((Cassandra's POV))
TW: mentions of self harm, cutting, etc..
(((December 23rd)))
{{*it's very early in the morning*}}

•••

"Open this.. it is for you." Duke smiles sweetly, handing Hailey a rectangular box wrapped in this blue expensive looking Christmas themed wrapping paper.

We're at the hotel sitting in the suite Fantasia and Duke share down the hall from Hailey's room. The party ended three hours ago so now Fantasia and Duke are gifting Hailey her birthday gifts. Fantasia says she only gets a couple of presents today since Christmas is so close. I honestly feel like this year has gone by so fast with all these things happening but it's really be going fast regardless. Me, Rosie, Malik, Axel, and Dahila sit on one couch while Fantasia, Duke, Demi, and Yara, sit on the other couch. Andre, Eric, and Kash took a seat on the sofa and Hailey was sitting on the Lazy-boy opening her gifts. Jalen had left to go see his grandma and Chris, Christiana, and Julia went back to they room due to them having to catch a flight in the morning so they can go back to Wisconsin.

Victoria had left with Daniel. She was real keen on leaving after that lil event happening after Hail told me she loved me. I felt bad but I was actually really happy she told me that so I don't know.

Hailey rips the paper off the box and pulls the flaps open and a couple seconds later she pulls out a green
and creme colored Milwaukee Bucks Jersey.

"Aw, this is cool." Hailey grins, holding up the jersey. The bucks her favorite basketball team with the Bulls being her second favorite team. She says she likes the Hawaii Rainbow warriors too but that they don't really count since they're not professional and just a university team. "Thanks so much, Dad." She gives him a hug and he chuckles.

"Much welcome," Duke smiles, returning the hug and using his free hand to mess up her hair. He really can't deny her if he tried, they look so much alike it's actually kinda crazy.

"That thing was expensive. Those jerseys in high demand." Eric comments, picking up the paper she littered on the rug. "Cherish it."

"It's because of those irritating ass people jumping on the bandwagon. People didn't even rock with them like that until they won the championships." Hailey furrows her brows, sitting the jersey next to her.

"Before y'all get started.." Rosie trails off and hands Hailey a Christmas themed gift bag. "...this from me."

Hailey takes the bag, giving her look before digging in and pulling out a three 7/11 gift cards. "Ouu, damn."

"Now you can buy all the slushees you want." Kash says and Hailey nods. "For sure." She starts digging around in the bag again and pulls out a book. "There's no way you got me a book for my birthday, bro.." Hailey stares at the book with no emotion.

Fantasia smacks Hailey across the back of her head and she yelps a lil. "Tell her 'thank you' I didn't raise no ungrateful kids."

Hailey sighs loudly and her eyes snap over to Rosie. "I appreciate the book, Roslyn. Very nice of you."

"It's a good book. Yo ass might actually learn something from it." Rosie gives her a smile and Hailey looks back down at the book. "..You aren't shit,"

"What's the book called?" Dahlia asks curiously.

"How to be a Decent Human Being: Twenty Simple Things That You Can Do Starting Today! And it's written by Micheal E Smith." Hailey reads out loud and everyone laughs a bit. "That ain't funny." She tries to be all serious but she ends up cracking a smile.

Rosie ends up giving her some new hoodies and a new diamond friendship bracelet. Hailey puts it on and it's a perfect fit.

After Rosie done with her gifts, Kash gives Hailey his gift and it ends up being a pair of earrings. Yara and Demi give her a few pairs of shoes, Malik gives her a pair of Coach glasses that look like the ones Edna wears from The Incredibles and that's actually why he bought them. He said she took a liking to them so he picked em up for her. Andre gets her a new expensive looking record player because apparently Dexter broke the other one and Dahlia gifts her a Louis Vuitton sweater.

Eric hands her a pair of keys and they say it's the keys to her new ATV back home which excites her.

I always wondered what you'd get a rich person for Christmas or their birthday or something like that. If you think about it, anything they want- they can just go ahead and buy because it ain't like they don't have the money. Maybe they just like the thought.

"Here's mine," I smile, handing her my gift. She takes it, giving me a lil smile and starts ripping open the paper. After a few seconds she manages to open the box and she pulls out a medium sized pink teddy bear with a cuban link chain wrapped his neck. "Oh, wow." She mumbles with a grin.

"That's hard." Malik says, moving closer to get a better look.

