The Story of Us Read Free Page B

possibility.”
    “See, the way you said
‘slutty’ girl, makes me think there may have been some jealously
behind that statement,” Hailey accuses, smiling like she knows a
secret. “And besides, you do have a history. I’ve seen you curled up with him
on a couch all night, dance with him to a slow song, and even hang
out with him alone on occasion.”
    “You’ve also seen me slap him across
the face,” I point out. Sure, I’ve found myself having a soft spot
for Craig once or twice, thinking there’s more to him than the bad
boy everyone else sees, but in the end his true colors always come
out. “I’m not doing this again, Hailey. I’m not going to sit here
and try to convince you that I don’t have feelings for Craig. We’ve
had this conversation so many times before. Why can’t you just
accept that I don’t?”
    “Because I think that you do, but you
don’t think that he’s serious about you. You think he jokes around
about being into you. But I see the way he looks at you, Val. He’s
serious. He just plays it off as a joke because he’s constantly
rejected by you.”
    “You’re right. He’s so serious about
me, he has to mend his broken heart with a variety of willing
women,” I bite back sarcastically.
    “Okay, he’s a bit of a player. But
still-”
    “As my best friend, you’re supposed to
keep me away from guys like Craig, not push me towards
them.”
    Hailey’s taken back, her
face stricken with seriousness as if I just slapped her. I didn’t
mean to make it sound like she’s not a good friend. She is a good friend. But
sometimes I think she pushes me towards Craig simply because it
would be cool for two best friends to date two best friends,
regardless of the fact that he’s a player and I will surely end up
brokenhearted.
    “You’re right,” she whispers.
“Truce?”
    “Truce,” I agree, not wanting to make
her feel any worse. “Now, let’s spruce up this place. This is
supposed to be fun and exciting. I need a serious pick-me-up after
seeing the overly irritating Craig Morgan.”
    The first thing I unpack is my IPod
speaker. I search through my purse for my IPod, having a hard time
feeling for it with the millions of things cluttering it up. I
finally feel it and pull it out, at the same time making a mental
note to clean out my purse when we’re all settled. I set it to my
‘party songs’ playlist and Hailey and I get to work. That’s the
thing about music – you can always count on it to change your mood.
If you want a good cry, listen to a sad song. When you want to
cheer up, blast the fun ones. We dance around each other, unpacking
our clothes and putting them away first. Then, we start to set up
our room. Before we know it, Drew’s back with my coffee. I want to
ask him about Craig, if he said anything about me or not. But I
refrain. I don’t want to get the ‘why would I be asking if I didn’t
care?’ speech. Drew only stays for about twenty minutes and then
takes off back to his own dorm to finish unpacking
himself.
    “Val, what should we do about the
common room?” Hailey asks.
    “I guess we just wait.” The common
room divides two dorm rooms, forming a small living room for us to
hang out in. Neither of the girls from the other dorm room have
shown up yet. “They’ll probably be here tomorrow,” I
add.
    “Knock, knock,” Hailey’s mom, Jane,
says through the open door. Hailey runs over to give her mom a hug
and I follow suit. Jane has been like a second mother to me for
most of my adolescent years. It’s nice that she’s here, since my
own parents aren’t.
    “I brought pizza for my college
girls,” she announces with a bright smile.
    The three of us sit around eating
pizza and talking for a while until it’s time for Jane to take off.
Since Hailey’s parents divorced, Jane has been more like one of the
girls than a parent. I’m sure it’s weird for Hailey, but I think
it’s great that we can talk to her about anything. I speak