Page 11 of I Always Will

But Alexandria could.

Hailey Davis.TheHailey Davis. Her best friend, first—secret—love, the one person she had never really been able to shake. How was this possible?

And how was it happening right as they were thirty-five?Whywas it happening when they were thirty-five? This year had already been hard enough without having to see her.

Maybe Alexandria could revoke her support of the wedding? Would that help?

No. She couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t.

Maybe she could just avoid the caterer—who was also the bride’s boss and clearly someone she was friends with.

Did the groom’s sister have to meet everyone the bride liked? Could she hide for most of the day? Could she pretend to be another person entirely?

Hailey Davis? Really?

Hailey Davis…

Four

Twenty-two years ago

Despite the chilly January morning, Hailey strode to school with a spring in her step, glad to be back at school after the holidays.

Her parents still hadn’t bitten the bullet and properly separated. They had—for incomprehensible reasons—been dragging it out for two years now. They weren’t together anymore, but they still lived in the same house and they still argued like they did before breaking up. It might have gotten worse, actually. They both knew they weren’t together, but everything they did annoyed the other, especially if one of them stayed out overnight. If that happened, they laid into each other about how whoever hadn’t been home had left the other in charge of the kids all night with no consideration for their wellbeing.

They had never been the closest or happiest couple, but the contempt with which they spoke to each other now, the way their relationship had disintegrated into this chaos, and the darkness that had descended on their home weighed on Hailey. She was sure, deep down, that her parents were still good people. She just hadn’t expected things at home to become so ugly. She hadn’t expected herself and Matt to become weird chess pieces her parents used to try to beat each other—or that they simply used to sling at each other. She wasn’t sure there was any actual finesse to their arguments.

They’d tried for Christmas. Kind of.

Each parent had bought separate gifts and Hailey had been aware of how they’d tried to outdo each other. The four of them sat around the tree on Christmas morning and with every gift one of them unwrapped, the other parent was watching to ensure their gifts werebetter,whatever that meant.

Even Matt had noticed things were a bit odd. Hailey had tried to reassure him afterwards that it was just a weird game Mummy and Daddy were playing, but she didn’t know how well that had gone over. He lived there, he heard the arguing, and he felt the tension. He might not grasp the exact nuance of the situation—neither did she, honestly—but he knew more than either of them should.

She hoped one of them would move out soon and they could all move forwards.

Mostly, Matt had spent a lot of time playing at his friends’ houses, and Hailey had spent a lot of time at Alexandria’s. Her parents were a bit weird, but there was no yelling. And, while they were a touch formal, they’d gotten so used to Hailey being there, that they just let her come and go without the usual fanfare guests got. It was nice. Mostly because Alexandria was there, but also just to have a place to get away to for a while, to have somewhere safe to go while her parents ripped chunks off one another.

Given that today was the first day back at school, she and Matt had both slept at home last night. Luckily, there hadn’t been much arguing. Their mum had made dinner and eaten with them. She’d even made enough for their dad. He hadn’t joined them, but he had at least grunted something that sounded like appreciation before taking a bowl and eating it in front of the TV.

That didn’t mean Hailey wasn’t happy to be back at school, though. It was less theschoolpart and more thehaving a valid reason to be out of the house for eight hours a daypart.

Plus, it was time with Alexandria and that was always wonderful—minus the classes the school hadrudelynot put them in together.

After dinner, Hailey had shut herself in her room and set about making something she’d been thinking about for a while: a mixtape for Alexandria.

They often listened to music together. When the TV was free, they’d scroll through the music channels watching music video after music video and knowing all the words. It had taken a while for Alexandria to relax enough around Hailey to sing along but, now, she belted out every song they knew right alongside Hailey and they had the best times doing it. Alexandria would never admit it, but she had a beautiful voice. Hailey loved to hear her sing. She just had to enjoy it whilst singing along too. If she stopped to listen to Alexandria singing, Alexandria got too embarrassed and stopped entirely.

It was pretty cute, really.

And so, she had decided that she wanted to make a mixtape for Alexandria. One that was filled with their very favourite songs. One that they could put on in her room and listen to over and over again. Maybe her parents would even let them listen to it in the car when they took them places.

It hadn’t taken long to do. She’d been compiling the list of songs to go on it for weeks, so it was simply a matter of recording them all in the correct order. Before bed, fueled by excitement, she’d even had time to draw some flowers around the track listing. She’d gone to sleep with it on the windowsill beside her, ridiculously excited to give it to Alexandria in the morning.

As she strolled to school, the tape was tucked safely in the inside pocket of her school coat, protecting it from the elements. She couldn’t wait to see Alexandria’s reaction and to listen to it together after school. Her parents would expect her home at a reasonable hour, but she could get away with popping over to Alexandria’s for an hour or so first.

Hailey was pretty sure she was the only kid who lived close to school who went to someone else’s, further away home, rather than just having everyone back to hers. She didn’t even want to imagine what that would be like.

She found Alexandria already at school, standing in their usual corner with a couple of their other friends. It was annoying that they lived in opposite directions, on opposite sides of the school. She would much prefer living in the same direction and being able to meet up to walk to school, and walk home together again after… Well, she supposed they did do the latter more often than not as they walked to Alexandria’s, but still, on mornings like this—and mornings in general—it would be nice to have had a moment with Alexandria before everyone else was there. She wasn’t afraid to give Alexandria gifts in front of the others—it was a well-known fact the two of them were absolute best friends—but something like this would be nicer without the audience.

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