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HAYLEY: YESTERDAY
(The Past)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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DEAR ZEN JOURNAL,
Mark my words. I’m going to marry Corey Walters one day.
It may not be now—because he still treats me like a kid from time to time, especially whenever Jonathan is around. And it may not be in the near future—because I’m going to college soon, and my brother is taking his company to San Francisco #BOO.
But, I’m going to marry him.
Even though he’s involved in my brother’s start-up company and he’s always busy, he never hesitates to listen to my problems when I ask him to. He calls me when I go away on school retreats to check on me, and we talk all night about absolutely nothing. He treats me to lunch (or dinner) whenever I ask, and he’s attempted to teach me code multiple times (it’s not sticking) and he never gets frustrated with how bad I am at it.
He does, however, get upset when I beat him in Scrabble. (Why does he still not understand that CHUM is always the winning word?)
He’s the best friend I’ve ever had (although he just calls me his “close friend,”) and I’ve heard that you’re supposed to marry your closest friend so it makes perfect sense.
I bet you a million I’ll be his wife someday,
Hayley
PS—You know what? I’m going to make sure I go to a college near San Francisco so I can be sure that he’s always close by.
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“WHAT ARE YOU OVER THEREsmiling about, Hayley?” Corey asked, looking at me from across the room.
“Nothing, just a school assignment.”
“Are you sure it’s just a school assignment?” The redheaded girl sitting next to him smiled. “You’ve been smiling nonstop since you sat down writing.”
I didn’t respond to her. Her name was Janet, but I only referred to her as “red-headed girl” because in a few weeks, that’s all she would be to Corey. She was his current girlfriend, but those never lasted longer than a week in his world.
I shut my notebook and walked to the living room, rolling my eyes at all the people sprawled over the carpet—typing away at their laptops. My brother was sitting in the corner as usual, with one hand on his keyboard and the other on his cell-phone.
Walking over to him, I sat on a bean bag. “Jonathan?”
“Yes, Hayley?”
“Have you ever been in love before?”
He laughed. “No. Why?”
“Just asking. Wanted to know if I was or not.”
“You’re probably not.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, first you’d need someone to be in love with, Hayley.” He smiled at me. “Second, you’re a bit young to be talking about love.”
“I’m in high school.”
“You’ve skipped some grades.” He tilted his head to the side. “But, I’ll play. Who’s the lucky guy you think you’re in love with?”
