there twenty minutes earlier to help set up the rest of the decorations. I put on my costume and remembered that I didn’t have a ride yet. “Dad!” I called. I ran downstairs. “Dad, can you give me a ride to school?” He was in the kitchen making coffee.
“You can take the car tonight.” He said stirring his cup and taking a sip.
“Really? Thanks dad!” I went back upstairs to put on my makeup and called Sky.
“Hey, Sky.”
“Hey, Madeline! Evan’s costume is so awesome! You have to see it. So what’s up? Do you need a ride to the dance?”
“No, I’m taking my dad’s car. And besides, I have to get there earlier to help set up some other stuff so I’ll just see you guys there. I called to ask if you were going with Evan to the dance.”
“No---he asked some other girl from his history class. I think her name is Quinn.” The name didn’t sound familiar.
“I’ve never heard of her before.”
“Yeah, me neither. I think he’s making her up.” I glanced at my alarm clock.
“Well, I’m gonna be late so I’ll just meet you guys there okay?”
“Okay, see you there.”
“Bye.”

“See you later dad. Thanks again for letting me borrow the car.” I said grabbing my jacket and heading out the door.
“Have fun.” He said as I closed the door. I pulled up at the school parking lot. I grabbed the CD player and walked to the gym. I headed to the haunted house to find James so we could set up the fog machine and the CD player. I saw someone from my class putting up a sign that said ‘Bob for Apples, Win A Prize!’
“What’s up, Paige?” I said walking up to him.
“Hi, Madeline.” He stepped off the ladder, handed me the set down the duct tape. “Cool costume.”
“Thanks. Do you know if James is here yet?”
“Uh, yeah. I think I saw him over at the haunted house.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
I looked into the haunted house and found him putting the fog machine in the corner and covering it with a black cloth.
“James!” I whispered. He turned slowly.
“Who’s that?”
“It is I, the ghost of your great aunt Betty.” he looked confused.
“I don’t have a great aunt Betty.”
I started laughing. “You’re such a dork.” I said going inside the haunted house. “I actually scared you there for a second, huh?”
He shook his head. “James Pierce does not get scared.” He tapped my nose.I raised an eyebrow.
“Alright, alright you scared me.” He admitted. I grinned. “Did you bring the CD player?”
“Here you go.” I held it up. He took it from me and hid it in the corner.
“So this is how it’s going to go down. We’re going to hide in that corner over there.” He pointed to the darkest corner of our section. “Now, when they walk through those cobwebs, we’ll jump out and scream and then when they run away screaming we hide back in the corner.”
“Got it. Wouldn’t it work better if I was on one side and you were on the other?”
“I don’t know. I’m kind of scared already without the music and the fog.” he said jokingly.
“Trust me, you’ll survive.”
“Okay, but barely.”
“Everyone in my class please come to the front of the haunted house.” Someone called from outside.
“I can’t see anything.” I said feeling my way around the haunted house.
“Here.” He took my hand. “Just hold on to me.” I was thankful that we were in the dark because I had a feeling that I was blushing. When we got outside, I looked around. Most of our class was standing right outside the haunted house waiting for instructions.
“Who called us out here?” I asked looking at James. He shrugged and pointed to the front of the crowd.
“Attention everyone!” It was Mr. Crowe’s voice. Everyone’s heads turned to the front.
“You must all be in your spots inside the haunted house in five minutes. The dance will be starting in ten minutes. Get ready to get scary!”
“I think that was the worst rhyme I have ever heard in my life.” said James shaking his head.
“Let’s go inside.” I said.

Evan drove me home that night because scaring people at the dance had really tired me out. I had fallen asleep in the car. I was half awake when the car stopped but I kept my eyes closed anyways. “Hey sleepyhead, we’re here.” He leaned over to kiss my forehead. “I love you.” He whispered, almost too quietly that I could barely hear. Did he really just say those words? He gently shook me awake even though I already was. I stretched and pretended that I didn’t hear anything.
“We’re here?” I fake yawned.
“Yeah. Listen, I’ll see you tomorrow alright?”
“Mkay.” I said. I still wasn’t sure if I’d actually heard those words come out of his mouth or if I was just dreaming. I slowly got out of the car and waited until Evan had left. I trudged up the stairs to my room and changed out of my costume. I jumped onto my bed and thought about what Evan had just said in the car. Did he mean he loved me as a best friend or did he mean he loved me as someone who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Wait, what was I thinking? We were only seventeen. Yeah, we could be pretty crazy sometimes but falling deeply in love with someone? No way.
*****
Four months had passed ever since Evan had told me he loved me. James had asked me out, and I’d said yes. I don’t know why. Maybe because I wanted to get the idea out of my head that I couldn’t say the same thing back to my best friend that I’ve known ever since we were toddlers. What made it worse was that he didn’t know that I’d heard it and that I hadn’t told him about it yet. I was afraid to ask. I was afraid that he was going to say that he really love loved me. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I didn’t want him to think that I didn’t care about him anymore. And I especially didn’t want our friendship to change. We were best friends and that’s all we would ever be. I felt guilty just saying that in my head, over and over again trying to convince myself that it was true. I didn’t know what to do. I felt lost. And it was all because my best friend had told me that he loved me while I was half asleep.

Two years later...
James and I had been going out for almost two years now. A weird thing was, it was so easy. It wasn’t complicated at all. Considering that I was still friends with Evan and I still couldn’t get those three words out of my head, ‘I love you.’ They were just stuck there, permanently etched in my brain. It was constantly ringing in my ears and I just didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to get them out. I was crushed by the thought that I had to somewhat abandon my best friend. I didn’t want our relationship to get complicated so I went out with James. By doing that, I guess I ruined it more than if I were to say the words ‘I love you’ back. If I did, they wouldn’t have been the truth. And isn’t friendship all about truth and loyalty and trust. Wow, I am the worst best friend ever. I felt so bad for him. I was in college now. James went to a college not so far from mine and we got to see other every weekend, and sometimes every other day. Skylar is alright. I got a call from her the other day saying that Evan and her got together after Evan realized that he had to move on and that he didn’t actually have strong feelings for me. After that I felt abandoned. Then I realized it was actually a good thing because then I wouldn’t have to feel bad for leaving Evan hanging and not even comforting him. I told myself that everything was alright.
Skylar called and asked if I wanted to meet up with Evan and her. I accepted her offer because I hadn’t seen Evan in a long time and I really missed him. I met up with them at the park to have a nice picnic and I was so happy to see them look so contented together. We talked until the moonlight glowed brightly in the night sky, and we sat there, staring up at the stars together,with no worries and no regrets just like old times.



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