I Meet the Mutt [CURRENTLY BEING EDITED]

8 | I Hate the Mutt

Emma: Hey guys. *nervous chuckle*. To make a long story short, I got suspended.

It had probably been five minutes since I'd seen Emma's text, but I just couldn't escape my dumbfounded state of trying to process her words yet failing to do so.

Emma, who had stuck by me as the good kid and had done all her homework and aced almost all her tests, had exceeded her parents' expectations...was suspended?

She wasn't known for tackling people either, so yesterday was seriously out-of-character for her.

Ian and Logan had similar reactions.

Ian: Oh, funny joke. Almost got me there, Emma.

Logan: Emma just so you know today is the 23rd of October, not the first of April :).

Emma: I'm NOT KIDDING! Oh and I'm leaving in a second cuz my mom is super pissed at me and wants tot ake awasy my hponea

She must've been typing really quickly. I expected some kind of "haha jk" from Emma, but her icon disappeared from iMessage, showing she had left.

Angela: Emma...

Angela: Emma, what the HELL?

I went downstairs to get myself some breakfast. Thankfully, the kitchen was completely silent other than Victoria, who gave me incessant dirty looks.

Lovely.

As I took chocolate cookies from the cupboard and orange milk from the fridge (I was a very unhealthy person when it came to food), Victoria abruptly spoke up.

"You do know that Josh is meant to be taken seriously, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, if this is your way of trying to get us to become enemies or something, it's not going to work."

"No, I'm serious." She slapped the cookie from my mouth.

Well, now I was annoyed.

Because you don't just slap a cookie from a girl's mouth. Jesus.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I demanded, stuffing another down my throat.

She took a breath. "Look, you don't want to know what he'd ever do to a girl if he found out she was lying to him. I know you won't believe me, but just be conscious that if you ever keep a dirty secret, he will find out. And he'll be hell-bent on making you feel the same kind of hurt when he does find out. Just be," she rolled her eyes a little, "careful."

Her words sent foreboding and dread squirming around in my gut, twisting my confidence around until what was my self-esteem was now a pile of mushy doubt.

"Whatever."

With that, I raced outside, trying desperately to shut her words out of my mind. There was no way to continue with insecurity when I was parading around one of the most confident guys I'd ever met.

Hurriedly speeding the hell out of my house (I was trying to run away from my doubts, as usual), I blasted All Time Low so loudly my ears were ringing with Kids in the Dark when I stepped out of my car to school.

Like any other day, Logan and Ian were in some other wild debate in our corner in front of the school, while all the other cliques surrounded the doors. We'd all come to the agreement that being in a crowd of gross people was not our ideal place for debate and fangirl/boying, so we chose a spot farthest from the mob. Besides, the Vicki Squad dominated the doors, and while I was no longer terrified spitless of them, I wasn't all that enthusiastic to encounter them either.