Song is for the start of the chapter!

Enjoy!

Darla H

A laugh bubbled up from Zoe's throat as I tripped over my feet a few weeks later. Thankfully, I caught myself before I fell to the ground. "Goodness, you're the klutziest person I've ever met," Zoe said as she wiped a tear from her dark green eyes, finding humor in this.

Brushing myself off, I threw her a look. "Hey, watch it."

Slowly the middle school came into view as we set off to find Everly and give her a snack before her after school cheer practice.

"So how are you feeling?" I asked, referring to the breakup between Camden and Zoe that just happened earlier today. Even though I wasn't around to see, the entire school seemed to know about it.

She shrugged at me indifferently, hinting that she was handling it better than I thought she would. "You were right. Camden's a dick," she said simply. "I was done with his games."

For support, I wrapped my arm around her and smiled. Thank goodness he was out of the picture. Now I had my best friend back. "I'm proud of you."

She nodded with a smile. "Thanks. You know what I'm proud of?"

My eyebrows rose in confusion. "What?"

"You, I think you sat and listened to a full pop song without gagging during lunch today," she said with a chuckle.

That song that Zoe played wasn't that bad. I even found myself tapping to the beat. After all the songs I listened to on recommendations from Miles, I think his music taste was rubbing off on me. Turns out daily song exchanges were useful for something. "Looks like I'm growing too."

"I want to know your secret."

Miles was my secret; he was the main reason for this growth. Every day for the past two weeks, Miles and I had shared songs. The rule was that we had to listen to the song in its entirety then share our honest thoughts. It was forcing me to grow my music tastes. "Miles and I share music every day with each other."

Zoe laughed as if it was a joke. "You're serious? So you're in a music club with Kit Keen?"

When she put it that way, I guess I was. "You can call him Miles, you know that right?" I said to her as the middle school grew closer. Kit seemed like someone so unattainable, but Miles, he was someone real. I knew Miles, but Kit, I knew nothing about him. I had never seen that side of him and honestly, I didn't care to, since I liked Miles more.

Miles and I had been hanging out for almost three weeks now, and as the days passed, our friendship grew closer. Who knew one trip to the hospital could build something so unique and fantastic? We looked at the other as someone to confide in. He was my wingman, and I was his. Miles was just as much of a friend as Zoe was to me and I wouldn't change that for the world.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry. I just can't get over that you two are friends."

We were an odd pair, but it worked for us. But honestly, I couldn't believe it either. I still didn't understand why he was interested in hanging out when my forms of entertainment were going to the mall, cinema, or park. I was boring; however, he hadn't gotten bored yet.

By now, the novelty of me hanging out with Kit Keen had died down at school. Some people didn't even believe that it was me in the photo, convinced I was making all of this up for attention. Isaac was the one spearheading this nugget of gossip. I would be lying if I said I wasn't hurt that Isaac would do this to me, but then again, I knew him and what he could do.

"Oh! Before I forget! I was thinking since we have had all this growth recently, why not throw a party to celebrate? This Friday, my parents are out of town for a romantic trip. I thought, why not live while we're young?"

I forced a smile at her. "Sure. I'll be there." I was just hoping she would be over throwing parties, since that was something Tristen and she did together. All last year, I went along with it to be nice and to monitor Tristen, but that wasn't my scene at all.

She smiled with a nod. "Good. I want my best friend there. Why don't you invite Miles?"

Zoe had been waiting for a moment to meet him and asking for a while, but I didn't really want to share. A part of me was scared that once he met Zoe, who was more popular, pretty, and exciting than me, he would leave me for her. But there was only so long that I could keep her away from him, since she loved his music. As a good friend, I should at least try to invite him to her house party, but I wasn't sure he would be interested in a high school party since he already graduated. "I'll ask him."

"YAY! I'm so excited now." She clapped her hands and gave a little jump in happiness.

She was so easy to please which was refreshing. "He hadn't even said yes yet."

"But I have a feeling he will. He can't resist a good party."

That statement felt like a slap in the face. I didn't want to be reminded of his dark side that everyone seemed to know about besides me. "You read too many of those gossip magazines."

"I get all the best information from them," she said proudly, not sensing my discomfort. "So, did you tell Everly about your friendship with Miles yet?"

I shook my head. Everly didn't care about who I hung out with. We live such separate lives, and she wasn't interested in mine even though I tried to be interested in hers. I figured if she shared interest, I would tell her, until that point, it wasn't worth it. "Nah, not yet."

Zoe chuckled. "I sometimes don't understand you. You're hanging out with one of the most popular people in the music world right now and you shrug it off like it isn't a big deal. I would shout it to everyone if I was in your shoes."

I laughed at her. "Maybe that's why Miles and I are friends. I don't care about his fame or his music. I just care about his personality, I care about Miles, not Kit Keen."

"And that's why you are a better person than I am," Zoe said as she tapped my shoulder with a sad sigh.

As we made it to the front door of the middle school, Everly sat on a bench crying into her hands. The sight caused a frown to appear on my face as I knew something was wrong. "Everly, are you ok?" I asked as I walked up to her with Zoe by my side.

She looked up at me and wiped her eyes, smearing the little makeup she had on. "Go home, Isla," Everly shouted at me.

The harshness of her tone caused me to step back as if she just swore me out. That was uncalled for when all I wanted to do was help. I was getting yelled at by a child and would I let her boss me around like this? Yeah, I probably would since I didn't have enough energy to deal with her attitude after all the picking Isaac did at me.

Memories of her sobbing over Dad's condition flashed across my mind like headlines. There were many times when she was inconsolable like this. The memories caused my breath to hitch slightly, wanting nothing more for the memories to vanish from my mind. Dad in bed, her on the floor crying for him, Mom unable to help... I shook my head, trying to clear my head.