"That's a picture of y'all on the pendent?" Yara asks.

"Mhm.." I nod as Hailey leans in closer to the bear, picking up the chain's pendent to look at the picture.

"This us at..." She trails off trying to recall where we took the picture at. "...fuck, um- is it that breakfast diner we went to?" She looks up at me, tilting her head to the side a lil in confusion. "In Santa Monica?"

"Yeah," I nod and she nods. "Mm, thank you. It's really nice." She gives me a hug and I blush a lil when she pulls away. "You welcome."

"Can you at least try to behave like you got sum sense? We in public." I look up from my phone, seeing Hailey tryna balance the spoons and forks on her face. She look so impressed with her self when she realize she actually succeeding in doing so.

"Chill. It's not like we at no real diner." She rolls her eyes and at the moment all the eating utensils fall of her face and everyone turns to look at us, hearing the clatter. "Define a 'real diner', Hailey" I say, placing my phone down.

I've only been down here in California for a little under a week and I'm never really annoyed with Hailey as much as I say I am. She's just really strange, I guess.

"A place where they don't sell knock off Mchickens, Cassandra." She mumbles, picking up the forks and spoons. "I thought breakfast diners only sold breakfast, bro. Mchickens not breakfast."

The bell above the door rattles and I turn my head to see some teenage boys with backpacks and cameras coming in. One got a song playing through they speaker but I'm not familiar with it.

'Blowing kisses in the wind, I'mma show her to swim.."

'When the lights get dim and the time right..'

"Yo, is that fucking Hailey Aiko?" I hear a boy chuckle. "On god that is. Go up to her." Another boy says.

"Hell nah. She with somebody." He says quickly.

"Bro, you scary as fuck." The guy laughs and another boy laughs along with him. "Nigga, I'mma go. I ain't scared of shit. She just fine. Not no monster. Ain't nun to be worried about."

"Ight then go nigga." The boy urges and the boy groans. "Bro, don't you see I'm going?"

They end up walking up to our table and stop in front of Hailey. "Wassup, Hail?"

"Wassup?" Hailey gives them a smile, standing up and dapping them up. "What y'all on?"

"We was out filming a video. Out here on the grind. You already know how it is." The boy with an afro stuffs his hands in his pockets and Hailey nods.

"Fasho, fasho.. y'all do Youtube?" She asks and they nod. "What type of videos y'all do?"

"A lil bit of everything. Skate, bikes, skits, but mostly vlogs and shit." A boy with red dreads explains.

"We actually fans though, dawg. It'd mean a lot to us if you subscribe-"

"And get a picture with us." A Dominican looking boy says quickly. Hailey laughs a lil and agrees to subscribe to them. They all end up exchange they social media handles and I end up taking they picture. "Wait, who even is this?" One of the boys asks.

"This Cassandra," She smiles. "She, like, my future girlfriend and shit."

"No, I'm not." I glare at her.

"We working on it," She mumbles.

"Lemme take y'all picture." The boy with dreads pulls his camera up an aiming at us. "I'm a certified photographer, ya heard?"

"Do a good pose too." The lightskin boy says and Hailey pauses for a moment before turning to face me.

I chuckle nervously when she lightly pushes me against the table and leans into me, placing both of her hands on the sides of me. I put one of my hands to her face and she grabs the other one, and I feel my heartbeat a lil too fast when she intertwine our fingers together.

Oh, my...

flash!

"Damn, that's a good one."  The boy with the afro mumbles, snapping me out my lil trance.

"Let's go order something." The boy with the red dreads says.

"I'mma go with y'all." Hailey pulls away and follows them to the front of the restaurant to get they food.

The old black lady next to me laughs. "Ou, honey. Now you know damn well you like that girl."

"Oh, no." I say quickly, laughing a lil. "I don't. I just like her as a friend." I tell her and she gives me a stare. "Whatever you say," She shrugs, going back to her breakfast. I take a seat at the table and watch as Hailey and the boys order the food.

I don't like Hailey romantically. I like her as a friend.

I watch Hailey step back a lil, letting the boy with red dreads order his food and she catches me staring. Before I can even die on the spot of embarrassment she smiles giving me a small wave and I wave back.

I think I probably might like her more than a friend.

