Chapter Thirty Four A Girl Named Raven

I cherished my last free weekend by relaxing in my dorm room. I was thankful Wes hadn't texted Cassidy our new schedule yet and my professors hadn't gave me any new assignments. I was completely free from doing anything. But of course, my freedom had to come to an end at some point in time and today had to be that day.

Eric's secretary made us our schedule for the next couple of weeks. We all had different ones but on some days I had Cassidy as a partner while others it was Levi, Sabrina or Anthony.

My schedule didn't clash with Hailey, Chance or Nolan. I hadn't seen Jayce's but I was assuming our schedule wasn't similiar.

We only had to go twice out the week and I was kind of glad they fell on the weekends. I wouldn't have time to do anything during the weekdays. We were all pretty much busy.

Well I guess, Hailey, Cass and me were less busy since we couldn't go to any cheer practices until March. I was sure Arianna would somehow use this against us if we were to lose the competition.

In a way, she would be right but I would never admit that to her. Beside, Hailey wouldn't let us fall any shorter than second place. Which I wouldn't accept. This was Hailey last year and she deserved that first place. I actually was fearing for that first day back to practice.

We were going to put in so much hours to make up for missing a whole month of practices. Which by the way, would be Bill's fault. He didn't have to decide on a month or anything for all that mattered. It wouldn't be great but we'd make it through.
I grabbed my jacket as I got ready to leave. Cassidy followed my lead.

"Where are you going today?" I asked.

"Nursing home with Anthony. You?"

I opened the door as I replied. "UMC." I shrugged. "I don't know who I'm paired with."

We walked out the door and locked it.

"Well it's not Nolan or Hailey. They're going to Covenant." She informed me.

"My schedule doesn't clash with them anyway. Or Chance" I added.

We walked down the hallway and waited for the elevator to came up.

"Then that leaves, Levi, Sabrina, and Jayce."

The elevator arrived and we stepped in. Cassidy pressed the bottom floor button and the doors closed. She turned to look at me.

"I don't think it would Levi." She said. "If it was him, he would've texted you..or me" She corrected herself when she realized I didn't have my phone. "to be ready."

We reached the ground floor and stepped out. We walked out the door and headed for Cassidy's car. She unlocked it and we hopped inside.

"What are you going to do if it's Jayce?" She asked, reversing out.

I shrugged. "I don't know." I answered. "What should I do?"

"Try to be his friend again." She suggested. "I know you forgave him and everything but you should've seen the look of disappointment on his face when I talked to him."

"You mean when you spoke to Jayce after he explained his story to me?"

She mentioned to me when she talked to him, he was hoping for something else to happen. I wasn't sure what that something else was but everyone assumed I did. It could be either one of two things. One, he wanted me to be his friend again or two he wanted to be something more.

Cassidy shook her head. "No, not that day. That night we went to the club. I think he was hoping you would speak to him but you didn't. He tried to hide it but when you went to go get the drinks, he let it slip." She glanced at me. "Chance saw it, too."

Chance seen it. Maybe that's was why he was pushing for me to have a conversation with Jayce. That and he was probably still feeling guilty for what he did and he was trying to help Jayce in any way he could. He knew Jayce was feeling some sort of pain. We both were.

"I already said I would talk to Jayce." I told her. "I just don't know when."

I couldn't text or call him without my phone. I could use Cassidy's phone but I was certain she wanted me to have a face to face conversation rather than over the phone.

And that would proabably be better to do anyway. The conversation we had yet to discuss wasn't something to speak about on the phone. It had to be done in person. That way we knew for a fact what each other was thinking without hiding behind the screen.

"I think you should do it soon. The sooner you get it over with the better it will be." She sighed. "I can't believed I'm saying this but I agree with Chance."

I rose an eyebrow. "On what?"

"When Chance was talking to you before the meeting, he said allow Jayce explain how he truly feels. I agree with him cause Jayce does have feelings for you. I know he told you his side of the story already but I honestly believe that wasn't the whole thing."

Cassidy had pulled up to the entrance and she stopped the car. I looked at her. She still didn't know about the second half of the video and I wanted to tell her but something was preventing me from doing so.

Here I was with two people telling me the exact same thing and I was still struggling. Maybe if I talk Cassidy about the video, she would understand where I was coming from. Why I was putting off speaking to Jayce.

Chance didn't believe Jayce's feeling went away that next morning because he was no longer intoxicated or that he forgot about them. He believed he still had them and Cassidy, without even seeing the video, agreed with him.

I would rather not speak to Jayce and be okay in our group of friends than speak to him and it turned out the complete opposite way I wanted it to go. I would rather pretend he had never utter those nine words than him telling me he never meant them to begin with. I would rather not be how we used to be than pretending to be something we weren't and never would be.

