He's cold, insensitive and rude... But why can't I stay away?
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My love life was the last of my problems. Last year, bullies, penny less... Senior year didn't present itself exactly as a dream. And everything gets even worst when...
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The walls of the hallway to my locker seemed narrower today. In fact, everything felt smaller, more crowded and suffocating. I could feel their stares glued to the back of my head and my skin prickling uncomfortable with the attention. I don't deal well with attention.
And everyone here had seen by now Jade's bruised lip, swollen and split under her make up trying to cover it. And they knew -or at least guessed- it was me.
My stomach churned, still unable to process the guilt beyond the initial relief.
I had hit Jade, I hurt her and she had the proves of it. It was only a matter of time until she report me and they suspend me for good.
But they hadn't yet.
I get a few glares and wispers that died when I was close enough, but I wasn't openly confronted about it. Not even Macy and Norah, the latter gave me a thumbs up across the hallway before first period, but others just judged from the distance.
Not until the end of the day, when I was silently retreating my books, self conscious and regretting having gotten physical. That wasn't me. Not at all. It made me sick. And it made me even sicker to know she got everything in her power to sell me to the principal.
How could I explain her injury? How would I justify myself?
She had all the right cards to get me expelled, and unlike her, my family couldn't afford to pay my way back in. And what if the accident goes to my expedient and it affect my chances to get a scholarship?
"Hey," I almost jumped out of my skin at Brett's voice and I almost frowned, but managed to contain my muscles enough not to.
The past times we'd seen each other hadn't been that good. The last was when he told me off, and the previous was when he made me feel remorseful for not returning his feelings. I wasn't really looking to have another talk with him.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw him leaning against the locker next to mine, making a screeching metallic sound that got me flinching and my heart dropped several inches.
"Did you really punch Jade?" his blunt question hit me like a slap, way too accusatory for being casual.
"No." I muttered, playing as if I wasn't bothered by him there, but I was. I was hyper aware of his presence so close, making me buzz in a disgusting unease and the memory of him allowing Jade to pull me away.
Brett, smirked, not a pleasant smirk but a bitter one, folding his arms and letting his eyes scanned the hallway before I felt them back on me.
"And here that I thought you couldn't lie." bile was swirling in my chest, trying to lure me into snapping at him all the confused emotions he'd forced on me with his latest betrayal. But they wouldn't mean anything. He would find the way to turn it around, to make it my fault or to play down the severity of his neglect. "But well, I also thought you were over any kind of violence."
