The past few weeks, Joey has been getting more and more aggravated. He’s snapping randomly, sighing and groaning a lot and then grinning like a fool at his phone screen. He was starting to concern me a lot and it kinda hurt that he wasn’t opening up to me as a friend.
Okay, okay – I know that’s kind of hypocritical. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still want to help him out.
I frowned at my hands, chewing my lip as I thought this over. A pair of arms wrapped around my waist and the smell of apples and coffee filled my mind. Tyler rested his head on my shoulder and grinned at me.
“Hey, you okay?” He asks me, pressing his lips to my ear and nuzzling my neck. I grin at him.
“I am now,” I sigh, relaxing back against his chest. I let my eyes drift shut as he starts to play with my hair. “What are you doing here?”
He shrugs against me. “You left school early – I figured this would be where you’d come.” I look up at him with a smile.
“Gee, you know me so well,” I say sarcastically, my eyes turning back to the lake and watching the water. “It’s strange how water is my way of escape – it’s like she’s still here with me.”
He hums against my skin, lifting his head to ask me who I’m talking about before running his lips along the side of my neck. I tense at first, before melting against him. “My mum,” I whisper sadly. “She drowned, so I should be afraid of water. But I’m not,” I admit. “It’s like the ultimate betrayal to her – finding escape watching the thing that killed her. But I can’t help it.”
He squeezes me tighter, lifting his hand to wipe away the tears that I didn’t know were falling. “I’m sure she’ll understand, Darcy. She loved you and she’ll want you to be happy.” He takes my chin, turning my head so he can look me in the eyes. “You are happy, right?”
“Of course,” I tell him, pecking his lips quickly. I close my eyes and s high. “You’ve actually helped a lot lately.”
He smirks at me, “well then I’m glad I could help.”
I got back at home to an empty house just before it got dark. I turned on the lights and decided to ignore the chillness in the air as I headed to the kitchen to get a drink. After being at the lake, Tyler had taken me out to eat, so I wasn’t really hungry anymore.
Usually, I would make dad something to eat if he was awake at the time, whether he demanded it or not, just so he wouldn’t go hungry. But since he wasn’t here, I could relax for an afternoon, which didn’t happen very often.
Just as I was about to sit down, the phone started to ring. I cursed my luck, putting down my glass and heading out to the hall to pick up the phone. “Hello?” I said, slightly irritated at having to talk to people.
“Hey Darcy,” his nervous voice spoke through the line. “It’s me… Joey. I was wondering I could come round for a bit?”
“Um, not to be rude, but why?” I ask him.
“”It’s about that talk,” he sighs. “I was wrong before – I really could use someone to talk to at the moment.”
I nodded my head despite the fact that he couldn’t see. “Then you’d best get over here, then. You do know where I live, right?”
“Of course I do!” He scoffed. “I know everything.”
Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I groaned as I got off the couch to answer it, knowing that it was Joey straight away. Duh, who else would turn up at my house? I’m not exactly popular.
Joey walked in the moment I opened the door, a frown marring his face. “Okay, so, I don’t have a clue how to say this, only that I really need to. So, can we, like, sit down or something?”
“Of course,” I say slowly, leading him into the livingroom. He avoids the end of the sofa with dad’s dent in it, choosing to sit as far from it a possible, a knowing look on his face.
“Well, you know that I’ve been seeing someone – the person I was texting in class today?” He starts, looking really nervous as he wrings his hands repeatedly in his lap. I nod slowly, waiting for him to carry on. He takes a deep breath and exhales it with a loud sigh. “It’s a guy.”
I stare at him, just blinking as I take it in. “So… you’re gay?” I ask him.
He nods slowly, his face going slightly pale. “I’ve only known for a few weeks, maybe over a month? – but I definitely am… gay, that is.” He’s stumbling over his words, his face turning drastically from white to a startling shade of red.
I nod my head, grinning at him, “so what’s he like then?”
“Huh?” He frowns at me. “Who?”
