I Couldn't Be So Annoyed

What the hell? I thought. This can't be happening. I'm in a dream and when I wake up, Justin and Sarah are married and are blissfully on their honeymoon. Sarah didn't run off with some guy to New York. Justin and Sarah are still that perfect couple that we know and love.

As much as I wish that was true, I knew the reality. The couple that I looked up to all of these years had broken up with no sign of reconciliation. I wasn't sure how I was handling this. They had been the picture perfect couple. Listening to Sarah talk about how she got bored of him because they were in a rut, made me afraid that it was going to happen to me with Henry.

"Are you coming back to Beachside?" I asked her, concerned.

I mean, how much stuff did she bring with her to New York? From what I saw, she left almost everything here. I really hoped that she was coming back to Beachside to at least gather her things. Then maybe, just maybe, she can talk to Justin about this whole thing and possibly explain herself to him. He deserved to hear an explanation.

"Umm, I don't think so," she said, after a minute. "If I go there, I know that Justin will try to talk to me. I don't know if I can handle that. I really hurt him, Court, leaving the way I did. I'm really sorry for what I did. I just.. can't face him. Courtney, can you pack up my stuff for me and ship it here? I already Facebook-ed you my address."

The last thing I wanted to do was to go over to her house and pack up all of her stuff and ship it to her. But, I wanted to be a good friend.

"Yeah, ok, I'll do it," I told her. "Justin deserves an explanation at least."

"I know," she said with a sigh. "Thanks, Court, it means a lot that you're doing this for me."

It dawned on me that Sarah owed more than one person an explanation. She had invited Taylor to the wedding so he could talk to me. My question was.. talk to me about what?

"Speaking of explanations, why would you invite Taylor to the wedding?" I asked her, with a bit of anger in my voice.

"What?" she asked me, confused. "Oh, right! That!"

"Yes, that!" I said.

I knew that had come off as a tiny bit rude, but I didn't really care. I was really frustrated with Sarah and her actions.

"He told me that he was in love with you, but that you wouldn't give him the time of day," she said to me. "He seemed really sincere. I mean, really, I think the two of you are perfect for each other."

"Well, I thought that you and Justin were perfect for each other," I said to her. I was being a little brat, but I didn't care. She really deserved this.

"I understand that you're mad at me, Courtney, I deserve it," she told me. "But, it's not like you're seeing anyone. Just give Taylor another chance, will you?"

"He showed up to the wedding drunk and yelling," I said to her. "So, I don't know how perfect he is for me."

"It's not like you have any better options!" she exclaimed loudly. I moved the phone away from my ear. "Who else are you going to get with? Logan? He slept with Haylie! Who's to say he's not going to do it again?"

I was extremely angry. She did NOT tell me that I didn't have any better options so I have to pick Taylor.

"For your information, I'm not single," I said, rudely. "I've been seeing someone for a while now. I was going to tell you after the wedding, but since the wedding didn't happen.. I guess I'm going to tell you now. Henry and I are together. Deal with it."

I hung up and tossed my phone at the wall, shattering it.

Crap.

New York, New York

My jaw dropped. I thought I had heard her wrong because she couldn't have possibly said New York. New York as in The Big Apple. New York as in the state that is almost 3,000 miles away from California. New York as in the New York that is all the way on the other side of the country. Yeah, she couldn't have possibly said New York.

"New York?" I asked her. "Why are you in New York?" I heard her sigh.

"It's a long story," she told me.

"I have time," I told her. Henry poked his head into the hotel room right when I said that. "Hold on one second." I put the phone against my body.

"Hey, are you coming?" Henry asked me. He saw that I was on the phone. "Who are you talking to?"

"Sarah," I said to him. He gave me a look as if to say "what?". "I know. I think you and Justin should go without me. I want to talk to Sarah for a bit."

"Ok, I'll bring you back something," he said to me. "I don't want you to pass out from hunger." I smiled at how sweet he was. He came in and give me a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving the room. He made sure to close the door behind him.

"Hey, I'm back," I said into the phone. "So why are you in New York? Why did you leave Justin?"

"I love Justin, I do, Courtney," she said. "I mean, I don't know how to put this. I don't know how to say this in words and actually make it make sense. It's complicated."

I don't think I can say that I know what she's going through and that I understood what she was feeling, but I wish that she'd just try to talk it out. Maybe if she had talked it out with me then this whole leaving Justin at the alter thing wouldn't have happened. I wanted her to make me understand what was going on inside her mind.

"Please try?" I pleaded with her. She took a deep breath.

"Justin and I have been together for so many years, Courtney," she said. "We know each other inside and out. We're so comfortable around each other and we can tell each other anything."

"So far I'm not really seeing a problem here," I said to her.

"I know," she said. "But I don't know, I feel like we're in a rut. We've become so predictable. When we're not in school, we're working. After we get off of work, we would hang out at his house and watch a movie. If we're not at his house watching a movie, then we're out to dinner at the burger joint. It gets boring after awhile, you know what I mean?" I started to nod, but I realized that she couldn't see me.

"Yes, I know what you mean, Sarah," I said to her. "But that's when you suggest new things to do. You know, try out a new restaurant? Go hiking? Go to a park for a picnic?"

"I did!" she exclaimed. "We did all those things. I thought that I could marry him and then everything would be ok. But then I asked myself, can I do this for the rest of my life? And I couldn't."

"Oh," I said.

"I just got bored of him," Sarah continued. "It doesn't mean that I don't love him, because I do, but I just don't look forward to spending time with him anymore."

"Maybe you shouldn't be explaining this to me, but to Justin," I told her.

"No, I can't," she said. "I mean, I'm in New York now."

"Why are you there?" I exclaimed.

"There was this guy in one of my clubs," Sarah said. "His name's Sean. We've been hanging out for awhile now and we're really close. We're not dating or anything because I was with Justin. Now that Justin and I are over.. Well, I guess you could say that Sean and I are together. He's going to New York University and he asked me to come with him to New York. So, I did and we're moving in together... In New York. Actually, we just signed the lease today."

When You're Going to San Francisco

It had been two days since anyone has seen either Justin or Sarah.

After Justin had left, Haylie, Henry, and I had sat in the living room waiting for him to get back to the reception. The minutes had turned into hours and no one had heard back from him. I had tried calling him, but all I got was his voice mail. I left a couple of voice mails pleading him to come back to the house, but they were left unanswered.

But thankfully, his parents just called me to let me know that he was ok. Justin had called his parents letting them know that he was safe He explained to them that he needed to get away from everything because everything reminded him of Sarah. I felt a rush of relief when his parents had called me to let me know that he was fine. I immediately called Henry and Haylie (who will relay the information to Adam) to tell them the wonderful news. They are going to be so relieved.

Guess where he is? He's staying at a hotel in San Francisco. He traveled all the way to San Francisco to get away from Beachside. I was a little angry at Justin for not returning anyone's calls when he was nice and comfortable in a hotel in San Francisco while we were all worried sick about him. I tried to think positively. At least he's ok.

Apparently, he didn't go find Sean, whoever Sean was. Justin went home to take a duffel bag full of clothes and drove off to San Francisco.

Sarah's parents were extremely worried about her. They were relieved that Justin was safe and sound, but there was still no signs of Sarah.

Unfortunately, she had left her cell phone behind when she ran off. We had no way of contacting her. Henry and I went to all of her favorite places in town (and some closely out of town) but no one remembered seeing her in the last two or three days. We gave up searching for her (for now) because we knew that there was nothing we could do about it because she was the one who left.

Henry and I decided to drive up to San Francisco to be there for Justin. Haylie declined the invitation to tag along and Adam.. Well, Adam was busy entertaining Zoey. They've been all over each other since they had gotten back together. It was disgusting, really, to see all that PDA.

"It's nice that we're taking a road trip together," I said to Henry as we passed by a sign indicating that we're 30-something miles away from San Francisco. "Too bad that it's under these circumstances."

"I promise we'll go on a nice road trip together one day," he said with a smile. "Maybe when all of this blows over." I grinned.

Half an hour later, we arrived at the hotel that Justin was staying at. It took a lot of coaxing and lies, but we managed to get the receptionist to give us Justin's room number. I don't really want to talk about it, but let me tell you, it involved a lot of leg.