Wanting nothing to do but help, I sighed as I sat down next to her. Quietly wrapping my arm around her hoping to provide some kind of comfort. "Everly, I'm trying to help."

"Isla, I don't want to hear about your oh-so-perfect relationship experiences," she snapped, then pushed me away.

My relationships were not perfect. If she actually talked to me, she would find out that all of my past boyfriends were jerks, every single one of them. If I wasn't picking a crappy lover, Tristen was doing it for me. I was about to tell her a thing or two, but stopped knowing that she wouldn't listen in this state since she was clearly upset. It would be best to talk at a different time, when she cooled off. "Ok," I said, then got up from the bench.

She wiped her eyes again. "Go away."

Fine. I'll go knowing there was nothing I could do to make this better for her. I wasn't able to console her from her tears in the past either. I opened my backpack and put the snacks beside her in silence, then with that; I left with Zoe.

Once we were out of earshot, Zoe threw a sympathetic look. "Wow, Everly was upset."

I nodded.

"And you just left her?"

What else would I do? It was clear she didn't want me there no matter how hard I tried. The last time she cried that hard was at Dad's funeral. His casket open as if he was sleeping, us unable to look at him, that was the last time I saw her sob. "I don't know what else to do."

"Did you know she was dating someone?"

I shook my head. "No." I wouldn't lie, it hurt me she didn't even mention it. We'd only been back at school for a month, so I was sure that this was relatively new.

"Want me to take you home?"

"Nah, I drove today," I said as I fished the keys out of my mini skirt pockets.

She nodded. "Ok, well, I'll see you tomorrow," she said and gave me a wave before splitting ways with me.

"See you."

In silence, I walked to my junky little silver Honda and got into it as my mind thought about Everly, wondering if I actually made the right move. The car struggled to turn on, however that was the last thing on my mind.

"How did we get to this, Everly?" I thought we were closer than this. With that, I left the parking lot and drove home.

Everly was the only thing I could think of over the short 10-minute drive home. Seeing Everly so worked up worried me.. But I wasn't sure what to do about it. She wanted me to go, so I did, just like I did when dad was sick. I left her alone then too but was the really the right move?

"Mom! I'm home!" I said as I stepped into the house.

"Oh goodness, really?" Mom's voice rang out, then laughed, hinting she was talking to someone.

My red sneakers hit the wooden floor with a soft thump but all I could think about was how I hadn't heard Mom laugh in a while. It sounded like wind chimes, light and airy, taking me back to a completely different time, back when we were whole, happy, healthy.

"Yeah, it was all a big mess," Miles' voice rang out.

Unable to fight my curiosity, I raised my eyebrows as I walked into the living room. There, sitting on the couch was Mom and Miles, talking away as they drank tea. Confusion hit me like a brick wall. Why was he here? He knew I was in school. How long has he been waiting for me? Was he even waiting for me, or did he just want to meet my mom?

Miles looked up at me and smiled. "Hey!" he said with excitement, happy I could join the conversation.

"Hey." Why did he want to talk to my mom? All this time we had hung out, we always met somewhere, or he picked me up. He never had a reason to come in and with him here, it made me nervous. The house was slightly messy making me feel self-conscience about the modest house. He was used to luxury, not folding chairs at the dining room table.

"Miles was just telling me about how you fell off the board a few weeks ago," Mom explained to me.

Miles and I hadn't talked about how I fell. As nice as Miles was and as close as we were getting, I wasn't convinced he was the one that made me fall. Instead, I was thinking that it was all an accident, but I never asked to confirm. "Really? What did he tell you?" I asked with a smile as I sat down next to her, waiting to hear the juicy information.

"He said that his friend lost hold of his skateboard and it rolled into your path." She threw me a wink, hinting she liked him but then again, she liked Isaac too. So that wink didn't say a whole lot.

"My friend was a total jerk, needless to say, I don't hang out with him much," Miles said.

Mom nodded as her phone rang. "Shoot, I have to get this. It was so nice meeting you, Miles," she said as she stood up from the couch, leaving us alone in the family room.

"It was a pleasure meeting you as well," he said with a smile and with that she went back to her office, where she spent most of her time.

I smiled at him. I hadn't seen Mom happy like that in a while, making me wonder what he did.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" Miles asked with a chuckle.

"Why did you come here?" I asked, meeting his question with another one.

"I wanted to meet your mom. You speak so highly of her. I wanted to see for myself."

I chuckled at him. "You're so weird."

"You're weird."

Knowing that Mom could walk in again and steal this conversation with Miles, I stood up from my seat and grabbed his hand, giving it a pull. "Let's go somewhere a little more private."

He nodded as he stood up.

I led him through the halls and up the stairs until we made it into my small, simple bedroom.

"This is yours?" he asked as he sat down in a moon chair I had in the corner of my lilac-colored bedroom.

"Yeah, this is my lair," I said with a chuckle as I sat down on the white bed.

"Your mom is a gem."

"Thanks, I think so too. I just wish I saw her more often though since she's always in that office of hers, working away."

"She said that the family gem trading was your father's business."

I nodded. "Yeah. It was his dream job."

"You miss him," he stated the fact.

I nodded again. That was an understatement. I still found myself crying at night when I thought about him a little too much. I didn't understand why he had to die so soon when we needed him still, but I think I needed him the most. "So Zoe's having a high school party..." I said as I laid down on my bed, changing the topic before I cried.

"When?" Miles asked.

"Friday."

"I'll be there," he said with a smile, not waiting for a second to think about it.

"You don't have to if you're busy."

He shook his head. "Sounds fun. I would love to go. Can I pick you up?"

I nodded. "Sounds good."