My heart was racing in my chest. If she’d planned the whole thing then I kind of felt sorry for Luke; she’d used him, and taken advantage of him in a way. But he would still have been able to say no, he certainly wasn’t fighting her off and telling her no when I walked in the room, he was clearly enjoying himself. Did it make a difference if someone spiked his drink or not? He was in full control of himself; he pushed her off when I walked into the room so he could have stopped it at any time if he wanted to. She wasn’t exactly forcing herself on him, or was she? Maybe I needed to speak to Luke about it again.
I felt the bile rise in my throat as I immediately started to picture it again. I closed my eyes and tried to shake the images away. All I wanted was to erase it from my mind, if I could do that then I would be able to forgive Luke, I would be able to have the future that I planned, the happy one with the adorable guy. Instead, I get to see that smug witch walk around, knowing that she slept with my boyfriend.
I hung my head and tried to ignore the whispers of people around me. Charlotte and Beth ran up to me immediately, Charlotte gripping my arm tightly as she looked at me worriedly. “You alright?”
I nodded and shrugged, not really knowing what to say. Maybe I was going into shock or something, I kind of felt a little numb, like this was all happening to someone else. It was quite nice to feel numb and not feel the heartbreak; I secretly hoped it lasted for a little while. “I’m fine. Come on, let’s get to class,” I suggested, trying to keep my voice stronger than I felt.
Beth looked at me sympathetically. “Everything will get better, Maisie.”
Charlotte frowned, looking like she was trying to think of something to say that would help. “Your brother is seriously hot when he fights. If he didn’t ruin it as soon as he opened his mouth, then I would definitely tap that,” she stated, waggling her eyebrows.
I burst out laughing and she smiled proudly. It was obviously her intention to take my mind off of what had just happened. “Yuck,” I replied, pretending to gag.
She grinned and linked her arm through mine. Beth took my other, and we talked about Alex being a badass as we walked to our lockers to get our books before the next bell rang for the start of class.
I grabbed my gym bag and headed there, feeling the dread sink in with each step. Both Sandy and Zach were in this class. People were staring at me even more after the whole fight scene that took place a few minutes ago. Instead of changing in the locker rooms, I headed to the bathrooms next door and changed into my black shorts and white T-shirt, pulling on my sneakers and then reluctantly headed out to the gym to see what we were doing today.
Sandy and her little followers were all milling around in their little circle of perfection, bitching obviously about some of the other girls in the class. I stood at the back, chewing on my lip, wishing this day was over with already. I found myself wishing Alex was here with me. The boy drove me crazy most of the time, but his presence was calming to me, like he was my rock or something. I wished I could just shrink into his side and hear his annoying voice just to keep me company.
Sandy smirked at me and her friends all turned to look at me, making me shift uncomfortably on my feet. The girl that had told me that Luke wanted to speak to me at the party, smiled at me almost apologetically, but I just looked away as Mr O’Conner walked in.
“Right then guys and girls, we’re running laps today so get those behinds in gear and no slacking,” he barked, waving his hand at the door.
The gym door opened again just as Mr O’Conner was telling us about how many laps to run, how to warm up and cool down. Everyone turned to see who dared enter class late; Mr O’Conner was a seriously harsh teacher when it came to punctuality.
Zach entered, smirking at the class, his nose slightly red, his lip split, and his knuckles red raw. “Sorry I’m late, some jackass teacher sent me to the Principal,” he chirped. I looked at him warningly and shook my head, nodding towards the front where Mr O’Conner was standing. Zach’s eyes settled and me and his smirk grew bigger as he looked me over in my clothes. “You rock that gym kit,” he teased, winking at me.
“ENOUGH! OUTSIDE EVERYONE!” Mr O’Conner bellowed.
Everyone jumped and practically ran for the door; Zach grinned and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at the teacher challengingly. I gulped and headed out of the room not wanting to witness another showdown.
I walked slowly to the field, and stretched out my muscles, getting ready to run. Sandy stopped next to me, stretching out her long toned legs as she tied her long immaculate hair into a perfect twist. “The new guy’s hot,” she stated, raising one eyebrow. I looked at her with as much hate as I could muster as I imagined ramming her face into the mud and standing on the back of her head. “I think maybe he’s even hotter than your ex-boyfriend. Maybe I’ll give him a try and see which one screws the best before I decide which one I want.”
I opened my mouth to speak but I was cut off by a male voice behind me, “Trust me, I screw better. Thing is though, sweetheart, you just don’t do it for me. I like a girl to have a little more up top, and I’m not talking about bra size.”