We got into the elevator and I pushed the number 3. Justin was staying in room 310. I watched as the number jumped from L to 1, 1 to 2, and finally 2 to 3. The doors opened and we got off the elevator. I pointed to the right, where the sign said room 310 would be, and Henry and I followed the hallway until we reached the room marked 310.

But before I could raise my hand to knock on the door, the door opened. A drop dead gorgeous brunette stepped out wearing a really short dress with a super low cut that revealed a lot of cleavage. She gave us a strange look and proceeded to walk down the hallway, towards the elevators. She didn't notice that she had left the door open.

I peeked inside and it appeared that the coast was clear. Henry and I went inside, calling Justin's name. Justin stepped out of the walk-in closet.

"Henry? Courtney? What are you guys doing here?" he asked us, confused.

"We came here to be there for you," I said, giving him a hug.

"Who was that girl that just left?" Henry asked him. Justin looked embarrassed and looked away.

"She was a girl that I met at the bar last night," he mumbled. "I don't remember what happened. I've been drinking a lot in the last two days." Henry patted him on the back.

"Come on, let's go downstairs to get something to eat," Henry said to him. "We haven't eaten lunch yet and we're starving." Henry and Justin walked into the hallway.

I heard my phone ring in my purse and I scrambled to find it.

"Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Courtney, it's me," It was unmistakable. It was Sarah.

"Sarah, where are you?" I asked her, worriedly.

"I'm in New York," she said.

The Big Day (Part I)

**** Hey, guys!!!!!!! Today's my 19th birthday! WHOOOOOOOOO! Haha. If you can't tell, I'm kind of excited! It's funny that I'm turning 19 on the 19th! But, yes, I wanted to let you guys know that I might be a little late responding to the comments. Oh. I added my email to the sidebar if anyone has any questions, concerns, comments, criticisms or just wants to have a chat. Have a great day, guys! :)*****

I was excited when I woke up this morning. There was so much to do before the wedding. Since the wedding was held in Sarah's backyard, everything had been set up yesterday. The food was being handled by her mom. All we needed to do was get ready and show up to the ceremony while Sarah's mom handled everything else (ie making sure that everything was where it should be). How hard can that be, just showing up to the ceremony?

I jumped out of bed and got my bridesmaid dress. Sarah had changed her mind about 10,000 times about what the bridesmaid should wear. First, she wanted us to wear a aquamarine colored dress. Within 24 hours, she had changed her mind and wanted us to wear a silver colored dress. Finally, she decided to let us wear a black dress of our choosing, as long as it was ALL black and was approved by her first. I think the dresses she approved were no where near as pretty as hers. Yeah, Sarah's a bit of a control freak. That's Ms. 4.0 for you. I mean, really, what did you expect?

After jumping into the shower and pulling my hair up into a ponytail, I headed over to Sarah's house. We had to meet there to get ready. Of course, I was the first one there.

Sarah's nerves were still going.

"OMG, Courtney!" she exclaimed, nervously, after she let me in. "Today's the day."

"Are you ok?" I asked her, worriedly. She nodded, hesitantly.

"I think so," she said. "I have a mixture of feelings going on. I'm really scared, but I'm really excited. I think mostly excited."

"That's normal, sweetie," I told her. "I'm glad that you're no longer nervous about this."

"Me too," she said.

We went upstairs and waited for Haylie to come over so we could go to the hair salon. We waited and waited. She was nearly 15 minutes late. Sarah made me call her. So, I picked up my phone and dialed Haylie's number.

"Haylie, where the hell are you?" I almost yelled into the phone, before she could even get a word in. "The appointment for the hair salon is in half an hour!"

"Courtney?" she asked, groggily. "Oh. Geez! Today's the wedding, isn't it?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "Get your butt over here!"

"I'm sorry! I overslept!" she exclaimed. "I'm on my way over."

I rolled my eyes when she hung up on me. I didn't want to tell Sarah that Haylie pretty much FORGOT that the wedding was today. I sighed. The doorbell rang a couple minutes later and we were off to the hair salon.

It took us a long time to get our hair done. I was pretty much cranky afterward because of Sarah's perfectionist attitude. She was such a bridezilla in the salon that I felt sorry for the person who did her hair. The hair stylist didn't deserve to get yelled at because one single strand fell out of the bun. That's just my opinion though.

We had quickly gotten our nails done (for the second time this week because Sarah changed her mind about what color nails we should have. I know.) and rushed back into the house. I had left Sarah alone in her room to change into her wedding dress. I quickly changed into my bridesmaid dress and did my make-up before heading downstairs.

I was trying to make it to the backyard to find Sarah's mom to see if she needed help with anything- the flowers, placements, etc. I couldn't find her and ran into someone on the way back into the house.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed, laughing nervously at my clumsiness.

"Courtney?" I looked up and saw that it was Henry. I haven't talked to him since I told him that I "loved him" over the phone. To be honest, I was trying to avoid him.

"O-oh, hi Henry," I stuttered, nervously.

"I was just looking for you," he said. "Can we talk?"

Bachelor Party

I woke up this morning feeling a little disoriented by what happened last night. I kept thinking back to what Justin told me about what happened. I wonder if I asked Sarah, if she would tell me the same thing. I reached for my phone and saw that I had a couple of messages from Sarah, asking me to call her. I immediately dialed her number.

"Hey, Sarah, what's wrong?" I asked her, worried.

"I started to freak out about Justin again last night," she told me. She said it so fast that her words had jumbled together.

"I hate to ask you, Sarah, but can you tell me what happened to make you think that Justin cheated on you?" I asked her. Then I quickly said, "If you're not comfortable with it, I totally understand. I mean, it is really none of my business and it's between you and Justin. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

I heard her sigh into the phone and take a deep breath before saying anything.

"Well, I went to visit him at work one day," she told me. "I mean, he was so buddy buddy with this one girl. What was her name? Angie? Angel? Annie? Angelina? Anyways.. He was extremely close with her. I mean, they had inside jokes. They were laughing all the time. I mean, he practically ignored me when I was there. He was too busy talking to what's-her-face. She was really flirty with him too. I just didn't trust her around him. I got a really weird vibe from her- like an 'I have your boyfriend, what are you going to do about it' vibe. I don't know, Courtney. What do you think about this whole thing?"

I didn't know what to say to that. How do you tell one of your best friends that you think that she's completely overreacting. I mean.. It didn't sound like Justin was cheating on her at all. All it sounds like is that she's jealous of Angela. I mean, she didn't even bother to get her name correct.

Honestly, Sarah had a wild imagination. She thought, last summer, that Justin, Adam, and Henry weren't going on a camping trip. She thought that they were really going to Las Vegas with fake IDs to go see some strippers and get drunk. She based this on the fact that, right before the camping trip, she saw Adam talking to this guy who was well known for making fake IDs for people. Adam was talking to this guy about playing basketball over the summer. I was there and jumped into the conversation, I guess, before Sarah had gotten there.

Anyways, my point was.. I had to reassure her then that Justin wasn't going to cheat on her with a stripper from Las Vegas or a prostitute or any other girl while he was on his trip (which was really a camping trip to the middle of nowhere). I know that Sarah loves Justin, but is a tiny bit insecure. Ok, a lot insecure.

"Courtney?" I snapped out of my thoughts.

"I don't know, Sarah," I said. "I'm just wondering if this is like the whole thing between Adam and I where everyone thought that we were dating or something when we weren't. I honestly don't know, Sarah, because I wasn't there." She groaned.

I honestly loved the fact that she was freaking out about everything now, when all the guests have arrived and the wedding was this weekend. She definitely couldn't have picked a better time to freak out. Well, it could be worse. It could have been right before the wedding.

"Today is his bachelor party too!" she exclaimed. "What if.. what if he has a stripper there and he ends up sleeping with her?"

"Sarah, he's not going to do that," I told her. "Do you trust him?"

"Yes," she said, in a small voice.

"Good, that's all you need," I said, softly. "Now, stop obsessing about this and get ready. We need to kick off our girls' day out and ignore what the boys are doing."

Needless to say, our girls' day out was amazing. We were completely pampered at the spa and I think that Sarah is 100% back to normal. I mean, you can't go wrong with an all day spa day with hot male masseuses, right?

Of course, Sarah kept sneaking off after each activity to call Justin to make sure that he wasn't doing anything he wasn't supposed to do. I laughed because I was doing the exact same thing with Henry, except that I only called him once.

