She told me

Chapter 15

"I'll wait outside for Mia" I say quickly, holding out my hand, "it was nice to meet you, Miss?"

She smiles and takes my hand, "Mrs., actually, Mrs. Hayes".

I nod and after a quick wave at Mia's mom, I leave the room and run straight into Mia.

"Whoa" she says, steadying the bag in her arms, "where's the fire?"

"Mrs. Hayes is inside talking to your mom".

"Oh" the smile is gone from her face, "well what are you doing here?"

"Uh, just checking up on you, thought I'd see if you needed anything".

"Oh no, my uncle went home yesterday, and he brought most of the stuff that we needed".

"He didn't stick around?"

"He needed to get to work".

Mia's a good liar and if her mom hadn't let it slip that she had gone home yesterday, I would have believed her in a heartbeat.

"Do you want to go get a coffee or something?" she asks, "the cafeteria sucks but it sucks way less than the school one".

I look at my watch, "I'm sorry, I can't, Peyton's coming to pick me up in about seven minutes".

"Peyton" she looks surprised, "Maya's sister?"

"That's the one"

She nods but I can tell that she's not too happy about it, "She actually hangs out with you?"

For some reason that pisses me off, maybe it was the implication that I wasn't good enough for Peyton to hang out with, maybe it was the fact that after all her talk about us being in this together, Mia was lying to my face.

"Yeah, it is shocking that she thinks I'm cool, but I guess I was due for a win huh".

"No, that's uh, that's not what I meant, it's just..."

"Its fine" I turn away, "say hi to your uncle for me".

I walk off and after a few seconds, I hear a door closing. I turn around and the corridors empty. That stings a bit.

I've been standing outside for about five minutes before Peyton grinds to a halt in front of me, "need a ride?"

I grin, feeling some of the annoyance and hurt melt away, "you really shouldn't pick up hitchhikers, they can be dangerous."

"I know" she says, smiling at me through the window, "its just that some of them are so fucking cute."

I still haven't thought of a reply as I get into the passenger seat, but Peyton doesn't seem to mind "how's your friend?"

"She's good" I say, "how was your errand?"

She shrugs, "it was an errand, would have been more fun if you'd come with me".

"Maybe next time I will"

She looks at me, "are you okay? You seemed way happier on the way here".

"Yeah, I just..." I swallow, "you know how everyone needs to have someone that they can count on, like really count on? and then sometimes you think you've found that person and then they just do something that makes you realise that you can't count on them, not really, you can't trust them completely."

"Well," Peyton turns down the radio volume to zero, "I haven't been in that exact situation, but I've been in a similar one, when you can't count on that person not because you can't trust them but because they're not here."

It takes me a second to realise she's talking about her late sister. "that's worse I guess".

She shrugs, "maybe, maybe not. What's going on with you though?"