“Your booooyfriend,” I sing at him, a goofy smile on my face. “Can I meet him?”
He gapes at me. “You’re not, like, grossed out or whatever? You seriously don’t care?”
I shake my head at him, my eyes wide. “Dude, we’re friends; I don’t care if you’re gay, straight or if you hate the human species all together. So, tell me about him – what’s he like?”
He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “His name is Carl – he’s kinda shy, reserved, like. He’s h-o-t – like, super smart and ugh, my dad is going to kill me when he finds out.”
“Aw! Wait, what?” I snap out of my stupor and frown at him. “Are you saying that you haven’t told anybody yet? Dana? Remy?” He shakes his head sadly.
“No, you’re the first; Remy would have some crazy fit and Dana – well, she’s not the type of person I’d go to with my problems.” He shrugs, a guilty half-grin on his face. “You’re the most sane, nice person in the group; I figured you’d be the easiest to talk to.”
“Aw, shucks,” I nudge him gently. “But what do you mean your dad is going to kill you?”
He shakes his head. “He’s a very… manly man, I guess you could say. Sporty, stubborn; he’s also very judgemental and strict. He definitely will not like his son being gay.”
“Well he’s going to have to get over it,” I say firmly, my fists clenched. “It doesn’t define you and it doesn’t change who you are. I’m still your friend, Joey.”
He smiles weakly, wrapping an arm around me gratefully. “Thanks, Darcy – I really appreciate it. But, can you maybe not tell anybody yet? At least until I’m ready?”
“Of course!” I nod at him, jumping of the couch to get us some drinks. Suddenly, a memory pops into my head, and I turn to him with a grimace on my face.
“What?” He asks me, a worried look crossing his features. “Darcy, what is it?”
“I’ve just remembered something; Dana told me she thought you and Remy would be perfect together,” I tell him with a shiver.
He bursts out laugh, his eyes watering and everything. “Oh, my God!” He says between laughter, his hands clutching his sides. “Darcy, hasn’t Remy told you? She’s been in a relationship for over two years now!”
“Wait, what!?” I burst, looking at him in shock. “Why the hell didn’t any of you tell me?”
“Because,” he rolls his eyes at me once he’s pulled himself back together again. “He lives in Texas and he only visits in the summer to see her. She probably didn’t tell you because she forgot – you know how forgetfully she can be.”
“Yeah,” I nod my head slowly. “But still, I can’t believe Dana thought you and Remy would go out!”
He shakes his head slowly, a happy smile spreading across his face, “No way, not when I’ve got Cam.” I nod, a humming sound in my throat as the same smile crosses my face.
Only I’m definitely not thinking about a boy named Cam. I doubt he has warm hazel eyes, anyway…
Sixteen
Barely a week later, and everything is back to normal – well, what was relatively normal before Joey’s confession and Remy’s fight with her sister. They’ve both been back to their usual happy, crazy selves and if possible, my friendship between the two has grown.
At lunch, I’ve started sitting with Tyler sometimes as well, even though they tease me for it the next day at lunch. This just happens to be today, where we’re sat at our usual table.
“S
o how was your lunch date with lover boy?” Remy smiles at me, a twinkle in her eyes. She bursts out laughing when I blush. “Oh, my gosh! I can’t believe you still blush over him! It’s been what, nearly three months now?”
“I dunno,” I mumble with a shrug, looking down at the sandwich in my hands.
“Aw, leave the poor girl alone,” Joey tells her with a shake of his finger at Remy. “You’re embarrassing her. So what if she blushes? It’s cute – oh, what the hell; they’re cute!”
Dana snorts at him, “Gee, dude, care to tone down the campiness?”
He frowns at her, shaking his hair out of his eyes. “No thank you; I like who I am.” She rolls her eyes at him.
“Well!” I burst out, a grin on my face. “I was thinking that we should hang out tonight. Maybe we could-“
Dana’s phone begins to ring. She purses her lips, pulling the device out of her pocket only to stare at the screen with a scowl. “Urgh, guys, I’m going to go and take this – I’ll see you later, yeah?”
