My Beautiful King

Chapter Twenty Eight Part 1

I was back to Square One.

Actually scratch that, I was now on Square Minus One. I had a number of people to blame for it and one of those people was not me.

I arrived to school half an hour early, scraping in a cheeky fag in the alleyway nearby. I needed to eradicate all nerves and jitters if I was planning on surviving the day. There was no doubt in my mind that stories of my scheming had already made its way around William Morrison. I was going to have to be on my toes for spontaneous attack.

But until then, I had business to settle.

I spotted Maho, Tanasha and Ella sitting at their usual spot, all of the snitches but minus one. That dumb arse Marcus was nowhere to be seen. He'd have to get his later, as I was already marching over to the three girls, ready to give them a piece of my mind.

"What the fuck are you guys playing at?" I hissed as I slammed my hands onto the wooden table, not even registering the spark of pain dancing along my palms. Maho and Tanasha said nothing, but Ella had to the nerve to stand up and push out her flat chest.

"What are you playing at?" She countered shakily. "We're not stupid, y'know! We figured out what you were up to."

"More like you were told." I scoffed vehemently, mentally cursing that stupid rainbow snake Marcus. "And then, you snitched on me... To fucking Hayley of all people! That's not fucking cool. You're all such fucking tools!"

I slapped Tanasha's sketchpad to the floor, and then kicked it for good measure. I could've slapped and kicked them all in the fucking face. But I instead stood panting in front of them, too furious to even voice the explicit slurs that swam around in my head.

"Honestly, Ashley!" A voice exclaimed lightly. I span around to see Marcus waltzing over, holding a stack of library books in his arms. "Try inhaling a little softer... You don't want to suck your thong up your arse."

"How dare you?" I spat wildly, not even registering his witty comment. "I thought we were like best friends, Marcus. I thought you were alright. But you've just proved you're the prissy twat that I used to assume you were!"

Marcus twisted his lips into a frown. "Sorry, BFF. I didn't realise that you would be so choked up about my new earrings." There was a flicker of a sarcastic smile, as he fingered the new shiny studs that adorned his ear cartilage. "I would've called you and asked for your permission, best friend, but you never gave me your number..."

"This isn't a joke!" I fumed heatedly. "You know what Marcus, I've had enough of you. The only reason I probably thought you were alright is because you had more personality than the rest of your friends. But you're a bitch. You're a damned bitch and you deserve every terrible thing Zayn throws your way. Even if Zayn was the gayest boy on Earth, he would never even dream to go out with a prick like you. You can go to Hell. Fuck it, all of you can!"

For the first time ever, I caused a ray of hurt to glimmer in Marcus' eyes. His ever pale skin seemed to blanch even further as he struggled to reply back. "What is your problem?" He whispered. He looked over to his temporarily mute friends and then back to me. "Let me guess, did one of your big master plans become an epic fail?"

"Yeah, thanks to you!" I replied as I shook my head in a disappointed manner. "Damn Marcus, what did I ever do to you? Why did you feel the need to join the mass of people that gang up on me? There was no need to tell the others that I was deliberately not including them in my plans and revealing my motive. Or did you think it was necessary for everyone to know that I still had feelings for Zayn?"

"What?"

"What?"

"What? You have feelings for Zayn still? But you told us you hated him!"