How to Heal a Broken Heart (6 page)

I force a half smile. “Me and Emily don’t really talk much anymore.” And by much I mean, you know, not at all. But he doesn’t need to know that.

“You don’t?” he asks, and he looks shocked as he says it. “But you guys were so close.”

“I know.” I say, nodding. Wait a minute, how does Evan know that?

“Wait a minute, how do you know that?” I say aloud.

Evan shrugs.“ You guys were always together in school, plus you made the best peanut butter cookies.”

I feel the same pain in my heart. Me and Emily used to make these really good peanut butter cookies from scratch. Both of our families were obsessed with them and we would make like four batches at a time because they were gone so fast when ever we did make them. I had no idea how Evan knew about them, though.

“How do you know about the peanut butter cookies?” I ask.

He smiles “Are you kidding? One time Emily brought a bag of them in for herself and she let me try one, and after that she would always bring me in a little bagful whenever you guys made them.”

I didn’t even know Emily talked to Evan, and I definitely didn’t know anything about her giving him peanut butter cookies. But that is something she would do -- Emily was always about making other people happy.

I smile. “They were pretty good, weren’t they?”

“Totally.” He agrees. “That’s a shame…she’s a really nice girl.”

I nod. “She really is.”

“So since we’re on the topic of friends…” he starts.

“Oh, God,” I say. “What is it?”

He laughs. “Nothing bad, I’m just wondering what the big deal is about me telling Andrew we hang out.”

When me and Evan first started doing our homework together, I asked him to not tell Andrew about it. It’s not so much that I didn’t want him to know, exactly. It was more that I didn’t want to deal with the drama and questions that would come with it. I knew Andrew would probably ask a million questions about why Evan would want to hang out with me or give him a hard time about it. Not to mention Mary was clearly completely crazy and the last thing I needed was her finding out I was hanging out with Evan and going all nuts on me.

Somehow I feel like telling Evan about the first reason isn’t a good idea, so I decide to stick with the whole Mary’s nuts reason.

“Well.” I say carefully. “No offense because I know she’s your friend and all, but Mary made it kind of clear that I should stay away from you and Andrew.”

Evan nods. “She’s a little over protective.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah ,just a little.”

“So you have a crush on Andrew then is what you’re saying.”

“No! I didn’t say that at all!” I tell him quickly.

Where did he get such an idea from? I said nothing of the sort!

“Its okay, you don’t have to be embarrassed. I’m totally used to it.”

What does he mean used to it? And who’s embarrassed? Not me, that’s for sure.

Since I don’t like Andrew!

“Used to what?” I ask him.

“All my friends liking Andrew. I mean, I don’t know if you know this or not Step,” he says, leaning in close to me like he’s going to let me in on a really big secret,

“but he’s kind of the most popular kid in our grade.”

Yeah, no kidding. It’s kind of hard to miss. But all I say is, “Is he? I hadn’t noticed. Probably because I don’t like him and all.”

“Oh.” Evan flips his textbook back open. “Of course you don’t. But if you did, your secret’s safe with me.” Then he shoots me a wink and goes back to his homework.

I’m sitting on my bed later that night replaying what Evan said over and over again when Megan bursts into my room and slams the door behind her.

“Megan-“ I start.

“Shh! Quiet! I heard mom say something about a cleaning night!” She reaches up and locks my bedroom door behind her. “But don’t worry,” she announces, throwing her pink book bag up onto my bed and unzipping it. “I brought us some supplies to get us through.”

“Um, what sort of supplies?” I ask her.

“Well, for starters….snacks!” She starts to pull out a bunch of food. Chips, candy bars, gummy bears, cookies.

“What did you do, raid our kitchen?” I ask her.

But she just ignores me and keeps pulling things out of her bag. I’m about to tell her not to eat on the bed when my phone goes off, telling me I have a new text message.

For a minute my mind races to Rich. I pick up my phone. One new text, from Chelsea.

“Evan’s tonight? He’s having people over,” it says. I sigh, then throw my phone down on my bed without answering.

“Stephanie!” Megan pouts. “Are you even listening to me?”

