Playing The player

Chapter 2

  Mondays seemed to always start in the same way, no matter where you were. It was the day in which one thing, and one thing only, mattered: gossip.

  Making my way to homeroom, I heard whispers of who had slept with who and who was a slut, and who wore such a tacky outfit at some party. I rolled my eyes, wondering why they even cared so much. It wasn't their life. I supposed it was just because they had nothing better to do. I was never interested in gossip myself, unless it was somehow related to homework or study of some kind.

  Needless to say, it rarely was.

  I walked into my homeroom, waving a hand and smiling at the teacher to say I was present. Like I had for the past two weeks, I sat at the back, where my closest friend, by which I mean only friend here, Courtney Summers sat next to me.

  Courtney was definitely one of the prettiest people I had ever seen. Her pale skin was absolutely perfect, completely blemish-free. Her hair was the shade of red that simply could not be natural; it was a bright, vibrant red that stood out like a girl in a crowd of guys. Her blue eyes were the same colour of the sky on a good day, and they were bordered with a dark navy blue that brought out the darker specks of blue in her eyes.

  She was one of those strong-minded people that didn't let anyone sway her in her decisions. One of those people who just didn't give a goddamn fuck of what people thought of them. One of those people who seemed harsh and judging on the outside, but if you were her friend, she was more loyal than anyone else. If it weren't for her rebellious attitude and the fact that she wouldn't dress in skirts that barely covered your ass, she could've easily made the cheerleading team.

  "Hey Courts," I greeted her, dropping my bag on the floor as I pulled out my earplugs from my ear and packed them neatly into the little pouch I always carried.

  She lowered the volume on her own iPod instead of turning it off, ignoring the teacher who miming putting them in her bag. "Hey," She said, giving me a smile that I knew were definitely not sent to any random person. "How was your weekend?"

  "Boring." I rolled my eyes. "Yours?"

  She grinned mischievously. "Hell funny. Went to Blake's rave party on Saturday, and some geek kid tried to get in my pants. He was like, what, 12?"

  I laughed. "That's gross. Wait - did you say Blake?"

  "Mhm," She said, taking a small container of lip gloss out of her bag, "Blake Carter."

  "Huh." I wrinkled my nose, trying to imagine him at a rave. It was too easy.

  She smeared the sticky substance on her lips, smacking them together, before she turned to me. "Yeah. Do you know him?" She offered the container to me.

  I declined. "Uh," I said awkwardly. Did I know him? "Not really. He sort of cornered me last Friday in the car park and tried to hit on me."

  Her expression changed in a second, from nonchalant to alert, and I would've laughed if it weren't so unexpected. She calmly put her lip gloss back in her bag, before facing completely towards me, and grasped my shoulders tightly.

  "Uh - Are you okay?"

  She looked at me, straight in the eye, completely serious. "Tell me what you did. This answer will control our friendship forever."

  I knitted my eyebrows together, confused. "Um. He hugged me from the back and I went along with it and then I rejected him and drove off?" It sounded like a question.

  Courtney breathed a huge sigh of relief before smiling hugely and giving me a hug. "Thank God. I could never be friends with a slut, and you're so nice."

  "Right," I said, patting her on the back, still awkward.

  "Wait!" She suddenly jerked back. "You rejected him?"

  I nodded.

  "No one ever rejects Blake." She said matter-of-factly.

  "There's a first for everything," I said brightly. Then I frowned. "So did you and him - ?"

  "Oh, oh yeah. One-night thing. I was a Sophomore. We all do stupid things that year, you know? Didn't mean anything." She said it dismissively, brushing the air with her hand as though it was just a bit of trivia, but the pain her eyes said otherwise.

  I nodded wisely. "I know what you mean, I myself had done something stupid that year as well."

  "So what did he say after you said, you know?"

  "I didn't really have time to see his reaction, I sort of just drove off. But he looked sort of shocked, I guess?" I said, smiling at the memory.

  Courtney beamed, a smile lighting on her face. "Good. He deserves it. He's broken so many hearts…" She trailed off for a second, before her eyes landed back on me, her eyes flying over my features. "You're really pretty, you know that?"

  "Uh, thanks?" I said doubtfully, wondering what had gotten into her.

  "Really, really pretty…" She said slowly, almost to herself. All of a sudden, she snapped her eyes back to me. "Pretty enough to break his heart!"

  "Break his heart?" I didn't understand.

  Courtney nodded, grinning enthusiastically. "Yeah. You can, you know, get all close to him, then when he asks to be his girlfriend, snap! You reject him." Her eyes were shining with excitement.

  "Okay…?" It seemed a bit far-fetched, a bit too elaborate, but then again, she was my best friend, and he had broken her heart. Or at least, I thought he did.

  "It's brilliant," She determined just as the bell rang. We picked up our bags and walked down the hallway.

  "So what do you have now?" She asked.

  "AP Maths," I said cheerfully. Maths was my best subject.

  An arm snaked around my waist. "As do I."

  I turned around to see Blake, almost groaning in irony.

  Seriously? So soon?

  "Great," I said dully. "Good for you."

  "Well, I have Drama," Courtney said, "So I have to go the other way. See you later, Hail." She sent me a wink before walking away, her hips swaying.

  Blake's hand squeezed my waist gently as he steered me to the classroom. "Sit together?"

  "No thanks," I snorted, pulling away from him and taking a place next to the window, dumping my bag on the chair next to me so he couldn't sit.

  Unfortunately, he wasn't dumb. Well, of course he wasn't, he was in AP Maths! He calmly picked up my bag and dropped it under my table, making sure his hand brushed against my thigh in the process. My face burned and he smirked as he dropped himself into the seat next to mine, slinging an arm over the back of my chair.

  It was going to be a long lesson.