We nod, waiting until she’s gone before turning to each other. “Well, that seemed important,” Remy states.
“Yeah,” Joey scoffs. “Do you think she’s turning spy on us now?”
“She has the face for it, I think,” Remy says in her ‘thinking’ voice, a bubble smile on her face.
I narrow my eyes at her sceptically. “How do you have a ‘face’ for spying?”
She looks at me like I’m an idiot, “uh, haven’t you noticed most spies have that mysterious, dark look to them?”
Joey smirks at me, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, Darcy, how could you not have noticed that?”
I sigh, turning back to the direction Dana had walked it; I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that she looked a little sad when she’d seen the caller’s name.
She was angry in class later, her eyes dark and moody as she sat in her seat next to mine. I looked at her but she ignored me, her body tense as she turned to stare out the window.
“Um,” I try to think of something to say, my lips pursed slightly.
“Don’t, Darcy,” she whispers at me. “Just leave it, yeah? I’m not in the mood.”
I nodded, turning back to face the front of the class just as Miss Herald walked into the room, folders held tightly to her chest. “Okay class, I haven’t got anything planned today, so you might as well do any work you have to do for this lesson.”
The lesson was spent in silence, with Dana just staring out the window. Eventually, I pulled a book out of my back, one of the classics Tyler had given me on our first date. Halfway through the class, a note slide in front of me.
I’ll tell you later.
Dana wasn’t looking at me when I looked at her, but I still knew the note was from her. Ok. I pushed it in front of her, but she didn’t say anything after that.
I guess I’ll find out why later.
Turns out later is that afternoon, as Dana pulls up her truck outside my house and hops out, sunglasses hiding her eyes from the world as she walks up to my front door. I’m already there, though – her truck can be heard from a mile away.
“Hey,” I grin, remembering how similar this situation is to the one with Joey. She smiles weakly, taking of the glasses to meet my eyes.
She flops down on the sofa – again, the dent is ignored – and sighs loudly. “Where’s you dad?” She asks me.
“He, um, went out,” I tell her, my eyes downcast. He’d come home a few days ago, sober and grumpy, and headed straight for the booze in the kitchen whilst snapping at me. But Dana didn’t need to know that part.
“Oh, cool,” she shrugged simply. “How are things with you and lover boy?”
“Dana,” I sigh. “You know this isn’t what we’re talking about.”
She nods, pressing her lips together until they go white. “Alex has been calling me a lot lately. Today, when he called again, I just wanted to get it over with; so I answered.”
“Ah,” I chew my lip as I think it over. “So what did he want to say?”
She threw her arms in the air with a dramatic groan. “He was all – ugh – “I miss you, I think we should talk, I made a mistake!” Yeah, like that is a reason to take him back.”
“He wants you to give him another shot?” I ask her in shock. She nods grimly.
“The jerk,” she scoffs. “He’s probably bored with banging the entire female population – but he won’t be for long.” She huffs, hurt flashing in her eyes. “I just don’t know if I can just open myself up to that kind of level again, y’know?”
I nod, my eyes narrowed in thought; I knew Dana too much now to believe the tough-girl act. Behind all the tattoos, piercings and that dark, cynical attitude, she was a hurt girl who was afraid to fall in love again.
“Do you still love him?” I blurt.
She looks up with wide eyes, her jaw slightly slack. “What?” I shake my head, about to tell her that she didn’t have to answer that, but she’d already slumped back in despair. “If I said yes…” She started slowly. “Would that make me pathetic?”
“No, that would make you human,” I tell her.
“Well I don’t want to be human, not if it means I’m open to getting my heart broken again!”
“You’re not,” I insist. “You’re just willing to try and put the pieces back together again.”
Remy laughed, narrowing her eyes in thought; it was scary sometimes how the bubbly, innocent girl could be so… competitive. “I spy with my little eye…”
“P! Something beginning with P!” She bursts, a smirk on her face. Dana looks over at me and rolls her eyes.