"I promise you, there are no strippers," he told me, over the phone. "It's just a couple of guys, playing poker at Justin's house. We're probably going to play some video games after our poker tournament. It's completely alcohol-free and girl-free. You can tell Sarah to stop worrying. Her constant phone calls are driving the guys nuts."

"Thanks, sweetie," I told him. I was relieved that the guys weren't doing something crazy.

"Hey, Henry! Stop talking to your girlfriend and just go!" I heard one of the guys yell.

"He's just talking to Courtney!" I heard another person yelling. I think it was Adam.

"Listen, I'm going to go, the guys are ragging on me now," he told me. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, love you," I said, before hanging up.

It wasn't until after I hung up when I realized what I had said to him. Crap.

On This Side

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Justin? Justin cheating on Sarah? I couldn't believe it. He was so completely in love with her that you couldn't even find the words to express it. If he didn't completely love her, he wouldn't have proposed to her at such a young age (not really young young, but you get what I'm saying). He wouldn't give up being single if he wasn't sure that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. I mean, come on! We're going to college here. College = lots of cute girls.. Just saying.

I'm going to get off my little tangent now before I start a little rant or start rambling about nonsense.

"I don't understand, why you didn't say anything to me?" I asked a nearly sobbing Sarah. "Why didn't you tell me or Haylie? You didn't have to go through this by yourself, sweetie. You know we're here for you no matter what."

"I don't know!" she cried. "I didn't want to admit it to myself. I think.. I think that I wanted my relationship with Justin to seem like it was perfect- like we didn't have any problems like a normal couple. I mean, we do have our problems that we usually work out, but I don't know. I'm doubting if he can stay faithful to me- to our relationship- if we get married."

"I really think that you're freaking out over nothing, Sarah," I told her. "You forgave him. He hasn't done anything since then, right?"

"No," she answered, sniffling.

"So, I really don't think that he's going to do it again, Sarah," I told her. If he did cheat on you in the first place. I thought. "He's completely in love with you. You can see it in his eyes. He wouldn't have proposed to you if he wasn't sure that he wanted to be with you."

"I guess," she said, looking a little better. "I'm just overreacting to nothing. Thanks, Courtney. You're a great friend." I hugged her.

"No problem, sweetie," I told her. "Are you going to be ok?" She nodded.

"Want me to give you a ride home?" she asked me.

"No thanks," I said. "You get your rest, sleep it off. I'll be fine." She nodded and let me out.

As soon as I was around the corner, I pulled out my cell phone and without even thinking about it, I called Justin.

"Courtney? What's up?" he asked me.

"I don't know how to put this, so I guess I'm just going to cut to the chase and just tell you," I said, quickly. "Sarah told me that you cheated on her a while back." I heard him groan.

"Not this again!" he exclaimed. "I did not cheat on her! She's being paranoid."

"How about you tell me your side of the story?" I asked him. He sighed as if this was the hundredth time that he's had to explain himself. Knowing Sarah, that was probably what happened.

"There was this girl at work named Angela and she was really cool," he said. "We had the same shift all the time and we really clicked- as friends and nothing more. One day, Sarah came in to visit me and assumed that I was cheating on her with Amanda because of our closeness as friends. I tried telling her that Angela and I were just friends because guys and girls can be just friends. But she didn't believe me. So, to this day, she believes that I had cheated on her with Angela. Really, I never hung out with Angela outside of work. If I wasn't working, in school, or sleeping, I was with Sarah. I would never cheat on her, you know that. She just blew everything out of proportion."

Well, I don't know. I can't say that I didn't believe Justin, even though I'm supposed to take Sarah's side. I knew Justin almost as well as I knew Sarah and I know that Justin would never do anything to hurt Sarah. He considered her to be the best thing that has ever happened to him.

I can kind of relate. It's like the whole situation with me and Adam. I can't count how many people have thought or once thought that we were going out, when we were just friends. That's it. Nothing more. Nothing less. I felt really bad for Justin that he had to go through the same thing, but with the added fact that his girlfriend thought that he was cheating on her with his friend.

"Do you believe me?" Justin asked me, breaking through my thoughts.

"Of course," I told him. "I don't know if Sarah ever will though."

Your Betrayal

It took us about five minutes to get to Sarah's house. We found her sitting on the curb, with her head buried in her lap. I immediately threw myself out of the car and ran up to her, wrapping my arms around her in a hug. It didn't take me long to realize that she was crying. I looked at Henry, helplessly- not knowing what to do.

"Are you ok?" I asked her, still hugging her.

"No!" She cried. "Does it look like I'm ok?"

Henry and I looked at each other. She was really upset over this. I wondered what happened. I wondered if Justin did something to her or if something happened (like a fight) that caused her to break down.

"Hey, I'm going to go," Henry said to me. "Is that ok?"

"Yeah, I'll just stay here with her." I told him. "I think that it's better if you go, Henry."

"I understand," Henry said. "I'll see you tomorrow, Courtney. I'm not quite sure what is going on, but I hope everything is ok with you, Sarah."

He waved at me and Sarah, who looked up long enough to wave bye to Henry. She sniffled.

"Hey, do you want to go back inside so we can talk about this?" I asked her.

"Sure," she said, sniffling.

I walked her back into the house. When we were inside, I got a good look at her face. It looked like she had been crying for hours. Her face was all red and puffy. We went into her room and I saw a bunch of tissues all over the floor. We sat down on her bed. I really couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

"What's wrong, Sarah?" I asked her. "What happened?"

"Nothing really happened," she sighed. "I don't know, Courtney. I just feel like maybe we're maybe moving too fast. I mean, we're just going to college and we have our whole lives to think about. What if he's not right for me? What if the only reason why we're doing this is because we've been together for so long?"

"Ok, Sarah," I said, with a sigh. "I really don't know what to say, mostly because I have never been in this type of situation before, but I really think that you're freaking out over nothing. It's normal to have cold feet. It's normal to have second thoughts. I mean, this is a really big step that you're taking. I don't blame you for freaking out."

"I don't know," she said, uncertainly.

I kind of got the feeling that she wasn't telling me something. It felt like she was hiding something from me. I don't know too much of her relationship with Justin because they like to keep things private. They don't talk about their problems to anyone. I mean, I didn't even think that they had problems. They just seemed so happy all the time.

"Are you not telling me something, Sarah?" I asked her. "I mean, it's ok if you don't want to tell me. I completely understand."

"It's kind of hard for me to talk about it," she said, with her voice wavering. "I mean, I don't like to talk about my relationship problems."

"It's ok, Sarah, if you don't want to," I told her.

"No, I'll talk about it," she said. "But, keep in mind that this happened over a year ago."

"Ok," I said. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Justin and I really love each other," she told me. "I mean, if we didn't, we wouldn't have been together for all of these years and be planning on getting married. I know that he's really looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together and it looks really bad that I'm questioning if I want to spend the rest of my life with him." She had tears in her eyes.

"Go on, sweetie," I told her. "It's ok."

"Well, over a year ago, Justin.." she trailed off. She started crying. "He cheated on me, Courtney. Justin cheated on me."

Happy Birthday to Me

Henry and I were planning on going out to see a movie tonight to celebrate my 18th birthday. After much playful arguing, we had decided to go out and see the new Twilight movie. I really wanted to see what happened after the last movie and Henry.. Well, Henry wanted to go see that new Sandler movie, but I didn't want to see a comedy tonight. All it took was a promise that I would buy the popcorn. I was an extremely happy girl. Lucky, that I had a boyfriend that would go with me to see a Twilight movie.

Yes, I did. I did said boyfriend. Henry officially asked me to be his girlfriend this morning. Let me see if I can recall all of the details..

*

It was 6 in the morning. I had grudgingly walked downstairs to answer the door, yawning and rubbing my eyes the entire way down the stairs. I opened the door to find Henry standing there.

"Henry?" I asked, sleepily. I was leaning on the door, my eyes heavy. "It's 6 in the morning. Go away."

"I have something really important to talk to you about," he said to me. "Can I come in?" I think I nodded and I let him in. I cuddled next to him on the couch.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked him, wishing that I was in my nice, warm bed. "It has to be important if you couldn't wait until later to tell me."

"I wanted to be the first person to wish you a happy birthday," he said, with a smile. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small jewelry box. He gently placed it in my hands. "Open it."

I looked at him confused. I opened the box and found a gorgeous heart shaped ruby pendant in white gold. I gasped in delight.

