Ok, so this chapter is going to be mushy cause my brothers’ friend stopped by (who I happen to like) and he talked to me and I handed him a towel cause he was wet. AND my friend who I haven’t talked to in FOREVER signed online. So my day is better now.
Chapter 7 – You took my breath away
“So Joel, you seemed pretty close with Maddie tonight.” Billy said while closing the door to the van.
“Yeah, she seems really cool. I got her number too.”
“You go boy! You stud!” Benji squealed.
“Thank you Benj.” Joel said with a sarcastic tone in is voice.
We walked into the hotel room to find Emily and Ayla sleeping on the beds with the newly bought merchandise spread out.
“Looks like they had fun” I said.
“Oh shit. Without me?”
“What has this world come to? Fun without Benj, Oh my” I said.
Paul walked over to me and gave me a hug while pushing me to the opposite end of the room.
“Yes?”
“Nothing. I just haven’t seen a lot of you today.” Paul said.
“Hmm I see.” By this time, my back was up against a wall and Paul was kissing me.
“Oooh! Get a room you two!” Benji said.
“I already have one, you’re just in it!” Paul replied.
I laughed and instead of kissing Paul again I just looked at him.
“Do I have more food stuck on my chin?” He asked.
“Haha, no, I’m just…taking this all in.”
“Oh, It’s like that...”
He held me closer and I put my head on his shoulder. I could see Joel in the back of the room looking at a piece of paper with a confused look on his face. I watched as Benji walked over to him.
“Dude, give her a call.”
“I don’t know.”
“We’re going out to dinner tonight, invite her!”
“Maybe”
“Argh! Dude! You like her!”
“I know but—”
“...But what? The phones too far away?” Benji handed him the phone.
“Never mind.” Joel picked up the phone and dialed then number. After about 2 minutes, he hung up with a smile on his face. “Yes! She said YES!”
“What the hell…what’s going on? Who said yes?” Emily said while waking up.
“Someone actually said yes to dinner with Joel. I can’t believe it!”
“With who?” Emily said while walking over to Benji and hugging him.
“Maddie, this girl we met today.” I told her.
“Oh. Cool.”
“Yep! Everyone get ready, she’s gonna be here in an hour.”
Paul gave me a hug goodbye. “Oh, that’s right, we got a separate room for the girls. It’s next to ours, but don’t worry, its connected to ours.”
“Mmm, Great.”
Ayla, Emily and I walked out of the room grabbing our luggage.
“This should be a fun tonight. Any idea about where we’re going?” Emily asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine. I didn’t even know we were going out until 5 minutes ago” I replied.
The hotel room was amazing; I knew I was going to have a great time with the girls. We unpacked our things, and since there were only 2 bathrooms, I decided to share with Emily because Ayla liked to hog the space.
I hated going out to dinner because that meant dressing up putting on makeup, which I wasn’t good at. But for Paul, I think I could manage, just as long as I don’t have to wear a dress. I put my hair up into a messy bun and put on some blush and lip-gloss. Within 5 minutes I was finished, so I stayed to talk to Emily.
“So, how was shopping?”
“Fun. I got an outfit that I’m gonna wearing tonight.” In two quick swipes, she put on her Egyptian style eyeliner on.
“Oh cool”
“Yeah, so what did you do?”
“Went to the radio station with the guys.”
“Oh, I thought they couldn’t bring anyone.”
“Paul pulled some strings and got me in. Well, actually, just up there. I watched them while the interview was going on.” She turned around and looked at me.
“Is that all you’re wearing tonight? Well, makeup wise.”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm, you should put more on. Look sexy.”
“Ha, I never wear makeup.”
“Sit back my child, sit back.” I did what she said as she started to attack me with eyeliner and mascara. It was pretty cool having someone else put makeup on me because the reason why I hate it so much is the applying part. After the makeup she moved onto the hair. After 20 minutes, she was finished.
“There we go! You look sexy!”
I stood up to look in the mirror and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “Wow. It doesn’t even look like me. I like it…nice job.”
“Thanks.”
I walked out to the “living room” of the hotel room and saw Ayla sitting on the couch, crying.
“What’s wrong?”
“Billy broke up with me!”
“What?”
“He said I wasn’t affectionate enough, like I was using him.”
“Were you?”
“Sorta.”
“That’s horrible! Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know”
“So I guess you’re not coming tonight?”
“No, I’m flying back to New York.”
“Oh, I’m sorry”
I didn’t know what else to say so I went to get changed. I was feeling different tonight, a good different. So I decided to be unpredictable and wear a dress. It was black with thin straps and came down just before my knees. It was very clingy and flattered my figure nicely.
It was now 8 o’clock and we were waiting for Maddie to come to the boys’ room. Paul came out of the bathroom and gave me a hug.
“Wow! You look…amazing”
I blushed and giggled.
There was a knock on the door and Joel answered it.
“Hey Maddie!”
“Hey Joel.”
“Come in…you look amazing.”
“Thank you. So what are we doing tonight?”
“We be clubbin’” Joel replied.
“Hailey, where’s Ayla?” Benji asked
“On her way back to New York.”
“Why?”
