Chapter 8

JAY'S POV
"Melissa Hughes, Oxford Oaks' prom queen" Daniel looked her over as she stood in front of us. "Wow, you do not look the same way you used to 10 years ago" he blurted out and I nudged him a little too harshly. Who just blurts out something like that? Melissa flinched but as always, she was a genius at hiding her feelings. She totally ignored Daniel and walked up to me,
"Jay, it's so nice to meet you" She wrapped me in a hug with her free hand. I noticed she was carrying a little girl with the other hand, it seemed everyone else had moved on fast with life.
"Melissa, what a lovely surprise" Was it? Probably. Melissa Hughes had completely undergone lots of changes and I wasn't sure if they were for the better or the worse. Back in highschool, Mel was the girl everyone wanted to be. Assistant cheer captain, good in math, sassy and beautiful, Mel was like a weird role model for the girls of Oxford Oaks back in their time. But now, she was just a mum.
"When did you arrive?" She asked with a broad smile on her face. The blue eyed kids were staring at her like she was living their dream and it brought a smile to my face. I returned her smile,
"I arrived Los Angeles this evening, it doesn't look like much have changed" I commented as I took a look around. Not much had really changed. Mel wasn't exactly thrilled about my response,
"Yeah, everything is pretty much the same" she said totally ignoring Daniel who was staring squarely at her. He decided he had had enough of being ignored,
"Mel, you're not even going to say hi to me?" He asked her but she scoffed and reached down to take the hand of the little boy that had followed her and was busy pulling the hem of her dress. Two kids, wow. Mel shifted her attention to the boys as she called out to them,
"Boys, let's go. Your mum is waiting" The boys gave me one last smile as they turned and raced through the crowd, the sharp one stopped halfway and looked back at me,
"It was nice to meet you, Mr Harley" he gave me a million dollar smile and raced after his brother.
Mel gave Daniel a forced smile and turned to me, "it was nice to meet you, Jay. Hopefully we get to talk more at the reunion" And with that, she was gone. Daniel kept on staring at her long after she was gone, he most definitely wasn't used to be ignored.
"Did you see the way Melissa Hughes looked at me?" He questioned me the moment she was out of sight.
I scoffed, "Of course I did, I was standing right here" Daniel wasn't pleased by my response,
"I only acknowledged the fact that she looks way different from what she used to" he tried defending himself but I somehow knew why Melissa had acted the way she did. I wasn't going to tell Daniel tho.
"It doesn't matter, you'll find out at the reunion. For now, let's try to enjoy this blasted carnival before I have to go face my parents" That was all the boost Daniel needed, nobody enjoyed partying as much as him.
Not long after the surprise meeting with Mel, Daniel was in full party mode. He had met more of our classmates who had traveled from different places just to attend the reunion but firstly, my welcome back party. I couldn't even remember the names of some of them but I knew I was having a good time.
The whole setting reminded me of the last party we had back when we were still in Oxford Oaks. It was supposed to be a little get away from all the hassles of school and our principal, Mr Duke but it had ended with so much drinking I still couldn't recall the exact things that happened that day. What a party it was.
Someone stumbled into me for the second time that night, knocking off the beer cup I was holding,
"I'm so sorry, I slipped" the woman mumbled as I tried to wipe off where the beer had poured on.
"It's fine" I waved off her hand that was trying to clean my shirt. Wiping wasn't known to clean stains. The woman looked mortified,
"I'm so sorry, I'll get you paper towels" I didn't even get a chance to tell her I was fine before she hurried towards one of the booths. Great.
I decided I had had enough to drink anyways and took a seat at one of the booths. The scent of cotton candy filled the air as I struggled to push away the huge wave of nausea that swept over me. I needed food but I needed to puke too. An image of a very drunk Amber Swift flashed in my head but before I could dwell on it, it vanished. The woman returned at that exact moment,
"Sorry, I took so long" she mumbled her apology as she dappled on my already dry shirt with the paper towels she had spent almost 10 minutes fetching. I waved her hand off,
"I'm fine, you didn't have to" She smiled broadly,
"I didn't have to? I've been waiting forever to meet Jay Harley after so many years" Waiting forever?
The woman sensed my confusion and added, "I've known you since high school. You couldn't possibly have forgotten me?" Her eyes showed genuine hurt but either I was too drunk to put a name to her face or I just really didn't know who she was. Daniel came for the save,
"Tiffany Grey?!" He gave the woman a huge hug that felt like he wanted to crush her. Her smile showed she wasn't offended,
"Daniel Fletcher" The woman returned the hug as I watched them in utter confusion. How did Daniel remember so many people? They only people I remembered were Melissa and Amber. I couldn't help but hope she showed up for the reunion, maybe I would finally get a chance to settle down after all.