"Oh, Henry, it's beautiful," I gushed. I was grinning in awe of how beautiful the necklace was. Henry had such good taste. "I can't accept it though, it's too much."

"It's not too much," he insisted. "Really, Court, I'd give you anything you want, just to see you smile." I blushed.

He took a deep breath and I thought I was dreaming. I thought I heard him say: "Courtney, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Of course I will, Henry!" I said, kissing him. I was grinning like an idiot. "Of course! Of course!"

"Here, let me help you put this on," he said to me, with happiness written all over his face.

*

So, now, I was walking around the movie theater with a goofy grin on my face and wearing the necklace he gave me.

"When do you want to tell everyone that we're together?" Henry asked me.

I thought about it for a second. I honestly didn't know how the group would react to our relationship. They had practically laughed in our faces back when we were crushing on each other. I don't know if they would be supportive of our relationship. Then, I had the perfect idea.

"Let's tell them after the wedding!" I exclaimed. Justin and Sarah's wedding was next week. That would give us enough time to prepare what we would say to them and everyone would be so happy that Justin and Sarah had gotten married that they couldn't possibly hate on our relationship. "Everyone would be either too happy or drunk to disagree with our relationship."

"I don't want to take away from their wedding," Henry said. He was right, it really wouldn't be fair to make their wedding day all about me and Henry. "Let's tell them when they get back from their honeymoon." I nodded in agreement.

After watching the movie, we walked to the car chattering about which team we were on. I was on Team Jacob and he was on Team Edward. Our interesting conversation was interrupted by my phone obnoxious ringing.

"Hello?" I said into my phone.

"Courtney, it's me," the voice said, breathlessly. Sarah. "Can you come over?"

"Is there something wrong, Sarah?" I asked her. "I'm on my way over." I got into the passenger side of Henry's truck.

What's wrong? He mouthed to me.

I don't know. I mouthed back to him. He quickly started the car and got on the road to her house.

"Uh, I'm not sure, maybe," she said, after a pause on the phone. "I think.. I think I don't want to go through the wedding, Courtney."

Graduation (Part II)

I was trying not to grin from Henry's compliment the whole ride to the University, which was really difficult. I kept myself busy by talking about the wedding with Justin and Sarah. Both sounded really excited about the wedding and heading off to college t0gether. It's really cute how happy and in love they are. We ended up on the subject of what to do after the graduation ceremony.

"My dad's having a having a graduation party," I said. "You're all welcome to come, but my family will be there, so there much be some family drama. So, I don't know if you guys, and your families, are up for it."

"That sounds like fun," Sarah said, smiling. "Not the family drama, but the graduation party part. I think my parents would love to come. They love your dad! Justin, baby, do you want to go?"

"Sure, honey, whatever you want," Justin said, not taking his eyes off the road. I really think that if Sarah said that the moon was made of chocolate, Justin would have agreed with her. It's his way of letting Sarah gets what she wants so there are no arguments. I wonder if that's how they lasted so long.

"Anyone else?" I asked, trying not to smile at my thought.

"I'm there," Haylie and Adam said at the same time. I laughed. I took a deep breath.

"Henry, do you want to come?" I asked, shyly.

"I can't, my family flew in from New York last night and we're already planning on having dinner together," he said, with a twinge of sadness. "I promise I'll make it up to you." I nodded.

"Someone's got a date!" Haylie teased, playfully. I was too far away to elbow her in the ribs, so Sarah gladly did it for me.

I thought I saw jealousy flash across Adam's face for a second when he heard Haylie say that, but I shook my head in disbelief. I was going crazy. Adam was happy with Zoey. It was just my imagination, I decided.

"Oh, please, it'll be the end of the world before Courtney and Henry start dating," Sarah said, jokingly.

Why would Sarah say that? Is it really THAT far-fetched for me and Henry to date? I wanted to ask her, but I closed my mouth as soon as I opened it.

"We're here!" Justin announced, when we pulled into the parking lot.

I was right. After we had parked the car, we headed into the theater (I call it a theater, Justin says it's an auditorium) and we were forced to line up in alphabetical order for one last practice. The practice went smoothly. Brittany and I chatted throughout the whole practice.

We stood outside behind the theater for half an hour while everyone's families and friends piled into the theater. It felt like an eternity before we got the signal to go inside. I tried my best to not to trip as we walked inside, sitting down in our designated seats.

It felt like a dream- an out-of-body experience. I couldn't believe that I was actually graduating! I was mesmerized by the crowd of people who were here to support the class of 2010- so mesmerized that I completely missed the speeches. Well, it was intentional. I knew that my dad was getting all of this on tape, so I don't have to listen to the boring speeches about how we survived 4 years of high school and how we are the future. Oh, and our valedictorian, Jonathan Wo? He took out the complete band section when he went up to make his speech. Talk about humor.

Pretty soon, the first row got the signal to stand up and walk towards the stage and the principal was calling out names for their diploma (diploma sleeve).

"Avril Abel," the principal said.

A girl walked up and posed as she shook the superintendent's hand while receiving her diploma. We were warned that there was a photographer there and that we should look at the camera. Pretty soon, it was my row's turn to stand up.

"Congrats, sis," Brittany whispered to me as we walked towards the stage to line up.

"Right back at you, Britt," I said, hugging her. It wasn't long before we heard Brittany's name being called. "Knock them dead, sis."

She gracefully walked onto the stage and smiled brilliantly for the camera. She looked so excited to get her diploma. I watched her walk off the stage before my name was called. I took a deep breath before walking on stage, careful not to trip.

"Congratulations, Courtney," the principal said to me. I smiled at her. After getting my diploma, I saw that Brittany had stopped in her tracks and was staring at something. I walked up to her and grabbed her hand.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. "We're supposed to go back to our seats."

Then, I saw what she was looking at. Taylor was in the front row with a huge sign that said "Courtney, I love you. Please forgive me!".

Graduation (Part I)

Graduation day came up faster than I expected. I mean, even with all the graduation practices, I didn't feel ready for the actual ceremony. I had a bad feeling that I was going to trip on my dress or fall on my face. I just have that ominous feeling that something bad is going to happen. I couldn't help but feel extremely nervous about tonight. I felt completely nauseous about the whole ordeal.

It had been a couple of days since Henry and I shared that kiss, well.. kisses. I don't really know what's happening between us, we haven't talked about what happened. We've kind of avoided the subject every time we saw each other. That night, after we kissed on the beach, he brought me home and walked me up to the front door. He gave me a hug and practically ran away. He peeled out of my driveway like there was no tomorrow.

...That wasn't really reassuring that he returned my feelings. We haven't even talked to each other outside of school and usually we chat over the phone, but he hasn't called me since we kissed. Maybe he thought it was a mistake?

Logan, on the other hand, kept calling me non-stop. He wanted me to come over. I came over yesterday, but nothing happened. I'm actually really glad that nothing happened with everything that's up in the air with Henry. But, that didn't mean that Logan didn't try anything while we were watching a movie.

I really needed to have a talk with Henry. I don't know how much longer I can resist Logan's advances.

Brittany came into my room, wearing a black sequined mini-dress. She had her hair in beautiful curls. I was instantly jealous of her gorgeous blonde hair. Sometimes, I wondered what it would be like to be a blonde instead of a brunette.

"Nervous?" she asked me. I nodded.

"Really nervous," I told her. I pointed to my 3-inch heels next to my bed. "I'm going to trip and fall, I know it."

"I'm sure Dad will catch it on tape," she said, laughing. I laughed along with her until we realized what was going to happen. Our family's coming to graduation.

Anyone who is near California is coming to our graduation, the list includes: Aunt Lany, Cousin Anne, Aunt Lydia, Uncle Mark, Cousin Nina, Mom (who's bring Joe, UGH!), and Dad. They had to get a pass from the care facility so Uncle Mark could come to our graduation (he was transferred from the hospital 2 months ago, into the care facility). I forgot about Uncle Wilson (on my mom's side) and Aunt Pam with their kids, Karen and Sharon, who are flying in from Las Vegas.

"Oh, it's going to be hell," I said to Brittany. She nodded in agreement. In our family, there is no such thing as a happy family gathering. One person has to bring up something unpleasant and ruin the entire event. I sighed. I'm definitely not looking forward to this.

Brittany helped me curl my hair before I slipped into my red one shoulder dress. It might be too dressy for graduation, but I didn't care. I won't admit this out loud, but I want to look nice for Henry.