“Because I broke up with her.” Billy said
“Oh, sorry dude…why?”
“I don’t feel like talking about it. Maybe after a few drinks…”
“Hmm.” Benji paused, “Maybe...”
Inside the club was amazing. The lights and stages were great. I didn’t like the smoke there, it bothered my throat.
“I think I’m gonna get some fresh air” I told Paul.
“Want me to come with you?”
“Yeah.”
(5 minutes later outside the club)
“What’s wrong?” Paul asked.
“Nothing, the smoke was bothering me.”
“Yeah, me too.”
I wrapped my arms around Paul’s neck. “You know, I’m really proud of you.”
“Why?”
“You’ve stopped smoking for me, and being in that club probably didn’t help.”
“No, it didn’t.”
Paul kissed me on the head and held me close.
“I’m really glad I came here.”
“Me too”
“Yeah, I didn’t know how it was going—” Paul shut me up with a kiss that took my breath away.
We walked back into the club to find Joel and Maddie on the dance floor, and Benji and Emily in a corner booth making out.
“Billy seems really down, I think I’ll talk to him.” I told Paul
“Ok.”
Billy was sitting with his head in his hands staring at his glass of water.
“Hey Biller, what’s wrong?”
“It’s Ayla. I couldn’t believe her.”
“What happened?” I said while taking the seat next to him.
“She didn’t tell you?”
“She said you broke up with her because you felt she was using you.”
“That and…”
“And?”
“Well…” he paused, “She…she cheated on me.”
“Oh man, with who?”
“I don’t know…”
“Come on, lets dance.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him to the dance floor. From the looks of their grinding, Joel and Maddie seemed be getting along well. The music changed to my favorite slow song.
“I can’t slow dance” Billy said
“It’s ok, follow my lead.”
Our fingers intertwined while Billy placed his arm around my waist.
“See, it’s not that bad!”
“Ehh, Paul’s gonna be mad.”
“No he won’t…just dance.”
Billy sighed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s just that, I really liked Ayla, and you know, she used me and I feel…used.”
“Awe, you’re gonna find someone and forget about her. I promise.”
“I know.”
“And…you know what? When that whole thing went on with Paul and me, I was feeling used and hurt, but time passes. After time you’ll start to feel better.”
“I guess.” Billy gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
“Eh, can I cut in?” Paul asked.
“She’s all yours.”
I wrapped my arms around Paul’s neck, and he did the same to my waist. And at that moment I became irate and knew just who to take it out on.
“Paul, what did happen that night?”
“I don’t know. When?”
“When you came to visit me in New York. What happened?”
“I can’t remember.” His eyes became shifty.
My arms dropped and we stopped dancing. “You don’t know?” I looked him sternly in the eyes. “You told me you did, but you didn’t want to get into it then.”
“Oh, I forgot then.”
“How could you forget?”
“It was a long time ago. A lot has happened since then.”
“A lot hasn’t happened in two months…you know what? I’m going back to the hotel. Goodnight.”
“Hailey! Wait!”
I walked over to Billy and whispered in his ear. “Take me back to the hotel?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.”
Billy and I grabbed our coats and left the club. I couldn’t believe Paul would lie to me. As we were walking out, Paul was still screaming my name and telling me to wait.
“What happened? Everything was going fine with you and Paul.”
We stopped walking to Billy’s car. “Remember when Paul came to visit me in New York, and he had that fight?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, did Paul ever tell you why we had a fight?”
“No.”
“We went out to a bar and got drunk. I don’t remember what happened at all. I woke up the next morning with Paul next to me in my bed. I thought we had sex, and it was something special. But when he told me about his girlfriend I just felt used and abused. I didn’t even know if I was a virgin.”
“Oh wow.”
“Yeah” I continued, “I didn’t even want to think about him or Good Charlotte. I was a mess; it tore me apart. We finally decided that it wasn’t worth throwing years of friendship down the drain and we forgot about it.”
“And?” Billy asked.
“And he said he knew what happened, but didn’t want to get into it at that time. So tonight after I talked to you, it brought back memories from that night. I asked him what happened and his eyes became shifty and he lied to me.”
“Oh.” He walked over to me and gave me a hug
“Yeah, and now…” I felt my eyes starting to well up with tears. “I just, it brought back unanswered questions.”
“It’s ok. I’m here.” He held me closer and I put my arms around his neck.
“Thank you Billy.”
Paul walked out of the club furious.
“Hailey! What’s wrong?” Paul asked me
“Everything!” Just then I realized that I didn’t love Paul as much as I thought I did. If I loved him so much, it wouldn’t have mattered what happened that night, right? If I really loved him then I wouldn’t be throwing this out of the window so easily. “Billy lets go.”
“Wait!” Paul screamed.
“No Paul. That’s all I’ve been doing, waiting. Waiting for answers. Just please, go back inside.” I wiped a tear away from my cheek.
“Ok…I love you Hailey.”
I didn’t say anything back to him. I felt like going into a corner and crying for hours. The ride home with Billy was cold and silent. Two people we cared for had hurt us both.
“Let’s get some food, ok?”
“Yeah Billy, that sounds good.”