The Bad Boy Returns

Chapter 36: All I Can Do Is Hope

SHANE'S POV
Walking Into school these days is too dramatic for my taste. I step through the gates and automatically everyone is staring at me as if I grew a tail. I used to crave this kind of attention whether it was good or bad. I wanted to be looked at. Now I just wish I had the ability to be invisible. The first five minutes and people are throwing trash at me and asking me about Kat all in a span of the walk to my locker.
Don't even get me started on Alex, he's been treating me as though I killed his puppy. As if all of this crap Kat is going through is all my fault. The most frustrating part of it is that I'm the only one in this damn school that has actually been seeing her and visiting her. None of these idiots even acknowledge her unless it's for the pure indulgence of gossip.
Glaring at the group of people following me I tell them to leave me alone before they finally stalk away as I do my code and swing my locker open. Instead of a loud clank of metal being slammed against metal, a small hand catches my locker mid swing.
To my surprise Kat pops her head out from behind my locker door with a grin. My eyes widen at the girl standing or should I say limping in front of me. "What are you doing here? I thought your dad and I told you to stay home?" I ask her shaking my head.
"First of all you guys don't get to tell me what to do and secondly I got my dad to cave, he let me come today, reluctantly to say the least." She smiles. "I guess my power of persuasion is unstoppable." She does a mock super man stance putting her hands on her hips.
I roll my eyes at her, shutting my locker. "You're being stubborn." I groan. "You're being stupid." She counters, leaning against the lockers for support. I begin walking to class, watching her pathetically limp behind me in an lame attempt to catch up with me. I hear her whine from a few spots behind me. "Now you're being an asshole, I  know you're smirking." She huffs, stopping in her place. I turn my head to look at her, giving her the smirk she mentioned. I walk back over to her, grabbing her hand in mine. "Keep up." I say, although I subtly slow my pace for her. Focusing back to the hall I see people watching her with bewilderment. How could she be talking to the guy who apparently caused this?
"You weren't kidding..." She says looking around at everybody. "You've got street cred kid, revel in it." I joke, lightly bumping her.
She chuckles humorlessly. "Yeah I love being looked at like a caged animal at the zoo." She scrunches her eyebrows, looking around uncomfortably.
"It'll wear off eventually and they'll find something new to talk about for a few days until they get bored and then the cycle continues." I shrug, shaking my head lightly. She looks up at me, giving me a small grin which I return. My grin fades when I see Alex stalking down the hall, towards us.
"I'm not doing this again." I say quickly, pushing us into the nearest room and away from Alex.
In the dark, cramped room I grope the walls for a light switch of some sort. "Damn it." I mumble to myself. I end up grabbing something, but it definitely wasn't a light switch.
"What the hell are you doing Shane!" Kat says pushing my arm away making me stumble into a wall. "I was looking for a light. I didn't mean to." I try to defend myself. "Yeah Im sure." She laughs.
"Do you want to be helpful and find the light." I snap at her, trying to change the subject.  Thankfully she wasn't able to seem the red glow that was running up my cheeks.
"I think I found it." She says followed by a click and a dim light.
Now that I can somewhat see I notice how cramped the place really is. We are practically chest to chest in this box room.
"Why are we hiding in here?" Kat whispers, leaning towards me, her hot breath hitting the exposed part of my chest.
"Because Alex won't leave me alone. He's angry at me for something and...it's a long story." I trail off, looking down at her.
"Okay...can we go now?" She raises an eyebrow at me.  I open the door slowly, peeking out to see if the coast is clear. Before I can answer Kat limps past me, pushing the door open. "So dramatic." She whispers under her breath.
I scoff following her down the empty hallway.

"Get to class, Kitty. Don't wanna be late." I poke her side. She chuckles, shaking her head. "Who's fault would that be?" She grins.
"Hey, you didn't have to come into the room with me." I lift my hands up.
"You pushed me into the room." She narrows her eyes at me.
"Right..." I say as she starts down the hall to her class. Leaving me standing in a empty hallway by myself.
I grudgingly head to my class, passing staring eyes as I go to my desk in the back.
I look up to see Brit staring at me, with determination in her eyes. She glances back at me trying to talk to me with her eyes.
I scrunch my eyebrows, looking back at her with a questioning look. I shake my head in confusion as she continues glancing at me for the entire class period.  As the bells rings for the end of the period I race through the rows and exit the classroom quickly. I make my way to my locker, throwing some of my books inside.
"You have to tell her." I jump as I turn around quickly to see who whispered to me. I widen my eyes as I look forward to see Brit standing before me.
"W-what?" I stutter, watching her.
"You have to tell her you were there...or I will." She says, her face devoid of any emotion.
"How do you...? What?" I look around, watching out for Kat. There is no way she would know I was there. That's impossible.
"The day after it happened Nate told me that he did What I asked. I know he obviously left out the horrible things he did but he did say he saw you there when he 'dumped' her. Which means you saw what happened or at least part of it and she has to know." Brit explains sighing before end he continues. "She deserves to know. You can't walk around and be with her knowing that information. So if you don't tell her I will." She reiterates putting an emphasis on the last sentence.
"You can't tell her. It has to be me." I explain. "She deserves to know." I mumble to myself.
"You have until tonight Shane. You can't hold this off any longer. She used to be my best friend and that means something to me even if it doesn't look like it, I will tell her if you don't." I widen my eyes at her words before slumping my shoulders.
"I know you're right. I'll do it today." I surrender. She nods curtly before walking away.
I start breathing heavily as I shake my head. This is the last day. There is no way she will ever talk to me after this and I have to come to terms with that because there's nothing I can do to change that outcome. All I can do is hope, and look where that's gotten me. Paralyzed in my spot I look up scanning the hall to see Kat making her way towards me with a small grin on her face.
"Hey, you ready to go?" She smiles, looking at me with her big illustrious eyes.
"Yup." I say simply slamming my locker shut as we head home on foot.
--

"So I got an 'A' on my math test!" I hear Kat's voice from beside me as we walk towards her house. The excitement laced in her words.
"It's my first one in math, thanks by the way for helping me with it." She smiles up at me, waiting for praise.
"Mmhmm." I mumble, continuously looker forward. I watch as my feet crash through the tall grass, pushing it against the ground, flat.
"Are you okay, Shane?" I look up quickly as I feel her hand resting against my arm. Meeting her concerned eyes I pull my arm away from her's. I walk a little further before I come to a stop in the middle of the empty grass, nothing around us for half a mile.
"No I'm not." I turn around stalking right up to her. She looks up at me searching my face feverishly. "What's wrong Shane?" She mumbles. I shut my eyes as she gives me that innocent look. Dragging my fingers through my hair frustratedly I shake my head violently.
"I have to tell you something I should've told you a long time ago."
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