Social Experiment

21 | Some Bad Boy Cliche

The morning went by painfully slow on Monday. I knew a great deal of it had to do with my sour mood and the fact that I was still pissed at Luke and Cole, but I continued on glaring at everyone who so much as breathed in my direction all morning. I'm pretty sure I scared a freshman girl half to death with the look I gave her when she was in front of my locker this morning. 

Of course, my outfit wasn't helping my attitude, either. The material of my tights were scratchy, the shirt was two sizes too small, and the jean skirt Stephanie insisted I wear was suffocating my hips. The uncomfortable clothes only added to my already fueled anger and I glowered my way through the first half of the day.

When the lunch bell rang, I went to my locker with every intention of putting my things away and taking refuge in the art room to avoid Nathan. Just like Luke and Cole, I was pissed at him, too. He had been at the tracks when Luke got into a fight and didn't tell me when he came back to his house later. 

My emotions were so out of whack, I wasn't sure if I was angry or just plain hurt, so I settled with anger and decided it was best to ignore Nathan altogether. Unfortunately, that plan came to a screeching halt when I heard my name being called in an annoyingly sexy voice. 

"Collins, you coming to lunch?" Nathan asks lazily as he walks toward me. 

I bite my lip to keep myself from talking and instead focus on changing my books out of my locker. The hallways were becoming increasingly empty as minutes pass into the lunch hour until I can hear his footsteps approach me.

"Lauren?" Nathan asks, closer this time, and then pauses. "Are you ignoring me?"

I shut my locker and turned towards him, but looked past him. And then I started walking to the art room just a few halls away. I heard a second set of footsteps moments after I began walking away and sighed.

"What did I do?" Nathan sounded amused and it only pissed me off more. "Give me a hint, kitten."

My nose scrunches up in distaste as my resolve breaks and I whip around to face him with a scowl. Like I had predicted, his eyes were alight with amusement, as if I were playing a game with him instead of ignoring him out of sheer anger. It infuriated me more to see him take my anger with amusement, so I decided to stop ignoring him to yell at him instead.

"You didn't tell me that Luke got into a fight!" I hissed nastily at him as my eyes narrow accusingly. 

The amusement slowly faded from his expression, as did Nathan's little playful smirk. "Oh, shit."

I laugh humorlessly. "That's the best you can come up with?"

Nathan hesitated before speaking, like he knew his next words held little importance. "Lauren, he asked me not to tell you."

"I bet he told you not to tell me he raced at the tracks, too." I snapped at him, unable to control myself. "I'm his sister, Nathan! Do you really think I want to be left in the dark about these things? Would you?"

Nathan blinked at me and then frowned. "You know about him racing?"

"No thanks to you. You kept this a secret from me!" I shouted in the midst of my anger, fleetingly thankful that the halls had cleared out. I was too irrationally angry to stop now.