"Now, you look gorgeous for Henry," Brittany said, after curling the last section of my hair. It's like she can read my mind. It freaks me out. I shook my head and laughed. She left so she could call her boyfriend and see if he was ready yet.

We had to meet at the theater at Beachside University (it was a tradition of ours to hold it at the University) an hour and a half before our graduation is set to start. We had to make sure everything was in order, line up, get ready, possibly rehearse one last time.

I heard a car honk downstairs. I peeked out the window and saw that it was Justin honking. It looked like everyone was in the car. I quickly put on my heels and went downstairs to jump in the car, we were already running a little late.

When I got into the car, I was greeted with 5 hellos. I was squeezed in the back right next to Henry, along with Sarah and Haylie, in a 3 seat backseat. It was extremely awkward being squeezed so close next to Henry, I was practically on his lap.

"Um, hi," I said to him, a little awkwardly. He gave me a slight smile. Sarah and Haylie exchanged a look and laughed.

"You look gorgeous, Courtney," Sarah said. She poked Henry in the ribs. "Doesn't she look gorgeous, Henry?"

I blushed at how Sarah put Henry on the spot like that. He took a long look at me before looking into my eyes.

"Yeah, she does," he said, smiling at me.

I gave him a small smile, but on the inside, I was doing cartwheels and jumping with excitement while giggling like a schoolgirl.

He thinks I look gorgeous!

Prom (Part II)

After the slow dance, I excused myself. I was slightly confused about my feelings. This isn't good. Henry was my friend and I wasn't supposed to be crushing on one of my friends. This isn't normal. I went outside to go find Brittany. I had to pull her away from Zack and practically dragged her into the bathroom. She was not happy.

"What?" she asked, her voice laced with annoyance. I felt bad for pulling her away from Zack.

"I think I have feelings for Henry," I whispered, making sure that no one but Brittany heard me.

"Oh," she said, not sounding surprised. "It was bound to happen, just like how Adam had feelings for you."

"What do I do?" I asked her, almost desperately. "I don't want to ruin my friendship with him like Adam did with me." I sighed.

"You just have to go with the flow, Court," she told me. "I'm going to go back to Zack. Have fun!" She hugged me and left me alone in the bathroom. I left after her and sat down at an empty table, watching everyone dance. I spotted Henry in the crowd with a girl in one of my classes, grinding up against him. I looked away, a little hurt.

You're being silly, Courtney. He can dance with anyone he wants. It's not like you're dating or anything. Stop being a baby. I told myself.

I felt a little sorry for myself. Everyone was having fun except for me. I went out onto the balcony to check my phone. Someone tapped my shoulder and I turned around.

"Hey, Logan!" I said, giving him an awkward hug. "How are you?"

"Good," he said, smiling. "Are you here with anyone?" I shook my head.

"No, Taylor and I broke up and no one asked me," I told him. I sounded a little pathetic, but I really didn't care. "Where's your date?"

"I decided to fly solo until college," he said. "There's really no point in starting a relationship when there's a good chance that you'll go to separate schools. We're graduating in less than a month. So.. I'm solo." I nodded.

"Prom is overrated," I said, rolling my eyes.

"It is!" he agreed with me. "Who wants to see people grinding on each other?"

"I'm glad someone agrees with me," I said, smiling.

"Since it's so bad, want to get out of here?" he suggested. "We can hop in my car and go to a diner or something."

I thought about it for a second. There was really no point in me staying. Everyone was having a good time here and I didn't want to be a Debbie Downer. Henry.. Henry had The Grinder to keep him company. Besides, it's just Logan.

"Sure," I said. "That sounds fun. Just let me tell someone that I'm leaving."

"Ok, I'll be waiting in the lobby," he told me. I found Sarah hanging out at the drink bar.

"Hey guys," I said, loudly over the music. "I'm going to go. You have fun."

"Wait, who are you leaving with?" Sarah asked me, with concern in her voice.

"Logan," I said, simply. I was trying not to laugh. I think Sarah thought that I was going to leave with a stranger. "We're going to a diner to get something to eat."

"Oh, ok," Sarah said. I couldn't tell if she was disappointed that I wasn't staying or if she had some hesitation with letting me leave with Logan. "Have fun!"

"Thanks," I told her, smiling.

Before I left with Logan, I took a glance at the dance floor. Henry was still dancing with The Grinder. My eyes locked with Henry's and I smiled at him. I waved and left.

Prom (Part I)

From left to right: my dress, Haylie's dress, Sarah's dress, Zoey's dress

This is a little embarrassing to admit, but I totally forgot about prom. Somehow, all of the announcements, big signs, and chatter about prom escaped my attention. If it weren't for Brittany jumping on my bed at 7am, I wouldn't have known. Luckily, she had anticipated that I would forget about prom and had bought me a ticket in advance. I have such an awesome sister who assumed correctly that I wanted to go to prom. I was oddly excited for it even though I'm going solo.

"Do you have a dress?" Brittany asked me, taking a bite out of her plain bagel.

"No, I don't! Do you think I can borrow one of the ones you're not wearing?" I asked, sheepishly.

"Sure, sis, let me bring both of them down," she said. Brittany couldn't choose one dress in the store and had figured to buy all three and then try to put together the perfect prom look at home to make the final decision. Again, I was lucky that Brittany hadn't already return the two dresses that she wasn't wearing.

I heard a honk outside and it was my cue to leave. Sarah, Haylie, and I were having a girls' day- getting our hair, makeup, and nails done. Apparently Haylie had the perfect gold heels to go with the short emerald dress I picked out. I grabbed my gold clutch and my dress and headed out the door.

Brittany has been giving me flack for hanging out with Haylie after the Logan incident. But honestly, I don't care anymore. It's just a boy. Boys come and go. Yes, her actions were questionable, but I don't really see the point in throwing away all the years of friendship over one boy. At the end of the day, I still love Haylie and she's my best friend.

Of course, it was an all day process to get ready. I had the whole gorgeous Taylor Swift curls going on, Sarah had her hair up in a bun, and Haylie had a half up, half down hairstyle that resembled something Carrie Underwood would have.

Apparently, we had rented a limo for prom. I didn't know until the driver came to pick us up. Justin, Henry, and Luke were already in the limo. I was surprised that Henry didn't have a date to prom. I know that a bunch of girls would have loved to be his date to prom. Our next stop was Adam's house. I wasn't surprised when he had walked out with Zoey as his date. Everyone looked amazing. The boys in their tuxs and the girls in their dresses.

"Group photo time!" Sarah exclaimed. We groaned and all tried to maneuver in the limo to get into the shot. We got some really cute couple pictures for Adam and Zoey, Sarah and Justin, and for Haylie and Luke. Suddenly, I felt a twinge of sadness that I wasn't going to prom with someone.

"We should get a picture of Courtney and Henry together," Justin said. I laughed and allowed him to take the picture. If anything, I can always lie and say I went with Henry. We arrived at the area where the prom was held right when they were serving the dinner. We had a choice between chicken, beef, or vegetarian. The vegetarian was amazing!

The place was decorated amazingly well. I noticed that the space we had was really roomy and there was a lot of space to mingle and move and dance. We had a balcony if we wanted to get some air. It had such a romantic feel to it. I think the first thing we did after eating was wait in the ridiculously long line for pictures. I think we had every combination possible. The ones that turned out the best was my picture with Brittany. Our parents were going to love them.

I think it was halfway through the prom, I just got claustrophobic. We had all separated- the couples headed to the dance floor to grind on each other (I was never really into grinding). I went outside to get some air. I think I've come to the conclusion that prom is overrated. I mean, the person who was in charge of pulling everything together did a wonderful job, but I wasn't enjoying myself.

"Hey, are you ok?" I turned around and saw that Henry had followed me out.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told him. "I just thought that I'd be at prom with someone I was dating." I realized how desperate that sounded, but I didn't care.

"You don't need to be dating anyone to have fun at prom," he said to me. "You look beautiful, don't let it go to waste. Come on." He held out his hand. I took it and he lead me inside, where we had started dancing. Right when we got onto the dance floor, the song ended and a slow song came on. Henry pulled me close to him and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Oddly enough, I didn't feel weird slow dancing with Henry. It was weirdly comfortable.

I started to feel nervous. I felt like I had butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. I noticed ridiculously minute details like how his soft brown hair draped over his left eye and how cute his smile was. I couldn't help but notice how close we were. All I could think about was kissing him.