After what feels like twenty minutes of talking and conversing, everyone decide it's time to go back to our rooms and get to bed. After saying goodbye to everyone and Hailey kissing her parents goodbye, and me and Hailey walk hand and hand to her room. She unlocks the door and I walk in, collapsing on the couch with a lazy sigh. "So, um, do you wanna a movie or something?"

"If you want to you can go ahead." Hailey shrugs, walking into the bedroom.

I sit up and after a couple minutes she exits her room with a completely different outfit. "You finna sleep in that?" I ask and she looks at me like I'm stupid before letting out a laugh and fixing the collar to her shirt.

"It's a party in staten island. I'm just gonna pull up for a second. I'll be back though." She mumbles, looking herself over in the mirror. "Do you like this shirt? It looks a little big, yeah?"

"Why didn't you ask me if I wanted to go?" I ask and she rolls her eyes. "Dude, you obviously not in the mood for that. You're literally about to go to sleep."

"Well, whose going with you?" I ask. I'm not tryna sound how I sound but I really don't want her nowhere by herself. "I mean..." She trails off. "Graham gonna be there but-"

"Why are you going if he's gonna be there?"

"Don't fucking start." She sighs, turning back to the mirror, obviously catching a attitude.

When Graham had showed up to the skating rink earlier Daniel and Kash had coincidently came out to check on us and told Graham that he had to leave because he was violating the restraining order. He told Hailey to stop acting weird and get up with him before getting in a car and driving off. When Kash asked about him showing Hailey said that he just showed up outta nowhere but I'm not sure. And every time I ask about him she catch a attitude so I'm not sure what to think.

"Ok, I don't think you should go." I say.

"Well, I don't know what you want me to do. I'm still gonna go." She shrugs, walking over to the coffee table and grabbing the car keys to her rental. "Kisses?" She asks, leaning in and I move away from her, staying silent. "Don't be like that, bro."

"If you finna go, just go. I don't care no more." I say, leaning up to grab the remote, using it to turn on the TV and look for something to watch.

She stays silent looking at me for a second before she speaks. "You not gonna tell on me, right?"

"Just go, Hailey." I huff,keeping my eyes on the TV.

She ends up standing and looking at me for a couple more minutes before gathering her stuff and leaving out the hotel room, closing the door behind her. After a lil time pass I hop up from the couch and go to the door, glancing out in the hallway and see it's empty. Even though I told her to leave, I really didn't want her to. I close the door back and sit on the couch, getting comfortable.

A few hours pass and I been switching from Instagram and watching some old Disney Channel re-runs on the TV. They playing some Dog With A Blog episode and I never really liked that show so I go to Instagram. After a few minutes of strolling a picture from some account that be posting updates on tour and stuff from Hailey pops up on my 'post you may like' feed.

liked by wishuwerehail, hailorheaven, haileyaikoperu, and 2,511 others
updatesabthail Hailey was recently spotted out and about in Staten Island, New York! Reports say she traveled to Brooklyn to celebrate her 17th birthday and others caught a glimpse of her at a underground party in Staten Island.

wishuwerehail Ok but can anyone confirm this??
alexisalexander52 @wishuwerehail Yes!! My brother was at the party and he asked for a picture! She sadly declined but she was really cool to him.
hailorheaven Damn 🥲 Really wishing I lived in New York now
haileysfrench_locket Does anyone know if she was with someone??
frankxhailpics She just turned 17 and she already out here 😭😭 I know that's right.
view 121 other comments...

Look at her ass getting caught. She better hope Eric and Andre don't see this shit. She do look good though. I can't even see her face and I can barely see the outfit but yeah, she looking super good. Glancing over at the alarm clock I see that it's two o'clock in the morning and I'm a lil shock. I'm definitely finna take my ass to bed. I can't wait up for Hailey ass no more, I'm tired. I grab a blanket from the closet and get settled on the couch, making sure to turn off all the light.

I let the TV play on a low volume for background noise, switching it to MTV seeing an episode of Wayne Bros playing. It don't take too long for me to go to sleep, I never really have those problems.

Fifteen minutes pass and the door creaks open which startles me awake. I squint at the dark moving figure and move back a lil as it approaches me. "Hail?" I blink a couple times and my vision starts to clear up.

"Wassup, bae?" She slurs, stumbling forward and falling onto the couch, basically falling onto me. "No, Hailey, get off of me. You smell like outside." I whine, trying to push her off. "Are you drunk?"

