Met Online

Chapter 21

Weekends never seem to be long enough. This one in particular has seemed shorter than they usually do, almost as if someone hit the fast forward button the moment it started and didn't lift his or her finger until my alarm clock rang this morning.

I'm trying to step around a group of clueless sophomores, taking up the entire hallway, when my phone buzzes in my hands.

Over the past few weeks, I've gotten so accustomed to the familiar buzz of it that my body has started to react automatically to it.

My heart rate picks up, the restless butterflies in my stomach start to flutter and a smile tugs at the corners of my lips. It happens every time.

Hero56: I miss you already. 

Princess143: you just saw me Saturday, I tell him.

Hero56: my point exactly.

Biting hard down on my bottom lip I try to contain my smile, but I fail miserably and before I know of it I'm grinning at my phone like a fool.

I lift my gaze from my phone and scan the hallway, secretively hoping to catch a glimpse of Justin in the crowd, but he's no where to be seen. Instead I catch sight of Taylen rummaging through her locker, no doubt looking for a book she has forgotten at home. That's the way it usually is, anyways. 

I haven't heard from her or seen her since Saturday morning, when I snuck out of her house using her window and the fire escape. She had still been snorking away underneath the covers when I had pulled the window closed behind me and headed home in the early morning.

"Hey," I shoot a warm smile at Taylen, as I lean up against the locker next to her and slip my phone into my back pocket, without replying Justin. "How was your weekend?"

"Fuck you," she spits at me, without removing her gaze from her locker.

"What?"

"How could you?" she snaps hushed. She's still not looking at me and I have no way of knowing what she's thinking or why she's going off on me like this.

"What are you talking about?" I ask dumbfounded. 

"Don't play dumb. You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Taylen, honestly I..."

"Don't lie. I know what you did," she cuts me off. Her eyes finally meet mine and the icy cold stare sends chills running down my spine. I'm usually able to read her like an open book, but in this moment everything I see is hatred directed right at me.

I'm about to say something, I have no idea exactly what, when Taylen slams her locker shut. I'm taken aback by the loud sound of metal banging against metal. I have never seen Taylen so cold and angry and to be honest it's starting to scare me a bit. 

I want to say something; anything, but I have lost my ability to form a sentence. 

After about minute of tensioned silence Taylen finally opens her mouth and I feel the flicker of a small hope coming alive in my chest. This is it, I think, she's going to apologize. But Taylen is not apologizing, in fact she's anything but when she mutters the words "fuck off" at me, before she turns and hurries down the hallway.

"Taylen," I call out for her, but she doesn't stop like I had hoped she would. Instead I'm standing alone by her locker, looking like an abandoned fool, with three dozen pairs of eyes staring right at me. 

Wounded and embarrassed I make my way towards class. I'm vaguely aware that I still haven't responded to Justin's message, but the excitement of our conversation has been buried under a six feet tall layer of confusion and sadness.