Oh my god, I think I have a crush on Henry.

Hanging Out

Saturday rolled around faster than I expected. I had mixed feelings about going over to Justin's place. On one hand, I was excited to spend some time with Sarah and Justin. On the other hand, I didn't want to see Haylie or Adam. I sighed. Oh well.. I guess we'll see how well today goes.

I went downstairs to tell my mom that I might be spending the night at Justin's. All I found was a note from her saying that she'll be home late. She's probably with Joe. I sighed and left the note where I found it. I couldn't wait for my dad to come home from his business trip in China. He had left a week and a half after he moved out and I'm not sure when he's going to be back.

I took the car keys from Brittany's purse on the living room table. She promised me the car for the weekend and I'm going to make good use of it. I made it to Justin's house early, with a couple of minutes to spare. I sat in the car for a minute, trying to compose myself before I went to face what was inside. I walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Sarah answered the door.


"Hey, sweetie!" she greeted me, giving me a hug. "No one else is here yet, but come on in! I'm glad you came!"

"I'm glad I came over too, Sarah," I told her, giving her a tight squeeze. "I missed you." We walked inside and sat down in the living room. I surveyed the choices for today's movie marathon. It consisted of mostly comedies, a couple of action films, and one romantic comedy. I smiled. Any movie out of these selections would be great to watch.

Henry was the next to arrive. I greeted him with a friendly hug and the 4 of us chatted until Adam and Haylie arrived. Adam was the next one to arrive and I was surprised that he brought Zoey along. I shot Henry a look and he looked at me with sympathetic eyes.

I couldn't believe that Adam would have the nerve to bring Zoey along, especially when she must have told him that she had quit her job at Bella because of me. They sat down in the love seat furthest away from Henry and I. The 6 of us sat in awkward silence, waiting for Haylie to arrive. Even though Sarah and Justin weren't in the loop with what happened with Zoey and I, they could sense the tension in the room.

A couple of minutes later, the doorbell rang and Sarah eagerly went to answer it. When Haylie walked in, I was surprised to see her with a guy I've never seen before. The guy stood 6'4 with blond hair and brown eyes, looking like he just got back from the beach. Henry shot me a look and I shook my head, indicating that I didn't know anything about this.

Surprisingly, it wasn't incredibly awkward. The second that Haylie came in with the new guy, it seemed to break the ice. Haylie's new guy is named Lucas, who prefers to be called Luke. He seemed really sweet and he's a senior at our school. He's planning on going to Beachside University, same as Haylie. Apparently, they've been starting to hang out a lot lately.

Then, it was Sarah's turn to bomb Zoey with questions about her and Adam's relationship, which made both of them blush, I'd have to admit that it was kind of cute. Zoey and Adam managed to dodge the questions and get Justin to put in a movie.

I think it was halfway through the romantic comedy (the third movie that we played) that I looked around and noticed that I was surrounded by couples. I saw Sarah sneaking Justin kisses, Adam and Zoey cuddling, and Sarah and Luke holding hands. I felt a little bit claustrophobic and quietly slipped outside on the patio for some air.

It was dark outside and a little bit chilly. I wrapped my fleece blanket around my shoulders. I was surprised to see Henry sitting outside, I had forgotten that he had disappeared during the romantic comedy. I sat down next to him.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" I asked him. I noticed that he was only wearing a short sleeved T-shirt and hadn't brought a jacket. "You must be freezing!" I moved as close to him as humanly possible and wrapped my blanket around both our shoulders.

"I just wanted to get some air," he said. I didn't want to push the matter, I knew that he was uncomfortable seeing Haylie with Luke. "What are you doing out here?"

"I realized that I was the 7th wheel in there and it got me thinking about Taylor," I admitted, sadly. Tears swelled in my eyes. I had done such a good job of avoiding thinking about Taylor since the break up. Now, it seemed like all the emotions were hitting me at once and the tears started to stream down my face. "I'm sorry." I wiped the tears with the sleeve of my jacket.

Henry held me in his arms and whispered in my ear to let it all out and everything is going to be ok. Even though he kept repeating the same words over and over again, it was comforting to hear them. I guess I fell asleep in Henry's arms and he had taken me home. The next morning, I found myself in my bed and the car in the driveway, but Henry was nowhere to be seen. I smiled to myself and made myself a mental note to do something nice for Henry in return.

It Kills Me

For the last two days I went to work. Each day, before stepping into Bella, I braced myself. I was half expecting Zoey to blow up at me about the whole Adam situation. I was half expecting her to yell at me for being a bad friend- to yell at me for not telling her that Adam and I had a "romantic" history. I was also half expecting her to tell me to stay away from Adam.

I don't really know why I didn't tell her. I just guess.. I just guess that I don't want the whole world to know what happened. It's not something I want to broadcast: "Yeah, so Zoey, I got drunk and slept with my best friend." I guess.. I'm ashamed of myself for letting myself get in that situation and ruining my friendship with one of my best friends. This didn't affect just me, I mean, this affected the entire group- all 6 of us. We can never normally hang out ever again. I can recognize that it was partially my fault.

But, Zoey didn't mention anything on Monday. In fact, she was gushing over the fact that Adam was into her (I told her that he really liked her, but I left out the part of the whole "I can't talk to you anymore" part) and was eagerly waiting for him to call her for their second date. I figured that Adam didn't get around to talking to her about it that day, so I was extremely defensive on Tuesday. I was defensive until I realized that Tuesday was Zoey's day off.

Walking into the store today, I didn't see Zoey. I assume that she was going to start after Haylie left for the day. As much as I didn't want to see Zoey, multiply that times three and now you have my feelings towards Haylie. I spent the next hour listening to her whine about how Henry was ignoring her and not answering any of her texts or her calls. I knew why, but I wanted her to figure it out for themselves.

I was surprised to hear the door open and see Sarah and Justin walk in. I practically knocked them down in my excitement.

"What are you guys doing here?" I exclaimed, delightedly. "I thought the two of you are super busy with your wedding?" Haylie came over to greet Sarah and Justin also.

"Oh, we are! It's really coming together!" Sarah said, excitedly. "But, we felt bad that we've been ignoring you guys so I wanted to invite both you and Haylie over to Justin's house for a little get together on Saturday." I hugged her.

"It's going to be awesome," Justin said. "We can watch a movie, just like old times."

"I'll be there!" I told her. We made plans to meet at Justin's at noon on Saturday. I hugged them both goodbye.

"Well, I'm going to go now," Haylie said. "Zoey should be here after me." I nodded and said bye to her.

A couple minutes after Haylie left, Zoey stormed into the store. Her face was beet red and she looked incredibly angry. Even though I expected this reaction, a little part of me hoped that it wouldn't happen.

"What the hell, Courtney?" she yelled at me. "Why didn't you tell me that you had sex with Adam?"

"Well, um, I-I-" I stuttered. She was making me extremely nervous by yelling at me. I was speechless.

"I thought we were friends, Courtney!" she practically screamed at me. Thank goodness that I was the only one in the store. "Friends don't keep secrets, especially one as big as this!"

"Do you have feelings for him? Is that why you didn't tell me?" she half asked, half demanded. I had regained my voice.

"No!" I protested. "We're friends and nothing more. That night was a mistake and I wish I could take it back. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, but just so you know.. Friends don't date their friends' friends, especially the ones they've known forever."

"You can tell Jasmine that I quit!" Zoey exclaimed and she stormed out of the store, leaving me completely heartbroken.

Something New

What Logan said had gotten me thinking. It seemed to me that everyone around me was growing up and dealing with adult responsibilities. It made me feel like a little kid compared to them. Logan and Haylie were having a baby and Justin and Sarah were getting married in the summer. It doesn't make any sense, I know, but I really feel like I'm left out of everything. It doesn't mean that I'm going to get engaged anytime soon or get knocked up, but I could start moving into that direction of being an adult.

Also, I felt really guilty that Taylor had been paying for all of our dates so far. I had also felt uncomfortable when I was with Logan, where he paid for most of our dates. I want it to be equal because I don't want Taylor to go broke for me. Well, he's broke already since he just paid for all of his books for college, I don't want him to become more broke. After much consideration, I reached the decision that it was time for me to get a job.

I had spent all day walking around town asking if the stores were hiring. Most places looked at me like I was crazy. I got a lot of "sorry, but we're not hiring" from various managers. I think I've only filled out one or two applications.

