I Dare You

I Dare You ch.18

EIGHTEEN

I've never missed talking to someone as much as I have this past week. Since Hayden and I had our fight in the gym on Monday, we've avoided each other. If I thought that avoiding him was bad a month ago, it was ten times worse this week. I guess that could be because I've realized that I like him so much, when before I was barely getting used to the idea of fully getting over Evan.

But, avoiding me seemed to come easy to Hayden. At least that's what I thought, since he always had quick excuses to get as far from me as possible. I've never been so hurt by someone ignoring me like he has.

A few times throughout the school week, I considered apologizing to him, but I never had the courage to. Yeah, I know, I'm a big baby. Then again, he was the one who said I've been playing games. Except that makes no sense because everything I've done had a purpose of some sort.

"Are you thinking about your fight with Hayden?" Olivia asked while we were all at the park Friday afternoon.

My eyes darted to her and I automatically answered, "No."

My best friend sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Rory, you don't have to lie to me. I just want to know if you're okay. It's perfectly normal to feel heartbroken after fighting with someone you love."

"What? I don't love Hayden," I scoffed.

Liv just raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes! I can't love someone I've never been with."

"Sure you can. You loved Evan for years, only to realize he was a complete ass. You might not believe in love at first sight, but I know you believe that love develops as you get to know a person," she said.

"Exactly, and I haven't been able to get to know Hayden for me to tell if I love him," I replied.

"Rory, you know more about Hayden and his family than you do about most of the people we've had classes with since kindergarten. Whether you love Hayden or not, he needs to know that you feel something for him. You waited way too long to tell Evan, and I can't see that happen with Hayden too."

"Yeah, neither can we," Caylee added as she and Tina moved closer to us.

"Which is why your last dare is to tell Hayden how you feel. Lucky for you, he's right over there," Tina said.

Hayden's Point of View:

I thought going to the park with the guys would keep me distracted from thinking about Aurora, but it only made it worse. Walking through the park allowed me to think about anything and everything. All the time we spent together civilly. The hundreds of times we fought over pointless things, just because. The dares I witnessed, like the one in this park where she accused me of having an open fly.

The dares are exactly what caused out latest fight, though. I'm sure she's still doing her plan, involving getting Evan back somehow. The dares remind me of that because it was part of her original plan or something, and later became her group's psychology project. I was sick of having to compete with Evan for her, even though she never would see it that way.

I threw a football with the guys for a little while, until the memories came back full force as I glimpsed at the person walking towards me. Of course, the week we're avoiding each other, she decides to show up the same place I am.

"Hi," she said first, sounding...different.

"Uh, hey," I replied, holding the football in my hands.

"I need to talk to you," she stated.

"Okay." I threw the football to one of the guys and gestured that I'd be right back. As we walked to the side, I noticed that Aurora was acting a little unusual. She was playing with her fingers nervously, and avoided looking directly at me.