Chapter 7

The car ride home was filled with silence. My mom and mother blatantly ignored me while my younger sisters, and Bailey, slept peacefully beside me. I already know what's going to happen once we get home. Not even twenty minutes later my mother was safely pulling into the driveway and trying to wake everyone up. Once Bailey and Isabella got out of the car I decided to carry Haley up to her bedroom since she's exhausted. Isabella and Bailey were practically sleepwalking their way towards the house while I walked side by side with my parents. I hope that they're not too disappointed with me. As we all enter the house Isabella and Bailey silently make their way upstairs, presumably to go back to sleep. "I'll take Haley upstairs while your mom has a talk with you" my mother says as she holds her arms out for my younger sister I sigh as I hand her to my mother. She makes sure to secure Haley on her hip before making her way towards the stairs. I begin to nervously bite my bottom lip as I take a seat on one of our barstools. My mom leans her elbows on the counter as she stares at me with obvious disappointment. "See, this is why I didn't want to tell you, I wanted to avoid that look" I say which makes her furrow her eyebrows "Hanna, how do you expect me to react to this situation?!" She questions with an incredulous tone of voice "I expect you to trust that I know what I'm doing" I say as I begin to furrow my brows I expected to get yelled at, but I was not expecting this. "Hanna, three weeks ago you came home crying because he cheated on you, how do you expect me to be okay with the idea of you two pretending to still be together?!" She asks with a furious facial expression "I only did this so that I wouldn't upset his grandparents" I inform her She sighs as she brings a hand up to massage her temples. "I don't want you hanging out with him or his family anymore" she says "Mom, I agreed to have dinner with his grandmother tomorrow!" I yell out incredulously "Then tell her that you had to cancel" she says with a tired tone of voice "This is so unfair-" I begin to rant only to get cutoff by my moms angered tone of voice "Hanna, enough!" She whisper yells at me I choose not to respond to her as I stand up from my chair and stomp upstairs, past my mother, towards my room. As I reach my room I close my bedroom door behind me and lock it, taking note of a lightly snoring Bailey on my couch. She could've just slept in my bed. She does it all the time. - "Hey, can I stay at your house tonight?" I ask Bailey as she looks through my closet for something to wear She has stayed the night here so many times that I have a section in my closet dedicated to her clothes. "Yeah, but why?" She asks she throws a random shirt on my bed "My parents are mad at me because of what happened at the gala" I explain "Oh yeah," she says with a lighthearted laugh "Don't you have to meet his grandmother for dinner tonight?" She asks as she picks up a pair of leggings "Yes and I don't know what to do. I really don't want to cancel because she seemed so happy to see me again" I explain hoping that Bailey understands where I'm coming from "She seems nice, is Chadley going to be there with you?" She asks with a motherly tone "No, she said that it was just going to be her and I" I say "Then I don't understand why you can't go" she explains as she begins to change "My mom doesn't trust their family" I sigh out as I gaze out of my bedroom window "What about your mother?" She asks "I haven't asked her but I'm ninety percent sure that she'd agree with my mom" I say as I notice a car pull up in front of our house "Your mom is here" I tell her She hands me my shoes before grabbing her phone and waiting for me. I quickly shove my feet into my tennis shoes and lace them up before grabbing my purse and shoving some random belongings inside of it. Lucky for me my parents are still asleep this early in the morning. Bailey waits for me as I quickly write a note down explaining that I'll be staying at her house tonight. I stick the note on the refrigerator door and quickly make my way out of the house before anyone wakes up. We silently walk down my driveway towards her moms car where we mutually decide to sit in the backseat. "Hanna, it's nice to see you again, how have you been doing lately?" Mrs. Pierce asks me "I've been great, how about you?" I ask politely as I close the car door behind me "I've been good, make sure to thank your parents for letting Bailey stay over" she says as she pulls away from my house "Of course" I reply as I glance out the car window We're left in silence for a few moments before it's broken by Bailey's mother. "So, are you and your boyfriend still together?" She asks with genuine curiosity causing Bailey's eyes to widen with shock "Mom!" Bailey warns making me stifle my laugh "It's fine," I assure my best friend "No, he and I broke up a few weeks ago" I explain to