The Artificial Bad Boy

F i f t e e n || after

I was never really the crying type. Which is why I completely stopped crying after five minutes of contaminating Cole's shoulder.

I sighed, I didn't know what to do with my life anymore. People weren't going to remember me as the girl who roasted Nicole. Nope, I was going to be the girl who stripped on the table, simple as that. It was weird how the world payed attention to the negative things and not the positive aspects of a person.

I imagined Nicole taunting me and cackling in the background. I gritted my teeth, she's probably so happy at the moment. It was as if everything I did that night was nothing, in the end I had lost due to my own actions.

"Can I go put on clothes?" Cole asked me carefully, I looked over at him. I had completely forgot that he was only wearing a towel. I nodded my head with a small smile on my face.

He stood up, adjusting the towel, then he walked towards his dresser, opened the drawer and grabbed his clothes. I watched him as he walked towards his washroom and closed the door behind him.

I sighed and then gathered the bed sheet around me in a bundle, cuddling and warming myself. How am I going to show my face to school tomorrow? I asked myself. I could imagine Nicole's smug smile, I didn't want to let that bitch get away with everything. I didn't want her seeing me in a state of sadness and defeat.

You know what? I'm going to be fine, i'll act normal and strong, I thought. There was no point in letting everyone step on me, especially Nicole. I could just act how I usually act like and ignore all the haters that stood in my way.

Yeah.

Of course, saying is so much easier than acting upon it. So I was worried for future Riley Lucero.

"I'm done," Cole said as he came out of the washroom. He had a light smile on his face as he straightened his basic black tee. He matched it with a pair of dark blue basketball shorts that glistened as he moved.

I smiled, "thanks for stating the obvious." In that moment, just that second, for some reason I had forgotten about everything. Maybe it was because I was happy to see Cole again, even though he only went away for a few seconds.

Cole rolled his eyes while smiling and threw himself onto the bed, I bounced up a bit due to the impact. I turned around to face him, our eyes made contact and suddenly his face was full of worry.

"Are you okay now?"

I shrugged, "i'm better than before. See? No tears." But even though I had stopped crying, my damn hangover was still throbbing.

Cole smiled but you could see the sadness in his face. He probably knew how much I was suffering on the inside. He crossed his legs and placed his hands in his lap. "It's okay, your Riley Lucero, you can get through this."

I was thankful for his words of encouragement. They did actually make me feel somewhat better. Besides, there was no point in crying over something that I couldn't fix or reverse. I just had to accept that I had done something wrong and accept the consequences.

"I'm going to kill whoever uploaded the video," Cole growled as he clenched his fists. It was as if his mood went a 180. He was comforting one moment and super angry the next.

But as I thought about it, Cole was right. I was too busy blaming myself for all the events that had happened that I forgot about the asshole who uploaded it. I mean, if they hadn't uploaded the video, I wouldn't have been in this big of a mess. And besides, who the fuck uploads a video of a girl, fully knowing it would potentially ruin her social life. They weren't human, that was plain asshole.