The Breakup Girl

Chapter Six

Todd had made the football team, and apparently that pissed Brandon off a lot. I heard that Todd took his spot or something. I didn't understand football talk that much, but from what I heard, it was a pretty good spot and Todd was a pretty good player.

When James and Greg were talking about it in my social studies class, I smiled smugly to myself and laughed. Good, I thought, he deserves it.

The big homecoming game was in two weeks. That's when it hit me; I didn't have a date to homecoming! I was going to wait for Brandon to ask me, but that obviously wasn't going to happen anymore. I didn't have much time. Ashley already had a date, and so did Claire. They both were going with close guy friends. And it's not like I hung out with guys much, so I didn't have anyone go with me, even as a friend.

As for Sam, she wasn't going at all. She was shy. She didn't like dances and wasn't very girly. Yet she was so pretty. Sam had long, dark brown hair that looked almost black. She usually wore her hair as it naturally was. It was wavy. She had dark brown eyes and was really tan. Literally, boys would hover over her.

Sometimes I wish that I could be as pretty and as lucky as Sam.

It was Friday, the day after Todd and I had hit it off pretty well. I was glad that he was there because now I had a distraction from Brandon. I decided to focus my attention on him, rather than that other asshole. Besides, I did kind of like Todd.

I guess.

In Algebra we would talk a lot. Whenever someone would say something stupid, or whenever the teacher rambled on and on, we would look at each other and sigh. Sometimes we would do it at the same time accidently, and then laugh.

Todd was really funny. He made me laugh a lot. I barely even listened to the teacher anymore. I enjoyed sitting next to him.

On Monday, while we we had free time before the bell rang, he randomly asked me something.

"So, what's the deal between you and Brandon?" Todd asked, trying to sound nonchalant about it. He gave himself away, though.

"Dowey?" I asked, trying to play it off cool.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I hear him talking about you a lot."

"What does he say?" I looked over at him and stopped what I was doing.

He shrugged, and said, "His friends just bring you up a lot. Do you guys, like, go out?"

His voice cracked at the end, and he didn't make eye contact with me. When he said that, a wave rushed over me. I felt hit by a bus in my stomach, the same feeling I got when I saw Jayden with Brandon at the mall. A thousand memories floated through my mind, dating back to the first time I walked into Literacy class that year, and the teacher said, "Brandon Dowey, you sit right here." The first time I looked over at him, where he sat right next to me. The first time I talked about him to my friends. The first time we hung out, the first time he texted me, the first time he talked to me in Literacy class. And then... the time where he told me that he liked me.

"No, we don't go out, and we never did."

"Oh," he said, and relaxed more. "this Friday there's a football game. You should come, and afterwards we could like meet up or something."

"I don't know..." I hesitated.

I had no intention on watching Brandon Dowey play football. I had no intention of watching him talk, walk, or breathe. I didn't even want to look at him.

"Please?" Todd teased me.

"I don't really know, Todd." I shrugged.

"Please, please, please?" He begged again.

"Okay! I'll get Claire, Sam, and Ashley to come with me." I smiled and gave in.

The bell rang, and I gathered my books.

"You're the best, Paige!"

At lunch, I told the girls and they agreed that they would come. At the table next to mine, I didn't see Todd anywhere. There was Brett, Tyler, James, Greg, and Brandon, but no Todd. I sighed and turned back around and played around with my fork as I picked at my strawberries.

"What's wrong, Paige?" Ashley asked me.

"Nothing, really. I'm just not that hungry." I ate another strawberry, though.

"Ooh, your boyfriend's here." Claire giggled.

I turned around instantly and watched Todd enter the back doors to the cafeteria. He came and sat at the table next to me.

"Where were you?" I heard Brett ask while he and Tyler were goofing around.

"Coach was talking to me." Todd answered.

The guys stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

"What did he say?" James asked.

All the guys at the table were football players. They basically would just talk about football the whole time.

"He was just telling me stuff about the game this week." Todd explained.

"So you're playing Friday?" Brandon spoke up. He was being awfully quiet the whole time.

"Yeah." Todd nodded.

"Ridiculous," Brandon muttered and rolled his eyes. "you just joined last week."

I was surprised the guys didn't see me listening to their conversation. They all seemed jealous of Todd, Brandon the most jealous one of all. I guess it was rare for a new kid to make Varsity and play a week later.

"Todd, why don't you tell everyone about your girlfriend?" Tyler jokingly said.

"Shut up, Tyler." Todd rolled his eyes.

"Who is she?" Brandon went along with it with a huge grin on his face.

I turned around so they wouldn't see me eavesdropping. I had no idea where their conversation was going. For some reason, I was praying it would be me, but if it wasn't, then that would be a slap in the face.

"Paige!" Brett bursted out in laughter.

The other boys were laughing, but then I heard them stop. I wanted to turn around and see what made them suddenly stop, but I didn't want to give myself away.

"What?" Brandon's voice changed.

He didn't sound too happy anymore.

"We don't go out, they're just joking." Todd replied.

"Yeah, but you want to." James pointed out.

"What's your problem, Brandon?" I heard Brett ask him.

At this point, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I turned my body slightly around and looked at the boys. Todd looked mortified and annoyed. The other boys were all looking at Brandon, who looked pissed.

"Dude, she said you guys didn't go out." Todd raised his hands as to say he was innocent.

"Exactly, so why are you mad?" Brett asked. "you were the one to end things."

For a split second, I made eye contact with Brandon. I quickly turned around and listened to my table's conversation. The girls were too busy on their phones and talking about their weekend plans to realize anything going on.

I had a weird feeling inside of me. Wasn't I supposed to be happy? Todd liked me, and Brandon had a problem with it. That was the goal, right? To get back at Brandon? I thought I would have a different feeling, but I just felt weird inside. Little did I know, this was just the beginning.