her She was obviously not expecting that judging by the way her breath hitches. "I'm so sorry for asking" she apologizes profusely "It's fine" I assure her with a smile I jump slightly when I feel my phone vibrate in my hands. I look down and notice that it is a number that I haven't saved. I cautiously answer the phone call. "Hello?" I ask "Hi, is this Hanna?" A lady asks "Who's asking?" I ask with obvious confusion in my tone "Susanne, Chadley's grandmother" she answer "Oh hi," I reply with a shocked tone of voice How did she get my phone number? "How did you get my number?" I ask her curiously "Oh, Chadley gave it to me," she informs That fucking prick. I knew that I should've punched him somewhere where the sun doesn't shine. "Anyway, I'm just calling to make sure you're able to make it tonight" She questions My heart begins to hurt as I open my mouth. "Sadly, I have to cancel, I originally had plans with my friend but Chadley didn't want me to decline your offer" I say as I nervously scratch my head "That's completely fine, dear, have fun while you're still young" she says with an enthusiastic tone At least she's not upset. "Thank you, Susanne, I hope to reschedule our dinner soon" I say nicely "So do I, I'll talk to you soon, Hanna" she says with a calm tone We bid each other farewell just as Mrs. Pierce pulls into their garage. This is going to be a good night, whether I have to force it or not. - I have been at Bailey's house for a few hours now, her mom even let us invite Faith over. We've all just been watching random movies and eating a bunch of snacks while her parents stayed in the living room the whole time. "Hanna, I swear, if your phone goes off one more time" Bailey says since my phone is closest to her I hold my hand out to which she places it in my hand. I quickly check my phone only for my eyes to widen. "What's wrong?" Faith asks with a curious tone of voice. I show her my screen only for her eyes to mimic mine. "Jesus, Hanna" she says If you're confused I have forty missed messages. I check my moms messages first only to release a breath of relief. Thank goodness she's not mad at me. She only sent me two messages which read, 'your mother and I want you home before breakfast tomorrow' and 'what do you want from the store?'. She sent these messages a few minutes ago so I text her back saying that I need some more snacks. As soon as I'm finished typing my message I send it before pressing the back button and checking my other messages. "Hey, do you know these numbers?" I ask my friends as I show them the two random numbers that texted me They both shake their heads but are eager to know who the numbers belong to. I click on the first one which has our area code and the most messages by far. Once I read the first message I instantly know who it is. "I thought you said that you blocked his number". Faith says when she figures out that the number belong to Chadley "I thought I did after he called me on Wednesday" I say as I immediately block his number to avoid any future interactions "What did that person say?" Bailey quickly interrupts as she points towards the number with a completely different area code I don't answer her as I open the text only for my breath to get caught in my throat. 'Can't wait to see you tomorrow night at dinner -Aurelia;)' the message read "What is she talking about?" Faith asks with obvious confusion "Who cares, Hanna has a date with the hot new girl!" Bailey replies with an excited tone of voice "No, I don't," I exclaim incredulously as I begin to text her back asking her what the hell is she talking about "I don't even know her" I try to defend as I place my phone down in front of me "Please, you've spent more time around her than anyone else in the whole school" Faith says with an eye roll, clearly not believing me "Not by choice, every time I declare that I'm going to ignore her we always get place together" I say with a tone of annoyance Bailey suddenly gasps causing both Faith and I to give her a look, as If silently ask her if she's okay. "What if the universe is doing this?" She questions "What are you talking about?" I ask her as Faith just raises her brow "Think about it, whenever you want to distance yourself away from Aurelia the universe always finds a way to bring you two back together" she explains "Or it could just purely be a coincidence" Faith suggests My phone vibrates indicating that I have a new message. I look down at my phone and boy did my eyes stretch to the size of saucers. 'Ask your parents' is all the message read. "Mrs. and Mrs. Wilder have a lot of explaining to do" Faith says lowly Hell yeah they do. They could've at least informed me that we were going to be having dinner with the Kingsbury's instead of leaving me in the dark. Actually, I'm being to understand how they felt about the whole gala situation now. Ugh. This was supposed to be a fun night. Now it's just a confusing one.