Surprisingly, I had gotten a call back from a small clothing store, called Bella, a couple of days after I had applied. Sarah was nice enough to help me prepare for my job interview. She was a lifesaver, who gave me some awesome tips.

"Dress for success," she had told me while searching through my closet for something professional to wear. "Always wear a watch because it shows that you're great at time management."

I nodded while I jotted the things down. She gave me some other great tips like how not to fall for the trick questions on those 100 something questions on the survey the employers give you, how to ace the interview, how to avoid potholes during the interview process- Sarah's amazing.

On the day of the interview, I put on the professional outfit that Sarah had laid out for me. It consisted of a ruffled blouse and a pencil skirt. I had my hair neatly curled and slid into my heels. I kept my accessories down to a minimum. I only had on a necklace that I had gotten from their store. I made my way over to the store twenty minutes early.

"Hi, Courtney," the manager, Jasmine, greeted me. She was really friendly and inviting the last time I spoke to her. Today, she looked slightly stressed out. "You're here early. I have a lot of interviews to get through, can you wait in my office with the other applicants, please?"

"No problem, Jasmine," I told her.

I went to the back office and peeked inside to see the other applicants. To my surprise, Haylie was sitting in one of the applicant chairs.

Crazy Beautiful

Sarah and Justin had invited me out to dinner tonight at our burger joint. I was slightly confused why we were going out to dinner. Sarah and Justin lived really busy lives and I respected that by giving them their space. I was curious why I was invited and told them I'd be there at 7.

I arrived at the burger joint a couple of minutes before 7. Justin and Sarah were already there and they had gotten us the big booth. I waved at them and went over. Sarah got up to give me a hug.

"Hey, guys," I said, grinning. "This is a surprise, what's the occasion?"

"I want to wait until everyone comes before I say anything," Sarah said. I didn't think I heard her correctly, but I thought I heard her say everyone.

"Everyone?" I asked her, questioningly. "Who's everyone?"

"Henry, Adam, and Haylie," Justin said. "Who else could everyone be?"

My face froze when she said Haylie. It must have been noticeable because Sarah started to look a little worried.

"Are you ok, Court?" Sarah asked me. "You look a little pale."

"No, I'm fine," I lied. "I didn't know that everyone else was coming."

I started to feel a little nauseous. I wanted to leave, but I knew that whatever news Sarah and Justin had must have been big if they had invited all of us out. I didn't want to put my personal problems ahead of my friendship with them, so I stayed.

I played catch up with Sarah and Justin for a couple of minutes when Henry and Adam arrived. I waved at Henry and civilly said hello to Adam. He gave me a cold nod in response. I sighed softly. Things were going to be weird between us for awhile. Sarah shot me a confused look and I smiled weakly. I turned to Henry and we chatted about the Superbowl while we waited for Haylie.

Haylie arrived 20 minutes late in the arms of Logan. They were all over each other, all lovey-dovey with one another. It make me want to throw up. I hated seeing them together. I can't really explain it. I didn't want Logan for myself, but I hated seeing him together with Haylie. I looked at Henry and the look on his face was unforgettable. He looked completely heartbroken seeing Haylie with someone else.

Sarah shot me a very confused look. She had no idea that Haylie was with Logan. The last thing she heard was that Logan and I were together. I hadn't gotten around to telling her the drama that had occurred or that Logan and I had broken up. I instantly felt guilty. I needed to do a better job communicating with Sarah.

"Haylie, I didn't know you were bringing a date," Sarah said. She looked at the booth. "We're going to have to try to squeeze him in."

"Oh, he's not staying," Haylie said. She completely ignored my presence. I was glad that we weren't speaking and were just pretending that the other didn't exist. Logan looked uncomfortable and avoided looking at me like I was Medusa and was going to turn him into stone. "He just wanted to get something to eat, right, babe?"

"Yeah," Logan said. He gave her a kiss and I swear he grabbed her butt before leaving. Haylie took a seat next to Adam.

"Since we're all here," Justin said. "Sarah and I have an announcement to make."

"We're engaged!" Sarah blurted out, giggling hysterically. We all clamored in excitement and congratulated them.

"When's the wedding?" I asked her.

"In July," she said, grinning. We were all too busy congratulating and questioning Justin and Sarah to notice Haylie had slipped out.

All In My Head

I was on my way to the school library to do some studying for my finals. I had decided that this was the perfect place to hide. I'm pretty sure that Haylie has never set foot in a library and that Adam was too busy filling his empty stomach to realize that I was hiding here. I knew that I had to confront them sooner or later, but I'm choosing later. On the bright side, I'm getting some studying done.

As soon as I stepped foot in the library, I saw Sarah sitting alone at an empty table. I wasn't really surprised. Separating Sarah from a library is like separating peanut butter and jelly. It cannot and should not be done. She waved at me and motioned for me to take a seat at the table she was at. I smiled and walked to her table.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here," she greeted me in a whisper. I smiled.

"Yeah, I have to study for physiology," I told her. She nodded, understanding how much I needed to study for the class. She had taken the course last year.

I felt bad for not telling Sarah about seeing Haylie and Adam together, but there was no need to spread around rumors on something that I haven't confirmed to be true. I didn't want another incident like the one I was in. I had asked around and no one knew how the rumor started. They didn't know how it had erupted into such a circus. When I heard about Tiger Woods and his situation, I instantly felt bad for him. I knew, to some extent, how he was feeling.

I opened my physiology book and started to make flashcards. Five minutes into studying, I looked up and saw Sarah waving at someone. I looked over to where she was looking at. I saw Adam standing at the doorway. Oh no. He walked over and sat down next to me.

"I feel like you've been avoiding me, Courtney," he whispered to me. "What's wrong?"

Sarah looked uncomfortable. She didn't do well in stressful situations involving people.

"Um, I'm going to go," Sarah said, softly. "I'll talk to you guys later." She picked up all of her books and walked away. I gathered my books and walked out behind her, with Adam following me.

"I'm not avoiding you," I told him. "I've just been busy. I've had a lot of stuff on my mind."

"You know you can talk to me about anything," he said. "What's wrong?" I took a deep breath and sighed.

"Well, I saw you and Haylie out the other day," I told him, quickly. "Together. Like a couple. I mean, I can imagine why you'd want to keep it a secret and not tell anyone, but I'm your best friend and it hurts me that you can't tell me something like that." I took a breath. Adam looked at me like I was crazy.

"Oh!" he said, realizing what I was talking about. "You're talking about the dinner I had with Haylie."

"Yes," I said, nodding.

"I didn't want to tell you this," he said. "I thought I could handle it myself."

"What is it?" I asked him. He took a deep breath and paused. He opened his mouth and the words came out.

"Court, Haylie's doing drugs," he said, softly.

Vanished

Tonight was the Halloween get-together. The group and I had decided to have a Saw marathon because Saw XI just came out into theaters. Of course, Haylie and I were there before everyone else all dressed up and ready to get to work. We had poured the chips, set the candy set up, and put drinks in the fridge. The doorbell rang. I opened the door.

"Trick or treat!" the bunch of kids yelled. I happily gave them a handful of candy each. It was cute seeing the kids dressed up as ghosts, zombies, and witches. There was even a little girl dressed up as a princess. It was adorable. I turned to put the candy bowl down, so I could shut the door.

"Do I get any candy?" I turned around. Logan was standing beside me wearing a convicted felon black and white costume.

"You look quite sexy as a cop," he said, giving me a kiss. "How do I look?" He turned around, striking some poses. I laughed.

"You'd make a cute inmate," I said, laughing. "You had some help, didn't you?" He smiled and put a finger to his lips.

"Shh, it's a secret," he said.

"Wanna help me pass out candy to the kids while we wait for the others to get here?" I asked him.

"What happens if I don't?" he asked me. He pulled me closer. "Are you a dirty cop?"

"That's for you to find out," I said, pulling him into a kiss.

"Whoa, you two!" I heard Haylie exclaim. We turned to look at her.

"The door is open. No PDA in front of the little kids!" She said, laughing. Logan and I broke apart and laughed.

Eventually, the rest of the gang got here. Justin, Henry, and Adam were dressed as police officers. We all plopped down on the sofas in the living room. It was cute seeing Justin and Sarah in their costumes. They really did make a perfect couple. Justin was a little freaked out about the scare. Not because that she might have been pregnant, but the fact that she didn't tell him about it. They had such an open and honest relationship that it blows my mind.