I look at her. “Look, this is nice but I’m not really in the mood.“

She pulls a DVD out of her bag and starts waving it around. “AND I brought Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam!”

Oh, great.

“Here’s a fun fact,” she tells me. “Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas actually fell in love while filming this movie.”

“Did they?” I ask, trying to figure out how to get her out of my room.

“Yes, and everyone calls them Jemi but then they had a break up and all the fans were devastated.” She shakes her head sadly.

“What sort of break up?” I ask, interested in spite of myself.

“Just didn’t work out, which is even worse since they were friends for so long first. But she’s a better person because of it. She’s very strong you know, and very successful.”

“Um, didn’t she go to therapy?”

“Well sometimes you have to get help. Have you thought of seeing someone?”

she says casually.

“Me?” I ask her, shocked. “Why would I see someone? I’m fine!”

She sighs loudly. “I’m just saying if Demi can get over Joe Jonas, one of the stars of the Disney Channel, you can for sure get over what’s his name.”

I look down at my blanket. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I mean,” she continues, opening a bag of chips and taking one out, “how do you think I felt when my boyfriend cheated on me?”

I look up at her skeptically. ‘You got cheated on?”

She nods as she munches away on a chip. “Yup, everything was great. Or so I thought, until there he was holding Jill Burns’s hand right in the middle of the playground.”

“So what did you do?” I ask her.

She shrugs. “I was sad for a while but then I just said ON TO THE NEXT ONE!”

“On to the next one?” I ask, a little taken aback

“Yup. ON TO THE NEXT ONE!”

“Sounds hard,” I say.

“At first, but whenever I get sad I just think of Demi. And you should, too, because if she can get over someone then you can, too.”

“Well,” I tell her honestly. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Was he even that nice to you?” she asks me.

I think about it for a minute before I answer. “No, I guess he wasn’t.”

She nods. “People are like dogs you know, they treat you the way you train them to treat you.”

I’m reminded of how much I love my little sister and I can’t help but smile at her.

“Megan Elizabeth!” a voice comes from the other side of my bedroom door and I can hear my mom trying to turn the knob. “I know you’re in there!”

Megan gasps and jumps up onto the bed next to me.

“I know you’re in there!” my mom says again. “It’s time to clean your room!”

I glance at my sister and she shoots me a pleading look.

“MEGAN!” my mom shouts.

“She’s not in here, Mom,” I say.

“Yes, she is! I saw her running this way just a few minutes ago!”

“Nope, no one in here but me,” I say as Megan moves closer to me.

“Then open up the door if she’s not in there,” my mom says smugly.

“I can’t. I’m in the middle of something personal.”

Megan giggles beside me and I put my finger to my lips to signal her to be quiet.

“In the middle of what?” my mom says, trying to turn the handle on my bedroom door again.

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be personal, now would it?” I call out, shooting Megan a grin.

“Open the door!” my mom says.

I don’t answer.

“Stephanie?” she calls.

Silence.

“Don’t you ignore me!”

Megan and I are both giggling now, clasping our hands over our mouths to try and muffle the sound.

“Oh, just forget it.” She sighs and we hear her start to walk back down the hall.

“Oh thank you!” Megan says happily. “Thank you so much.”

“That’s what sisters are for,” I say, smiling.

“Now,” she says, very serious. “Are you ready for an afternoon filled with Jemi?”

“Totally ready,” I tell her.

“Great!” she says, jumping up and running over to my DVD player. And as she does I grab my phone, hit reply, and send a text to Chelsea. “I’m in.”

Then I slide my phone shut, grab a bag of pretzels, get settled under my blankets with Megan tucked safely next to me, and get ready for the show.

Here’s the thing: sometimes it’s the person you least expect who pushes you into doing something. If Megan had never come into my room that day, I never would have texted Chelsea back. I would have rolled over and gone back to bed or continued to feel sorry for myself all night.

But that’s the thing about that moment when you snap out of it. It can be the tiniest comment that does it and it usually comes at the time you least expect it.

The party is in full swing by the time Chelsea and I pull up to Evan’s house later that night. The driveway is completely filled with cars and there’s about ten other cars parked up and down both sides of the street.