"You're right, Cass." I said a moment later. "It wasn't the whole story."

I opened the door before she could asked what I meant about that. I walked inside and headed for the reception's desk. I put on a fake bright smile as if everything in my life was truly perfect.

"Hi." I greeted.

The lady behind the desk looked up at me. "May I help you?" She asked in a bored tone.

"Uh, yes. I'm here for community services." I informed her.

"Oh, you must be the another one, they were referring to." She said, getting up.

They? Who were they?

"Follow me." She ordered.

I did and she took me to around the corner and down the hall where there were elevators. We climbed on one and she pressed the second button. We moved up and I was led to an area that was cheerful and bright. It had children's hand prints across the wall along with some pictures.

"She's here for community services." The receptionist told the young nurse sitting at the desk.

The nurse glanced at me and smiled. "You must be Cole. If you would come this way." She said as she stood up.

I moved over to where she was and snuck a glance at her nametag. Masie.

She led me to the end of the hallway and she stopped.

"Your friend is in that room." She said nodding to the room on my left.

Friend?

I nodded my head. "Okay. Thank you."

"If you need anything, I'll be in the front."

She walked away and I slowly made my way towards the room where my "friend" was.

My heart was pounding, wildly. I was super nervous. What if it was him? What would I do? How would I react? What would I say? Should I even say anything at all?

As I got closer to the room, my heartbeat picked up and before I walked fully inside, I took a deep breath and told myself to relax. It was nothing to get myself overworked.

I walked inside and my heart pounded, loudly. The person looked up and my heart stopped.

I sighed.

It wasn't him. It was Sabrina and she was reading to a small girl but she had stopped when she noticed me.

"Hi." I said, walking further inside.

I told a sit beside them and smiled at the little girl. She was no more than eight years old. She was thin and she wore a pink headbead, securing her brown hair. She had beautiful brown eyes and my heart fell when I realized she had cancer.

"Hi." The girl said in a small voice.

"My name is Cole." I told her.

"Raven." She informed me. "Are you here to read to me too."

I nodded. "I can or we can do your nails or hair." I offered.

"I would loved that but I don't have any hair." She said, sadly. "This is a wig." She said, touching the end of the hair.

"That's fine." Sabrina told her. "We can still do it."

Raven smiled, happily. "Really?"

We both nodded. "Yeah." I answered.

"Can you do it like both of yours?" She asked.

I exchanged glances with Sabrina and she shrugged.

"I'll tell you what. How about I cut my hair and the next time I see you I'll give it to you. How does that sound?"

Her smile widened. "Amazing. You would do that?"

"Of course." I told her.

"I'll do it too." Sabrina said. "So that way you'll have two instead of one."

We talked and got to know more about Raven while we painted her nails in her favorite color, pink. She had told us, she had a younger brother. He was just a baby but she loved him so much and couldn't wait to have fun with him. She also owned two cats and one hamster.

She loved to ride her bicycle and have fun playing with her friends before she was admitted into the hospital after a terribly incident that occurred one months ago, during Christmas.

She asked us what we did and Sabrina told her she was studying to be a doctor. That made Raven happy. She said the doctors around here were really nice to her.

I informed her I was a cheerleader and she had asked me to show her a cheer or two. I gladly did so and she wanted to learn one so she could show her parents what she had learned.

I taught her a very simple one that didn't require a lot of movement. She learned it easily and she was too excited to wait. She showed a few of her nurses and they clapped and cheered for her, genuinely happy for her.

Not long enough, it was time for us to leave. Raven hadn't want us to go but it was time for her treatment and she had to take her nap.

Sabrina and I had stayed longer than required but we didn't mind. Raven was an incredibly person to be around. I couldn't wait to come back to see her.

Before we left, Raven told us how happy she was that we came. She said she was looking forward until the next time we came. I wasn't sure when we would back because of our schedule but I was hoping it was soon.

Sabrina gave me a ride to my dorm building and I thanked her before getting out. I walked to my room and Cassidy was laying in her bed.

"Hey. What took so long? I finished two hours ago."

"I met this amazing little girl named, Raven." I told her. "It was hard to leave her."

"Well that's...nice. Anthony and I had to deal with these old people arguing about whose teeth was whose."

I sat on my bed and I waited for Cassidy to ask me what I knew she was going to ask me.

"Going ahead and ask." I said after a few minutes had passed by.

"I want to but I figure you'll tell me when you're ready."

I wouldn't be ready until I spoke to Jayce and figured out where we stood. Cassidy knew most of our story but she didn't know the full thing. Neither did I and I never would unless Jayce told me.

But he wouldn't tell me until he was absolutely ready.