“People?” She mumbles under her breath, before returning her attention to the magazine she’s been flipping the pages of for the last hour.
Remy turns to her in shock. “Did you just read my mind?”
“Hey guys!” Joey walks over and falls dramatically next to me, a wide smirk on his face. “You could have told me we were sitting outside for lunch today, I was sat on my own looking like a looser for ten whole minutes!”
Remy giggles, “maybe we were trying to tell you something.”
His eyes widen, making us all laugh. “Don’t worry, Joey,” I tell him with a grin. “We’d never abandon you.”
“Aw, thanks Darcy,” he gushes, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug. “I know I can always count on you!”
I share a look with Dana, who blushes and looks away. After our talk yesterday, she’d made me promise not to tell anybody about her still harbouring feeling for Alex, and I’d promised. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to talk to her about how she felt.
I knew she still liked him, but I also understood that he was a jerk and he broke her heart. I must be a horrible friend. What kind of friend is happy for their friend to have feelings for somebody who broke their heart?
Joey pokes my cheek, bringing me back to earth; Remy and Dana are arguing over I Spy and Joey has been trying to show me a text by shoving his phone in my face. “Look,” he exclaims. “Some loser has just lied about being raped! I just got told then from their cousins friend who-“
“Joey,” I say slowly. “I, um, I gotta go.” I jump up and say a rushed bye before running inside the school and to the empty library – even the librarian has gone for lunch. I fall against a bookshelf at the back and bring my hand up to cover my face.
That word…
Every time I hear it, I break. I take a deep breath, my heart racing as I try to pull myself together.
No, I think to myself. I will not break down. I push the memories back into the deepest, darkest corner of my mind and forget about them as much as I can. I sigh, wipe my eyes fiercely with the sleeve of my jumper, and stand up. I won’t let it get to me again.
But no matter how much I try to convince myself, there’s still that internal voice called my subconscious whispering mockingly; yeah right.
Seventeen
“And then I’m going to change my name to Simon, so everybody has to do what I say�
�” Remy laughed evilly, falling back against Joey’s leg. We were sat in my house – unfortunately, they’d turned up so we could “study”, and yet none of them said anything about how empty it was and about its poor state. I was beginning to thing none of them cared.
So here we are; me, Joey, Remy and Dana. Joey was sat on the chair in the corner, me and Dana were sat on the couch (again, avoiding The Dent) and Remy was, well, she was rolling on the floor as she made a long list of evil plans to do in the future.
Dana looked bored, her head leaning on her hand as she watched Remy try to pull off Joey’s shoe. I nudged her gently. “You okay?”
“Yeah…” she nods, a frown pulling at her brow. “It’s just my Gran – she’s been a bit… off, lately.”
“Oh. Is she okay?”
“What? Yeah,” she nods quickly, a small smile on her face. “She’s fine, crazy and loving as ever. I’d know if something was up.” I nod slowly, and her smile grows, her eyes lighting up. “In fact, she’s been asking about you; she really liked you last time.”
“I was under the impression she liked everyone,” I admit sheepishly, ducking my head. She bursts out laughing.
“Oh, of course she does; she’s like some big, cuddly bear! But she took an extra shine to you. I think it’s because she knows that we all trust you.”
I look up at that, my eyes wide. “Really? You guys all trust me?”
“Yeah, silly,” she chuckles. “Why do you think we all come to you with our problems? You probably remind my Gran of her when she was our age.”
I nod again, my lips curling up. I like the sound of that, of being helpful to people. I guess it gives me a purpose I’ve never had before. My mum was always the problem-solver when she was alive, not me. In fact, I often caused some of the problems.
“Darcy!” Remy squeals suddenly, her face bright red. “Do you by any chance have anything to eat; I’m starved.” Yeah, not many people would say something like that in another person’s house, but with Remy, you can expect it; she’s not really… tactful. But I suppose I like the fact that she’s so outspoken.
Then Came You Page 8