“Um,” I say to Chelsea as we step out of the car and start to walk across the street.

“I thought you said he was having some people over.”

Chelsea takes her hand and smoothes down the light blue dress she’s wearing. She looks amazing as always. Her dress is paired with black high heels and her hair is really curly and falling over her face perfectly. She’s wearing this silver glitter eye shadow and I swear she has on fake eyelashes. I mean, there’s no way her eyelashes can just be that beautiful on their own, right?

“He is.” She nods.

“When I think of having people over, I think of a few, not the whole entire senior class.”

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic.”

Suddenly, I’m really nervous. I didn’t know there were going to be so many people here. Actually, it’s not so much that there’s so many people, it’s that they’re people I don’t really know. I mean, I know them from school and stuff, but not on the level that I would ever actually hang out with them outside of school. I didn’t actually belong with this crowd and I knew they would be really surprised to see me here. I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I would get.

Chelsea must see the look on my face because she places her hand on my arm.

“Hey, relax, okay? I’ll be with you the whole time. Plus you look hot!”

I look down at my outfit and allow a half smile to creep out. I’m wearing a black mini skirt and a light pink shirt that ties across my stomach. I’m even wearing these little black heels that I borrowed from my mom (and when I say borrowed, I mean, you know, took.) My hair is straight again and I used the make up Chelsea gave me to do my best

“night time” look.

“Besides,” Chelsea continues as we walk toward the door. “Mary won’t be here.

She and her family went to Boston for the weekend.”

I relax a little. At least I won’t have to worry about running into her.

“It’s going to be great,” Chelsea assures me as we step onto the porch.

The door swings open before we have a chance to knock and Evan greets us with a huge grin on his face.

“Alright!” he exclaims, clapping his hands together. “My girls are here!”

Chelsea just shakes her head and pushes past him. The second the door closes behind us I can feel almost everyone’s eyes in the room on me. I know right away what they’re all thinking -- what the hell is she doing here?

If Evan and Chelsea notice people gaping at me they don’t say anything and instead start steering me through the crowd toward the couches in the back of the room.

“You okay if I go grab us some drinks?” Chelsea asks me once we’ve stopped moving.

“Of course she’s fine! I’m right here!” Evan announces, throwing his arm around me.

Chelsea looks at me like ‘um, is this okay?’ I nod and let her know I’ll be fine. I mean, it’s only a few minutes.

“So,” Evan says once Chelsea has gone to get the drinks and we’re alone. “Don’t worry, Mary couldn’t make it tonight.”

I nod. “Yeah, Chelsea told me.”

“I’m surprised you agreed to come,” Evan says.

Ugh. I do not want to talk about why I’ve avoided Evan outside of our homework sessions, so I search for a subject change and fast.

“So where are your parents?” I ask quickly.

“Why?” he asks suspiciously. “What did you hear?”

“Nothing, I was just curious.”

He narrows his eyes. “Because they dropped those charges, you know.”

“What charges?” I asked, confused.

But Evan isn’t paying attention anymore. Instead he’s staring across the room to where Andrew is walking toward us. Andrew’s wearing faded blue jeans and a dark blue button up shirt.

Evan turns back to me and rolls his eyes. “Don’t look at him.”

“Okay,” I say, figuring it’s best to not ask questions. But then Andrew is right next to me and it seems kind of rude to just ignore him, so I don’t really have a choice but to look at him.

“Hey,” he says, nodding at me.

“Hello,” Evan says before I have a chance to say anything. “Did you come over here to say sorry?”

Andrew shakes his head. “Say sorry for what?”

“Don’t play stupid.” Evan says.

“For the last time,” Andrew says, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t eat the rest of your sandwich.”

“It was in the fridge when you got here and was gone by the time I got out of the shower so who else would have taken it?”

“Evan,” Andrew says slowly. “If I ate it why wouldn’t I just admit it?”

“JUST TELL THE TRUTH!” Evan says.

Andrew grins. “Maybe you ate it and forgot like last time.”

Evan’s face starts to turn red and he looks at me. “Stephanie, tell Andrew I’m not talking to him until he apologizes for what he did to me.” And then he stomps off, leaving me alone with Andrew. Great.