I cuddled with Logan, and snuck kisses to him whenever I thought no one was looking. I really like where this is going. I really like him, even though we haven't made it official yet, I know that it's in our cards. I managed to sneak off into the kitchen with him when we were low on soda.

"Finally, we're alone," I said. I pulled him in for a kiss.

"You'd make a really sexy cop," he whispered into my ear. He started kissing my neck and I let out a little moan. That was my weakness.

"Where are you guys?" Adam shouted. "We're getting to the good part!"

I sighed. I hate being interrupted. I'm kinda glad that Adam interrupted us. Who knows where the kisses on the neck would have gone? I really don't want to ruin what we have by having sex too early. I don't want to make the same mistake as before. I kissed Logan on the cheek and grabbed the 2-Liter out of the fridge. He followed me into the living room.

The doorbell rang and we all jumped. We all laughed at our silliness. Except for Adam, who seemed to be frowning for some reason. He's so weird. I think he's a little grumpy because he wanted to have a "I know what you did" marathon.

"I got this one, guys," Haylie said. She left to answer the door. The rest of us were back to being engrossed in the movie. The movie ended and I realized that Haylie wasn't back yet.

"Where is she?" Logan asked me.

"I'll go check the house for her," I said. "You guys start the second movie, I'll be back."

"Do you want me to go with you?" he asked me, grabbing my hand. I shook my head and he let go. I didn't want to look like I was scared. I checked the kitchen and every room downstairs and I didn't see Haylie. I went upstairs and checked each room, one by one, but they were all empty. I reached the last room, her bedroom, and opened the door.

"Haylie!" I shouted in surprise. She looked at me in surprise and pushed the guy who was on top of her off. He had his shirt off. I realized who it was. "Steve?" I looked at Haylie who looked ashamed.

"Thanks, Courtney," he grumbled. Haylie was frantically putting her costume back on.

"This wasn't what it looks like, Court," she said, quickly. "We got back together and I didn't know how to tell you and it's complicated!"

"He broke your arm!" I cried out.

"It was an accident!" she defended him.

"I can't believe you got back together with him!" I exclaimed. "How stupid can you be?"

"I love him, Court," she said. She was practically pleading with me to accept her decision.

"Yeah? Well, it's your life to screw up," I spat out. I left her and Steve standing there with their jaws dropped in awe.

I have never been this upset with Haylie in my life.

A Little Peeved

It had been a few weeks since the pregnancy scare. Logan and I had hung out a couple of times but nothing happened. He didn't make a move on me. Call me old fashioned but I like it when the guy makes the first move.

Halloween was around the corner (Saturday isn't too far away!!). I still had to buy a costume to wear. I was thinking of buying a cop costume or maybe a schoolgirl costume. I needed something to get Logan to make a move. The costume shop was filled with people trying to find a costume for Halloween. There were a bunch of angry parents standing in line to pay for their kids' costumes.

"How about this one?" Haylie asked. She was holding up a "Queen Bee" costume. I laughed.

"I think Brittany has that one actually," I said. "I think I'll go try on the cop and the schoolgirl one."

"Ok, I'll grab the correctional one too," she said, while carrying three other costumes.

We were planning on wearing costumes with the same theme. We were both into being sexy cops for Halloween. We went into the dressing room and I tried on the schoolgirl costume first. It was too small on me. I needed the next size up, but they didn't have any more mediums left. I was lucky to have gotten this small one. I think it was a return because it was missing the tie. I hate it when you find costumes that are missing some of its pieces.

I tried on the cop costume and surprisingly, it fit perfectly. I loved it. I thought I looked incredibly sexy in it.

"Hey, does yours fit?" I heard Sarah shout. She had grabbed a bunch of costumes and has been in the fitting room for the last 20 minutes while we had decided on ours.

"Yeah!" both Haylie and I shouted.

We decided that I would be the sexy police officer, that Haylie would be the sexy correctional officer, and that Sarah would be the sexy border patrol officer. I love having girlfriends to dress up with!

We were going to have a small get-together at Haylie's house. It's going to be the group and Logan. We're planning on watching scary movies all night long (since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year) and passing out candy to the little trick-or-treaters. I love seeing little kids in their costumes!

The three of us got in the incredibly long line and started to chat about how much fun Saturday will be. I saw someone that looked familiar. It can't be. It was Taylor. I tried to hide myself behind Haylie, but it was too late, he had spotted me. Like the idiot he was, he came walking over to us.

"Hey, stranger," he said, grinning. "Haylie. Sarah." He nodded to them.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Same thing you're doing," he said. He took a look at our costumes. "Shopping for a costume. Nice."

"What do you want, Taylor?" I asked him, coldly.

"Nothing, just wanted to say hi," he said. He smirked. "Do you remember the costume you wore for me? It drove me wild. You had on this lingerie-"

I handed Haylie my costume and pulled Taylor away from the girls. He waved bye to Haylie and Sarah.

"What do you think you're doing?" I spat out. "Are you trying to embarrass me?"

"No," he said innocently. "I just wanted to know if you remembered the costume you wore for me when we first made love."

"We weren't making love," I said. "If we did, you wouldn't have cheated on me!"

"I told you that she had kissed me!" he exclaimed. "We were working on our Spanish project."

"Yeah, whatever," I said, rolling my eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"I loved you, Court," he said, sincerely. He looked hurt. "I miss you."

"Yeah? Well, you had your chance," I said, sadly. "Too late now." I walked away from him.

"You'll change your mind!" he shouted after me. "You'll see!"

I couldn't help but worry about what he had up his sleeves.

It's a ...

It was the crack of dawn when I had arrived at Sarah's house with Haylie and the pregnancy test. I couldn't believe that this was happening. I couldn't believe that Sarah could be pregnant. I mean, she's so young, she has her whole future ahead of her.

The three of us sat on her bed in silence. We were worried what the test would say. What if it came out positive? What would Sarah do? Would she keep the baby? Would she have an abortion? Would she give it up for adoption? How would she tell Justin?

"Have you thrown up since the dance?" Haylie asked Sarah suddenly. Sarah shook her head.

"No, that was the only time," She replied. "I didn't realize that my period was more than two weeks late."

"Well, sweetie, just go in when you're ready," I said. Sarah sighed.

"I'm ready," she said. "I really have to pee anyways." We laughed with her. We knew that she was trying to lighten the mood. This couldn't be easy on her. I'm sure she had a million of what-ifs floating in her mind. She came out two minutes later.

"How long do we have to wait?" Haylie asked.

"It says that we have to wait 3 minutes," I said. We sat around in a circle on the ground with the test in the middle. It was the longest three minutes of my life.

"What are you going to do, sweetie, if you are?" Haylie asked.

"I don't know," Sarah said. "I'd have to talk to Justin first. I have a complicated stand on abortion and I'm not sure what the future would hold if I had the baby."

She did have a really complicated stand on abortion. She believed that women do have the right to have an abortion, but she didn't know if she could personally go through with something like that. She believe that it was murdering a child, but women need to have the right to decide- it's their body. But I don't think that she could ever have an abortion. She would feel guilty for the rest of her life.

"I mean, people at school will be talking about me behind my back," she continued. "They'll say horrible things about me. They'll spread rumors. What if Justin leaves me because of this?"

"Honey, you're being ridiculous," I said. "You and Justin have been together so long that he can't possibly leave you."

"He loves you!" Haylie exclaims. "You know that!"

"I know," Sarah said. "Sometimes I think that the only reason that we're still together is because it's easy. We love each other too much to break up. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

We didn't know what to say to that. It was a sad thought to have. Sarah and Justin have been the perfect couple for years and it's difficult for me to see that they're just human beings. It's hard for me to see that even their relationship has problems and cracks. We were silent after that.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

It was the alarm that I had set. The three minutes were up. Sarah picked up the test and stared at it.

"One line means you're not pregnant and two means that you are," I said, reading the box.

"What does it say?" Haylie asked. We were both bracing ourselves because we knew there was a chance that she could be pregnant.

"Guys," she said. She took a deep breath. "I'm not pregnant."

Haylie and I couldn't have been more happier for Sarah. It was a big sigh of relief. It was like she dodged a bullet. We were chalking her fiasco in the bathroom to bad seafood that she had eaten prior to the dance. We were literally jumping for joy.