"Dude, no, I don't get drunk. I-I don't get drunk, baby. I don't f-fuck with that shit..." She mumbles, slowly falling onto the floor. I sigh taking a seat on the floor next to her. I'm actually really tired too but I'll stay up with her anyway.

"Do you wanna spend Christmas with me?" She mumbles as she turns off her stomach and lies on her back looking up at me. I drag my finger across the tattoo she likes to draw on her neck and watch as her chest raises and falls every passing second. "I think I do."

"Your dad won't be mad?" She asks and I think about it, coming to the conclusion that he won't. "We probably won't do anything at the house anyway so he shouldn't."

"That's good for us then cause I really want you there." She breathes out, sighing deeply and sitting up, taking my face in her hands. "I like looking at you. You're really pretty." She tics and I'm starting to notice that she tics a lot when she's tired.

"I think you're really pretty too." I admit truthfully, feeling my cheeks heat up when she hugs me. "I'm sorry I left when you told me not to." She mumbles. "I really shouldn't have gone. Graham is really fucking weird."

"How is he weird?" I ask and I feel her shift a little in my arms. "H-he just is. Don't worry about him though. I handled all that shit a long time ago so we're good."

I mumble a soft 'ok' and rest my head on her shoulder. We sit and hug in comfortable silence for a long time and I feel myself falling asleep a little.

I drag my finger along her wrist and pause for a second feeling something wet. I pull away and glance down at her arm, pulling up her sleeve and seeing a cut. It looked fresh but at the same time it didn't. I look back up and she snatched her arm away.

"How'd you get that cut?" I ask and she looks at me for awhile before opening her mouth and then closing it. "Hailey-"

"I-I just.. I just um.. I fell. I think." She stutters, pulling her sleeve down, scooting away from me.

"You don't have to lie, Hailey.." I tell her softly and she looks up at me with an almost confused look. The confused look that immediately switches up and turns into a look of hostility. "What the fuck am I lying for?"

"You expect me to believe you when you say you got a cut across your wrist from falling?"

"I don't give a fuck what you believe!"

"I-I'm not mad, Hailey." I furrow my eyebrows. "Why are you being like this?"

"Because you think I'm cutting myself, bro! I'm not fucking stupid!" She gets loud, stumbling to her feet.

"Maybe things just got a little bit too much, okay? And that's perfectly fine. That's perfectly fine and no one's against you for being a little stressed out."

"B-but... I'm not. I'm not stressed out. I'm fine."

"Hailey-"

"You're gonna get them to send me to a fucking mental hospital, dude. I'm not going back there because I'm fine." She backs up, running a hand through her hair. "Y-you not gonna want me anymore." She mumbles, her voice cracking in the process. "W-we're gonna break up a-and we're not gonna be together and you'll find somebody else and it's gonna go how it went with Bridget- cause that's how it went." She snaps her eyes up to mine. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I just- I just don't want you to stop being my girlfriend anymore."

"I'm not gonna stop being your girlfriend anymore. I just want you to get help." I say truthfully and the room goes silent.

"I don't think I need help." She admits. "I don't think I want it."

T-that isn't a good sign, I think.

"Hailey-" I start but she literally manages to get the door open and take off fast as hell. "Hailey, wait!" I call after her, rushing out the room. She's so fucking fast and honestly just chasing after for a few seconds is exhausting. I shouldn't have said shit and just waited to talk to her Mom about it but no, I just had to put it all out there.

I follow her down, like, two different hallways and we end up passing Duke and Fantasia's room. Hailey keeps on running and I'm pretty sure she's not even worried about where she's running because she heading straight for a stairwell. "Wait, wait, wait. Hail, wait!" I call after her but I'm five seconds too late. She ends up running right down.

It isn't a huge stairwell but it's a few steps too long that if you would fall down, you would cause damage.

"Are you okay?" I ask quickly, coming to her side watching as she curls up into a ball, clutching her right leg to her chest.

"Fuck! Ah! Fuck... C-cassandra, I can't move my foot." She cries, clenching her teary eyes shut.

Shit.

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A/N: we starting to get more into hailey mental health so be prepared for that. i hope you like this chapter. it always takes a lot longer than i be intending but i always end up relatively happy with the results.

also i might make a second book because i'm fr not ready to let these two go so this book might be ready to end in like twenty chapters- look out for that💗

‼️5 comments and 5 votes for the next chapter pls‼️