Unfamiliar

  Chapter Twelve

 

  Chase

 

  So I was staring at Hailey’s ass again.

  Hey, don’t judge me. If you’re gonna put it on display, then I’m gonna look.

  Even though she’d rejected me and I’d been determined to play it cool until we were done with this stupid song writing assignment, it was harder to ignore her now that she’d proved me wrong and rocked out on stage with my band.

  Hailey had pretty much put me in my place. She was just full of surprises and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I was impressed.

  I was especially impressed with the way her ass curved in that short skirt she had on. She was wearing leggings and a t-shirt too, but they didn’t seem nearly as important as that skirt.

  For a second I wondered if she’d put it on just to torture me. Yeah, right. She hated my guts. Well, whatever her reason was for her change in wardrobe, I liked it.

  Hailey turned away from the conversation she’d been having with the professor and began heading toward where I was sitting in my customary seat at the back of the class. I quickly sat up straighter and tried not to look antisocial.

  I even cracked a smile. “Hi, Hailey.”

  Hailey’s cheeks flushed as she took a seat at the desk beside mine. “Hi, Chase.” We stared at each other and then glanced away once the staring had reached a level of “we’re staring at each other for too long and it’s becoming weird and awkward”.

  Except I didn’t really know what to say. What exactly could I say to the girl I’d misjudged and who’d ended up saving my ass? Because, let’s face it, if it wasn’t for Hailey, we wouldn’t have been able to perform on Friday night.

  I didn’t know what Deuce’s deal was, but this was the last time he was going to screw us over. We just couldn’t rely on him anymore. It sucked even thinking about getting a new guitarist though, especially now when we really had a chance to progress with our music. Despite being absent a lot, Deuce was good at what he did and it was going to be a long process teaching someone else the songs.

  As I sneaked a glance over to Hailey, I couldn’t help but recall the image of her in that tight, little red dress she’d been wearing Friday night. Holy shit, did it outline her curvy body like crazy. I’d never seen a girl look that good in a dress before. Hailey was hot as fuck and she didn’t even realize it.

  “So, what do you want to work on today?” Hailey asked.

  It was an obvious attempt to break the growing silence between us. We already knew what we had to work on—lyrics. We’d both decided that we’d perform on our acoustic guitars and had laid down basic music for the song. Lyrics were what we were stuck on.

  The problem was we still couldn’t agree on what the song should be about. I was still stuck on about writing a song about heartbreak, and Hailey was just as stubborn about writing a love song.

  “Well, lyrics, I guess,” I said, trying to clear away the dirty thoughts I was having about

  Hailey and her little dress. “Are we ever going to compromise on this?”

  “I’m telling you— love songs are always more popular,” Hailey stated a-matter-of-factly.

  “If we want to get graded well on this then we should stick to something that the professor is going to relate to. Love is a universal theme.”

  “You can’t have love without heartbreak. There’s passion and intensity and anger and hate behind heartbreak. It’s real and it’s painful. It’s way more relatable.”

  “Are we seriously going to have this argument again?” A small frown appeared at the corners of Hailey’s mouth. “I don’t care what you say; you can have love without heartbreak. Not every relationship has to end badly.”

  “That’s not what I’ve learned,” I muttered under my breath.

  I knew from the way Hailey’s eyes widened that she’d heard me. Yeah, so I’d probably spilled too much of myself into this discussion, but could you really blame me for being bitter about my break up with Heather?

  You put everything into a relationship with someone; you gave them your trust and your love, but in the end it didn’t mean anything. You still got screwed over and left feeling like you were the one who’d done something wrong. Because, really, if something hadn’t been wrong she wouldn’t have cheated on me, right?

  Releasing a sigh, I toyed with my Set the Flames wristband. Heather and I had nothing to do with Hailey. Heather and I had nothing to do with our assignment.

  “Um, why don’t we write our lyrics individually and see what we come up with and then try to merge them together?” Hailey suggested.

  I could tell she was feeling awkward and didn’t know what to say after my random comment. I wasn’t sure if Hailey and I were exactly “friends” so it was weird for me to bring up something like that.

  I nodded and pulled my notebook and pen out of my bag, and stared at the blank page. Nothing was coming to me right now. This assignment was important but it didn’t seem as important as coming up with new material for the band.

  My mind began to drift away from pop songs about love and heartbreak and instead to the fast paced music I usually played. I glanced over at Hailey and pictured her in that red dress, knowing that she had an effect on me that I couldn’t ignore.

  The way I feel for you, I can’t ignore.

  And then, a flood of words hit me all at once. Except, I wasn’t sure if they were just random words or if they were actually feelings. Feelings that I had for the complicated girl sitting beside me.

  I was writing so fast that my hand was aching when I finally stopped to take a break.

  Hailey looked up at me and gave me a small smile. “Did you make some progress?” “Yeah, I did.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. I had made progress—just not on our assignment. When I read back over the lyrics I’d scribbled down, I realized two things. First, they needed some more work, but it was a start and we could definitely do something with it. I even had a tune in my head that might just work.

  Second, as I studied Hailey—not for the first time—it wasn’t a mystery where my inspiration had come from. There was undeniably something about Hailey that drew me to her. She reminded me of my parents in some aspects, yet at the same time she was unfamiliar to me in a way I couldn’t explain.

  Too bad I wasn’t her type at all.