I laughed and turned back to see that Zach was looking at Sandy distastefully. She huffed and turned to walk off to her group of waiting clones. “Nice knock-back,” I congratulated.
He laughed and stepped to my side. “Thanks. So that’s her, huh?” he asked, looking Sandy over in her short shorts and tank top. I frowned and nodded. “Don’t see the appeal myself. I like a little mystery, something that you have to work for. With her, you see what you get before you even unwrap, where’s the fun in that?” he asked, turning his nose up slightly.
I grinned and rolled my eyes, trying to look like I disapproved but I just couldn’t, I loved that he wasn’t interested in her, it reminded me of how Luke used to be before everything got ruined.
“So how much trouble did you guys get in for fighting?” I inquired as we started to jog around the track.
He shrugged. “Two days lunchtime detention. No biggie.”
“Why did you do that anyway?” I asked curiously. He must want to get expelled from here too or something.
He grinned. “Just thought your dickwad of an ex deserved a little payback. He was seriously pissed with me,” he explained, laughing happily.
I raised one eyebrow at him in disbelief. “You like to make a good impression, huh?”
He shrugged. “People think of me what they want. I don’t need other people’s opinions to validate who I am. If they don’t like me then that’s tough luck for them. I call it like I see it. I thought your boy needed to hurt, obviously the thing that’s hurting him the most is losing you. He’s got it bad, so I decided to rub his nose in it a little more,” he said, shrugging as we continued to run.
I gulped and dropped my eyes to the floor, not wanting to talk about Luke and his feelings for me. “I don’t like fighting,” I said sternly.
“Duly noted, but sometimes it’s necessary. For example, you need to punch that hoe in the face,” he stated, nodding at Sandy who was running about a hundred yards in front of us.
I snorted at his comment. “I’m not punching anyone in the face; nothing can be solved with violence.”
He laughed and bumped his shoulder against mine. “Maybe you’re right, punching her won’t actually solve anything, but it’ll make you feel better.”
I laughed. It probably would too, but I still wasn’t doing it, that wasn’t who I was. The rest of the lesson we just jogged with him teasing me about how unfit I was. The boy wouldn’t leave me alone, no matter how many times I told him to just run ahead and not wait for me. He stayed firmly planted at my side the whole time and even walked me to the locker-room to change after.
“Walk me to English after?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.
I shrugged, pulling my sweaty T-shirt away from my body distastefully. “Whatever. Meet me here then, okay? I need to shower.”
He grinned wickedly. “I could come and help if you want, wash your back for you,” he suggested, raising one eyebrow.
I rolled my eyes and didn’t bother to comment on his slutty remark. Now that I’d gotten to know him a little better I realised that he was actually a pretty nice guy. He was unquestionably cocky and opinionated, but he reminded me a little of Alex in some ways.
I showered and changed as quickly as I could, heading out, only to find him pressed up against a girl who I recognised as one of Sandy’s little minions. She was giggling while he leant in, one palm pressed against the wall near her head; he was obviously flirting his ass off with her, and doing well too by the look of it.
I didn’t bother to interrupt their little session, I just turned on my heel and headed to English class on my own, choosing a seat near the front so people wouldn’t be able to talk to me too easily. He came in five minutes after class had started, earning him a warning from the teacher. He frowned at me angrily and plopped down in the seat a couple of rows from me, tapping his hand on his desk, looking out of the window, not paying attention to anything the teacher said for the whole lesson.
When the bell rang he walked over to my desk and kicked the leg of my chair to get my attention as I packed my books. “What was that? I thought you were meeting me?” he growled angrily.
I shrugged. “I didn’t want to interrupt you, you obviously have a need to flirt with as many girls as possible in one day, who am I to ruin that for you? You’re probably going for some sort of record by getting as many phone numbers as possible on a first day,” I teased, smirking at him as I shouldered my bag.
He frowned and sighed, shaking his head and strutting off without answering. I watched his back as he walked away. Guilt washed over me. I should have waited for him earlier; we had agreed it after all. I’d have to try and catch him tomorrow to apologise or something.
I headed to my locker, pulling out my books for the last lesson of the day. I did it deliberately slowly, just wanting a couple of minutes peace. People started filing out to their respective classes, so I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. There was only one more lesson left now, but I wasn’t sure I could make it through anymore. I chewed on my lip and considered skipping my last class, I could easily catch up, and it wasn’t like I ever usually did it so no one would suspect anything foul if I missed one class.