It Happened Last Year

Harrison was not at school for the last week until winter break. Everyone wondered where he went and assumed his father took the family on an early vacation to some tropical island. They were jealous of him. In the locker room, the girls chatted about how lucky he is to be able to miss an entire week. His father can pull strings, they said.

I stayed silent and tried to ignore them, not wanting to feed my ego over the fact that I know the truth.

Harrison is in trouble.

After my mother went to the station with the USB drive, she called later on to tell me that everything was going well, that there were no issues. We celebrated at Knocks, and in the night, Daniel dropped Jana off at home and came inside mine. My mother was too dedicated to leave work, so I didn’t expect her to come back anytime soon. I was sure she’d spend the night at the station so Daniel and I shared the night together.

It felt different in my bedroom. The pleasures were better than the first time, as I become more comfortable, but it felt as if I was finally getting rid of the old me. I scared her from the room.

My mother wired herself with caffeine and never came home, but managed to take breaks to send me updates. Daniel stayed the night and we didn’t go to school in the morning. We played husband and wife for a while and laughed and annoyed each other and Daniel told me he loved me and I said the same.

The second semester of school went by in a flash. Harrison never came back, and I had won. My mother became my mother again and the students of Coldgrove High School forgot about me and my drama. Without Harrison, everyone seemed to relax and focus on finishing the year. The football team lost almost every game, and the dance team didn’t make it to finals, but no one bothered to talk about it. Daphne had quite the team and moved to California. It was sudden and unexpected, but she didn’t leave without telling me that Harrison had tried to take advantage of her as well.

Without Harrison here, by the end of the school year, four other girls, not including Daphne, had told me that Harrison had tried with them also. Holly was one of them, she thanked me for barging in the locker room that one day.

Daniel and I both got into the University of Florida. There was much to do when it came to moving, but we got an apartment together near campus. We spent many days with his mother and sister and many others with my father and his wife. Daniels mother was very accepting of me and was excited that her son would be so close to her now. His sister and I continue to spend time together, every now and then talking through our hard times. My father likes Daniel and my stepmother continuously reminds me that I can’t let him go. Daniel tries very hard to impress my father, and I tell him that he doesn’t have to, but he insists on making a good impression.

And now. Here I am. Laying on the beach like I once did, but this time I don’t have to pretend to be happy, I simply am. Daniel lays beside me, almost asleep in the sun, and I smile. My phone vibrates with Jana’s texts, and she keeps me updated on her life in Boston. She and James are trying to make a long distance relationship work, and he’s visiting her next week before school starts.

Jordan and Taylor are attending separate schools in Michigan, but are close enough to see each other every weekend. And I don’t know about Daphne, but I assume she’s dancing. I really hope she is. I hope California heals her and treats her well.

“Is it Jana?” Daniel asks, turning his head to look at me.

“Yeah. She just sent me pictures of her dorm room.” I show him the array of pictures. “Isn’t that cute? She has a roommate and everything. Oh, and she still has the picture of us when we were fifteen, see, it’s on the cork board.” I point.

“You were a little dorky looking,” he jokes, acting cool to annoy me.

I roll my eyes. “I will lock you out of the apartment again. Don’t think I won’t just because you had to wait outside for an hour while I showered.”

He shrugs. “I’ll just climb through the window.”

“You can’t climb through the window.”

“Yeah, I can. I have before when I forgot my keys.

I turn to him. “Do you mean the living room window?” He nods. “You could die if you fell! What were you thinking! That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever-” My phone vibrates again and I glance at it. “It’s my mom. She wants me to call her.”

Daniel sits up and places his hand on my leg as I call. It rings twice and she answers. “Hailey, perfect. I had to tell you as soon as possible. John and I are getting married. He proposed last night at dinner.”

“Really? Wow. Uh, wow. That’s really unexpected. I’m so happy for you?”

“You sound too surprised,” she says.

“Well, didn’t you say that John isn’t interested in marriage? That he wanted to buy a motorcycle and grow a beard and that you weren’t going to deal with it? I thought you two ended things.”

She sighs. “Well, he got the bike and didn’t grow the beard, then fell off the bike and decided that he wants to get married.”

“Oh, that seemed to work itself out then,” I mumble.

“The wedding will be next year. You’ll come back, won’t you?”

I glance at Daniel and he gives me a curious look, probably wonder what’s going on. “Yeah, of course, I’ll come back for the wedding. I can’t stay away from Coldgrove for too long now, can’t I?”

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