No One Likes A Love Story

one

"He's cheating."

"You don't know that, Hailee. Maybe you should-"

"Cut him some slack?"

"Well.."

I stabbed a tomato on my salad with my plastic fork.

"I've been cutting Kian some slack since the eighth grade. And I'm sick and tired of-"

I stabbed a piece of chicken, and out of the corner of my eye noticed a Quizno's employee staring.

"-cutting that douche slack. I'm all out of slack, Elena!" I said, raising my voice.

"First of all, calm yourself, that chicken is already dead. And second of all, who the hell are you talking to? Oh yeah, the girl who's been telling you to drop him for the past three years."

"Fair point."

//

The next day as I strolled through the noisy cafeteria, my eyes searching the large room for Kian. A few heads lifted as I passed. I didn't glance.

I slid into a seat next to Elena, offering her a small smile.

She shook her head.

"Jeez, no need to be such a bi-"

She shook her head again, grabbed my chin, and redirected my confused eyes to a table two tables down from us.

Kian was smiling at Kelsey Breechman as she laughed loudly at something he said. He slid down onto the bench next to her.

"They're just talking, Elena, it's not that big of a-"

She muttered something under her breath, her face turning the color of a petunia.

"What?"

"His hand." The color of a rose.

"Who's-"

Her face shifted all at once to, I kid you not, the color of a stop sign. I followed her gaze to the table Kian and Kelsey sat at. My eyes searched for his hand, and in moments I found it.

Under the table. Running up her thigh.

I felt my vision blur, my eyes filling with tears. I turned around to face Elena.

But she wasn't there.

Confused, I glanced back at the table, where Kian sat. An angry Elena was marching toward the table in the midst of a small crowd heading for the fresh tater tots a few feet away. Kian didn't see her.

"Elena!" I yelled.

No. No, no, no.

"ELENA!" I shrieked louder.

She couldn't hear me. Or maybe she could, and she just didn't care.

Kian and I had been together for three years. It had been pretty simple at the start; we were both incredibly young and all being together meant was holding hands in the hallway. But when we started high school, we stayed together. And have been together, up to now, the start of junior year.

There had been rumors he was cheating since mid-last year, but I didn't believe them. I asked him to his face, and he told me they were lies. I took his word for it, and after that, I defended him every single time someone told me he was cheating.

I'd never felt more stupid, embarrassed, and alone in my life.

Elena stepped behind him.

I blinked.

When I opened my eyes again, his left cheek was bright red, and his soda covered the collar of his shirt.

//

I squinted at my barely-visible reflection.

"This mirror is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, in my entire life. I'm not exaggerating."

Elena glanced at my reflection from the sink next to mine.

"I wasn't going to accuse you of it."

She was carefully spot treating the soda stain on the sweater she'd bought the previous week."

"Sorry about that."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Uh-"

"Actually, never mind. Thank you for your apology but I do not accept it, I will as soon as you dump that bastard."

I laughed softly, wiping my eyes and pulling my mascara out of my purse.

//

I sipped my water and glanced around the locker room. A few of the girls huddled around a bag of pretzel thins, Elena was talking animatedly to Poppy Anderson and a few feet away from her stood Kelsey, on her phone.

I rose from my bench and strolled over, smiling wide.

"Texting Kian?"

"Give me my phone back, you bitch!"

I shook my head, stomping on her foot and continuing to scroll through her messages.

"Wow, I didn't actually think I was right." I snicker, but deep down inside I feel one of those round bath sponges expanding in my throat.

Keep it together, you wuss.

"Who can't know about you guys?" I look up at her, smiling sweetly.

"Hailee, I'm really sorry. I am, I-"

I threw her phone on the ground.

"What the hell?!"

I slapped her quickly across the face and dug the heel of my tennis shoe into the screen of her iPhone.

The bell rung.

"Oh, sweetie." I sneered, reaching forward to grab her chin and pull her closer.

My eyes trail over the red mark on her cheek. "We'd better get changed, no?"

//

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. But the fun part was over, now I had to dump Kian.

If I can.

Instantly aware of how late I was, I made a sharp turn down Hall C and sped walk toward the lab.

And then I felt my head hit the floor.